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not much has happened lately to blog about, but i guess actually a lot has happened in the last two weeks. First off I’m moving to LA to go grad school. I’ll be going to Fuller to get my masters. That snapshot is exciting enough, but lets add moving, job searching, and trying to find a place to live to the mix. Plenty to do in the next few weeks. I think the official “i’m outta here” date is Sept 16th. I’ll be there in time for all the festivities of orientation and then classes begin the following week. This week a korean exchange student that stayed with my fam a couple years ago is coming back to visit for the week. She comes in tomorrow and will leave next friday. Also next week i’ll be driving down to LA on Thursday with a friend. Now this trip was planned a couple months ago before i even applied to Fuller. My friend is moving down there to start an internship and asked me if i would drive down there with her. So we can just call this “driving to LA round 1″. I’m going to spend the weekend plus a couple days down there to hopefully find housing and look for jobs. Then i’m going to come back the 12th and yes, leave again the 16th for “driving to LA round 2″. It will be a busy next couple of weeks.
Luckily i have a lead on finding a place to live and have turned in a couple resumes so i’ll have plenty to figure out when i go down there this first time. I have realized how often i find myself in this waiting game with God. Especially this summer and still even now, but it has been a common theme in my short life. Usually it consists of me wanting to know and not yet knowing and then me worrying about not yet knowing. Some of you that know me, know my dorky tendencies to come up with sermon titles in my head. Well i think i would call this one When God is not on time. Because generally when i’m waiting for Him i seem to think i have this indignant right to already know the answer and the reason i don’t is because God isn’t doing his job. So like all the similar times i have found myself playing the waiting game I have been humbled and learning how to do it His way. the amazing thing is He has never failed, He has always kept his word and it has always been better than i could ever do myself. talk about a faithful Father. isn’t it crazy how if we have to wait longer for somethng than we want to or expect to, we can question who God is. in this culture and society i think it is our achilles heel. anyways this type of time always makes me learn, seek and trust.
another random theological thought is that isn’t it amazing that we also think when it comes to waiting heaven isn’t good enough? i don’t want to go on too much of a tangent, but heaven is absolutely for sure and the promises that come with it. freedom, justice, redemption, etc and yet we can get discouraged when we don’t see such things right now. as if temporary is better than eternal. if we recieve it here on earth then we have experienced our reward. i’m free in the most literal sense now, so i won’t be celebrating it has much in eternity as some who spends their whole earthly life captive waiting for the day they will experience freedom forever. now who do you think is going to appreciate it more eternally? i don’t know why i have been thinking about this lately, but isn’t it interesting how waiting makes us weary when it is meant to make us stronger. If we don’t see it now then we lose hope. When who would want 80 years when you could have forever, ever and ever. This is a undescribable large promise from Christ who invites us to have that kind of forever. We may see it now and we may not, but we are guaranteed through Christ to experience it forever. relax, the last 2000 years are to God just a couple of days…
the crowd traditional indian dance (not bollywood) (click title for pics)
well this weekend i headed to downtown portland for india day. it is this free festival where this is food, music dancing etc. there are also booths from organizations and businesses from the indian community. i wasn’t sure how many people would be there, but when i got there i wanted to laugh out loud. it was packed! indians everywhere, of course, crowded and with lots of stuff going on. i hadn’t dodged my way through a crowd like that since india. 
i had some good food though, masala dosa and a mango lassi. yum! there were performances going on the whole time. my favorite of course was the dancing. what is an india day without coreographed bollywood dancing. all bollywood movies are more like musicals with singing and dancing throughout the whole movie. india loves it. one younger guy even did a dance from a movie i watched a few times while i was there called Salam Namaste. i recoginized the song from the radio and the movie. unfortunately i didn’t memorize the dance. there was even a part where they invited the crowd to come on the stage to learn a bollywood dance. i’m sure it was from some famous hindi movie, seemed like lots of people knew it. just to explain how into this dancing they are, at pizza hut when a certian song comes on over the loud speakers all the waiters (the guys) line up in the middle of the restaurant and perform a coreographed dance. then they carry on with their work. i think it is just more unusal than anything, cuz generally the guys that dance are pretty good dancers. it is definetly something young boys in india aspire to learn. there its cool to be able to dance to the backstreet boys. i think its entertaining.
My recent “free” discoveries:
There is some really fun free entertainment available this summer. I enjoyed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original) in downtown portland on this HUGE inflatable movie screen outside. Its part of Flicks on the Bricks at pioneer courthouse square. Every friday night they show a movie there for free and you get free popcorn too. Now, the parking isn’t free, but it was only 2 bucks after 6pm til about 11pm. So for a movie, popcorn and parking it was a sweet deal.
Along the entertainment lines there is also a free “Indian Festival” at the same place this weekend. By Indian they mean from India, so I’m going to check it out. I think it might be kinda humorous and odd to see so many indians in one place especially in downtown portland, but I’m sure there is quite the community. It apparently goes on all day on Sunday and I’m not exactly what it all entails, but who knows it should be fun. Now, keep in mind I’m no expert on India just cuz i lived there because I can only speak 1 of the like 19 languages they speak in India and I can’t speak it very well. Each state has its own language and culture unique to itself. My experience was really only in Calcutta with the Bengali Culture so it should be fun to see a larger picture of the country. They want to have entertainment from every state in India so maybe I’ll meet some people who speak bengali, that would be fun. Hey, its free.
Another free thing, i took advantage of an India is called Skype. I think it is fairly well known, but just in case. Its a free program that you can download online that i used to call home from India. It is a really good price like 2 cents a mins to call the US from any country because its through your computer. Now the 2nd “free” and best part is that if the person you are “calling” also has skype on their computer then you can talk for free. Isn’t that sweet! For example, I talked to Beth, my servant team coordinator, who is in India for free last night with Skype. This is definitely on the top of my “cool things to share with people, if they don’t already know” list.
Now my last maybe most amazing free thing is a cd I got from Kyle Scott. Who is that you ask? Well he was one of the guys on my team who is also a singer/songwriter who sent me one of his cds. He is so poetic, anointed and talented that I haven’t stopped listening to his music. His lyrics go hand in hand with his heart which makes for beautiful honest music. He wrote some songs inspired by our time in India so I can’t wait until he records them. He put into words so much of what we experienced that otherwise would be lost.
I’m not sure how I’m going to tie this into India. HA! Probably won’t. I don’t clean my belly button, but i did the other day and it was so dirty. I was amazed my little belly button could be so dirty. My sister wasn’t surprised because she regularly cleans hers. I’m not sure if this is strange, but if you don’t clean yours it might be dirty and then you will be glad you cleaned it.
I don’t think this is public knowledge because I have only mentioned it as it comes up in conversation, but I applied to Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena,CA. If i get accpeted I’m hoping to start this fall, the end of Sept. It would be a whole lot of change all over again. Moving, new job, school again etc, but I’m ready for change. I’m ready to keep moving forward.
I miss India. I try to keep updated through various blogs of my friends and the staff there. Right now things are hard, stressful and difficult. The general challenges that come with loving, committing to and believing in women who are so hurt, traumatized and self loathing. Its no walk in the park. Its a journey, a long one, a lifelong one for sure. And its also a choice; a choice that my amazing friends from the states have made and that is seriously incredible.
