3am thoughts

after a wonderful weekend back in VA with my family and friends, i came back to CA with a cold. i promised my group for a class that i would finish the paper that is due friday by last night so they could look over it in time to make changes, so i was trying to work hard on that last night. while at home, i met up with some great friends who i met through a young adults church group (called 1830) that i was on the leadership team for.

exhausted, i went to bed at 11pm PT, 2am ET, but i didn't sleep well. i had taken some cold medicine that might have wound me up. i was definitely stressed about the paper i was working on. i also was still mentally trapped between 2 worlds - VA and CA. all of these things may have had an effect on my not sleeping well.

i woke up at maybe 3am with some deep thoughts going through my head. some were for the paper i was writing, in the transformational development section, some i thought were for the paper i was writing, but they sounded a lot like the vision i had for 1830 a few years ago. it also sounded like some of the personal strengths i should have put into a paper i wrote a few weeks ago, or like part of the "personal ministry calling" section of a paper i finished a week ago. as i drifted back to sleep, i thought about how it should apply to the church as a whole, and also to oasis pasadena, in particular (my church here). i also thought that i want to be a person, no matter where i am or what churches or organizations or schools i am affiliated with, who engenders these things.

- empowering people to live the life they have reason to value

- promoting human dignity

- inviting them to join with us:
- to discover their God-given gifts
- to become equipped to use them
- to now go and serve

Lord, make me a person who speaks life instead of criticism. help me promote the gifts i see in others, even at the expense of my own fame or popularity. grant me the trust and grace to delegate to others i want to keep for myself. help me let people go to send them into new ministries.

mama's hot tamales!

my community organizing class works with mama in macarthur park. the last bit of this clip is from "tamales de la paz", an event a few weeks ago promoting peace and unity with the city government, police, and the community. it was a great event that we attended as a class - i can see some of my friends in the background! mama's makes the best tamales, so if you come visit, we'll grab lunch there! it's stuff like this that we're learning to do in community organizing, and i LOVE it. it's amazing stuff. mama's is also opening a kitchen workspace in pasadena for entrepreneurs to learn more and rent out for their businesses.

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