I left my heart in...

Three short days remain until I board a plane to California, where I will have twelve blissful days of family and friends, visiting my old haunts, hiking my heart out, and witnessing the marriage of one of my most favorite people. It's strange to think that it's been five whole months since I packed up (most of) my belongings into my Ford Focus and trekked across the country to make my home in Jones County, Mississippi.

This transition has been the most difficult thing I have ever undertaken. Nothing here is predictable, not even the weather (in the last ten minutes, we have had sun, humidity, thundershowers, and now calm overcast skies). I find myself constantly sticking my foot in my mouth, guilty of some cultural faux pas that my California upbringing definitely did not prepare me for. I find myself missing the most random things: Trader Joe's, hummus, the Pacific Ocean, the familiarity of making waffles with Katie, Rene' and Brittney on a Sunday morning, and lending a hand with a stubborn horse pen that desperately needs cleaning.
Through it all, though, I've survived. I've found some work and I'm doing my best to re-orient myself, so that I think of Mississippi, not California, as my home. One thing that has made the transition bearable has been the people. Wonderful people, who have invaded my life and my heart in ways that I could not have predicted. And since I can't take them with me to California, I'm sending them before me through the blogosphere, in hopes that my California family can begin to know and appreciate the people that have begun to fill the holes that California left in my heart.


This is Brooke. We work together at Lee's Coffee & Tea, and she has been such a source of encouragement in my life. Brooke is the kind of person you want on your side: cheerful and constant. She is getting ready to embark on her own adventure, marriage and a move to Pennsylvania, where she'll help start up a church.

Meet Gabby. What can I say about this girl? She reminds me at times of my cousin in Tennessee because of her bubbly personality. Gabby is an amazing person: fiercely loyal, full of life, and so artistic! When she's not working at Lee's with Brooke and I, she's probably making headbands for her business, Anchor and Sparrow, or hanging out with Patrick.

Patrick is a creative kind of guy. Besides being the boyfriend of Gabby, he also works for Roberts Creative, designing web content, branding, and other such things. According to an article I read in the ReView today, Patrick is going to be opening a store, called Chuck & Sally downtown! One of the things I appreciate about Patrick is his willingness to question things. I think he's a bit cerebral, like someone else I know.... He also owes me a homemade cheeseburger.

And where would I be without Amanda? We have enjoyed some amazingly fun times together: Farmer's Market, Bop's, Beauty and the Beast at the Saenger, movies, mall trips, and the list goes on. She's a nursing student at local community college, but she also has a B.S. in Biology. Wicked smart. I love that about her :) Plus, she likes to go on random adventures with me, which makes me sooooo happy!

Then there's Jackie. Jackie is a person of super-amazing persuasive and administrative talents. I am constantly in awe of her ability to get things done quickly and effectively. We've been working together on Farmer's Market, and she is always full of great ideas, and she always has the contacts and resources line up to make things happen. Jackie is a HUGE part of revitalizing downtown Laurel.


And finally (at least, for now) there's Bill. Need a cool home design? Bill's your guy. He's also super encouraging, and nearly always has a kind word. Bill is also musical, and he plays keys in a band. I haven't seen him play yet, but I'm determined to someday! Bill is also a big part of the revitalization plan for downtown Laurel. He, Jackie, Eric Roberts and I have been working to get the space all ready for our first market on June 4th.

That's all I have time for now! I promise, I'll introduce you all to some more of my Mississippi peeps as soon as I get a chance! California, here I come!

I've lost a friend...and I don't know why.

There are a lot of things I can handle.  There are a lot of things I probably put up with that I shouldn't.  But one thing that absolutely KILLS me is being spoken to in a disrespectful manner, and for me, that includes having curse words directed at me.  

Now, I don't mean to say that I can't handle the odd expletive tossed in a conversation in the heat of the moment.  I can, and a lot of my friends do.  But when someone systematically curses about me, my thoughts, my actions, or at me, I just shut down.  At that point, I can't even HEAR the person because the cursing is so painful for me to hear.

I have a friend who chooses to curse.  I have handled it just fine over the past two years that I've known this person.  But he never cursed regarding ME until just recently, and when I asked him not to, he blew a gasket.  

"I will not be censored," he said, as if I were trying to strip him of his right to free expression.  That's fine.  Express yourself all you want, but don't expect me to listen when the object of your curse words are me, my thoughts, and my actions.

Why is cursing so important to some people?  Have I seriously just lost a friend because the right to curse is more important than a friendship of two years?  And more disturbing to me is this: Have I been so blind as to not see this person's true colors these past two years?  Have I really not seen the part of him that finds it acceptable to repeatedly hurt a friend by using language that is offensive and cutting?  What does that say about ME?

I will say one thing: I'm going to be much more careful now about the people I share with, the people I let into the deep parts of my life.  Because finding out that the person who you thought was your friend is actually capable of scrapping an entire friendship because he values cursing over you is almost too much to handle.

Being faithful with a little

There's this verse in the Bible that seems to have somehow eluded me in practice for the longest time. Jesus tells the parable of the servants who are each given a certain amount of cash. Two of the servants invest what they are given, making more money for their master. The third servant freaks out about being responsible for his master's dough and buries it. When their master comes back later to see what the servants have done with the money, he is more than a little perturbed with the servant who buried the benjamins. The moral of the story is that if we are faithful to wisely use what little we are given, God will give us even more. You know, that whole "be faithful with what little you have and you'll wind up getting a lot" thing.
I've never been super-good at this. Each time I've had a ministry opportunity, I've jumped into something full-blown and thriving. I haven't have many chances to prove whether or not I can actually "be faithful with a little" and see something grow. However, in moving to Sacramento I've been opened up to a whole new world of opportunity.
I've been attending Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Sacramento since about mid-October, and I attended a home group for awhile. It was fabulous. There was food, fellowship, and abundant love for anyone who wanted some. But when it came time for the new semester, my class schedule dictated that I would no longer be able to attend my beloved Tuesday night home group. Darn those late-night graduate seminar classes!!! I didn't want to lose the amazing fellowship I had discovered in those precious couple of months, so I decided that maybe it was time to do something drastic. No, I didn't drop out of my Tuesday night class. Instead, I decided to listen to God and see what He would have me do with my Thursday nights that now just happened to be free.
What an amazing concept--listening to God. Sometimes I feel like I'm still a new believer, with the amount of time I actually spend LISTENING for God's voice.
So I listened, and in the listening I learned that there were NO home groups on Thursday nights. It also just so happened that there were NO young adult home groups. Period. Still listening....listening...listening...WHAM! SPIRITUAL SMACK TO THE HEAD!
"Andrea, why don't YOU start a home group for young adults?" "Me? No, couldn't possibly. I've barely been going to this church three months!" I went on like this for awhile, and eventually got tired of feeling like God was nagging me to start a home group, so I set up a meeting with Joedy, the Associate pastor who is also in charge of home groups. I shared with him openly and honestly that the major amount of my motives in starting a home group were purely selfish: I really just wanted people my age who were Christians that I could hang out with, and a home group seemed like a good way to make that happen.
The next thing I knew, I was leading a home group. I didn't really have a vision for the group, except that I wanted people like me (and unlike me) to be able to get together and fellowship. We started about a couple of months ago, and for quite awhile there have been only three of us attending. However, last week we had a wonderful new person join us, Jubilee. This week it was just the core three plus Jubilee. We had a little potluck dinner, some worship, and some fellowship. It was so wonderful. Even though the four of us who were there have only known each other for a short time, we were BLESSED to experience a sense of friendship and camaraderie far beyond the short months we've known each other.
Janna shared with us from the Bible tonight, and one of her main verses was the "be faithful with a little" verse. Without even realizing it, I've been proving myself faithful. I've been faithfully going ot this new group even when I know there will only be two or three of us there, and I've been cracking out my Bible and dusting off my guitar. I've been leading worship again. Writing Bible studies. I feel like I've discovered a new part of myself. I keep thinking, "oh, so THIS is what if feels like to be faithful with a little." And by being faithful I've been infused with a new faith and hope that the little I have will GROW, will FLOURISH. It's as though by going each week, I've been acting out my faith and in doing so, have increased that faith beyond measure.
God is doing something wonderful in my heart, and it's making me think that Sacramento's not so bad after all...