Virtual Car Wash

On Friday, I had the privilege to meet and hear speak a man who started the largest gang intervention organization in the nation. His name is Father Greg Boyle. He is a Jesuit priest who lives in East LA who has been befriending and caring for gang members for nearly twenty years. He loving refers to them as homeys and homegirls. I first learned about him through a book written by Celeste Fremon called "G-Dog and the Homeboys." The book is about Father Greg's life and the lives of some of the gang members he has touched. When he spoke on Friday, he emphasized the idea of kinship and helping people rediscover the truth of who they are in God. Obviously that is a very condensed version of all the ideas he shared but it was very moving.

Father Greg is the Executive Director of Homeboy Industries. Part of his outreach to the gang members was to find them employment. So he opened the Homeboy Bakery. It's mission is "to create an environment that provided training, work experience, and above all, the opportunity for rival gang members to work side by side." The organization now has five businesses: Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy Maintenance, Homeboy/HomegirlMerchandise, and HomegirlCafé. He shared with us that in order to raise money to continue operating, they created a Virtual Car Wash. All they are asking for is $10 to help raise money for all the wonderful things Father Greg and Homeboy Industries are trying to do.

Click here to get your car virtually "washed."

Giving Away The Pen

I have decided to give God the pen to my love story. He has given us His greatest love so why shouldn't I trust him to give me my perfect romance as long as I am faithful? My "forever" love story is being written by God even as we speak. I just have to surrender the pen that I for so long have tried to control.

I posted the following post originally on December 9, 2007 (I have tweaked it some for this post). I think it does a pretty good job explaining some of my emotions right now. I knew I wouldn't have been able to fully express myself, but I'm glad I was able to find something that was close enough for now:

I'm trying to be positive about everything but it is really hard. This week coming up is finals and I think it has knocked the Earth off of its normal rotation and is making EVERYTHING (and everyone) go a little kooky.

I thought that everything in my life was finally aligning. Ha...

I realized today that despite recent occurrences, I am worth it. Do I have places to grow and improve? Of course, everyone does. Do I believe that we all should be respectful and patient with people that are actually doing things to change? Absolutely.

I have also come to realize that I am ready for an unbreakable, unstoppable, head-over-heels, fight-for-each-other, do-anything-for kind of relationship. This is my public declaration: I will not settle until I have that kind of relationship. I haven't had one yet, but I have no doubt that it will be amazing.

Until then, I choose to be in love with God. Why? Because he romances me every day of my life. No matter how much I run from him, he does not let me leave. He has unending patience and love for me. This has been a struggle for me to come to this place because I feel really let down in a lot of areas of my life. I was at a place that I wanted to give up on my faith, but I know I need to trust that God knows my future. As long as I keep seeking him, He will lead me in the right direction.

I thank Ingrid for this verse:

"I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me!"
Jeremiah 29: 11 - 13

I was at the point of saying, why believe in something that every time my prayers are "answered" I'm hurt? When I should be saying: I may not understand why things are working out this way, but I trust you and know that you would never hurt me. He is just preparing me for something more fulfilling than I can even fathom.

Romanced by God? What does that even mean? (Are you asking yourself that? I did at first too, but it makes complete sense.) Sunrises, Sunsets, Snow falling on Christmas, Fireflies at dusk, Light breeze on a sunny day, rays shining through the clouds. God romances us with the beauty of nature.




Can you believe the brilliance of the colors of the leaves? It was even more beautiful in person. We live in such a fast-paced world. Take the time to thank God for his creation. In the moments of utter beauty, when everything in the world seems to stop just so you can enjoy the moment, you are given a glimpse of Eden. The way the world was supposed to be. He loves us enough to show us that even when we are so undeserving, like I was when I doubted him.

Busy Worker Bee

I'm taking a short hiatus from regular updating because this time of year is super hectic in the Residential Life realm of the world :) Training new staff members, nightly hall staff meetings, new residents moving in, etc. etc. = 9am to 9pm days!

Expect a post soon after the 24th!

Run Whitney Run

I have decided to commit myself to a few events this semester. I figured if I put them on here I would be more likely to actually register and train for them. I hope my friends will be joining me on a few of these.

September 26 - Miracle Miles 5K
October 18 - U Can Finish 5 Miler
October 24 - Nike Human Race 10K Trail Race
November 14 - Fight for Air Climb 2009
November 25 - Gobble Gallop
December 13 - Elf Classic

And of course these will all slowly be helping me prepare for the Disney's Princess Half Marathon on March 7, 2010!

I will keep you updated on my progress and results!

Old Shirts? New Blanket!

Somehow I tend to accumulate lots of t-shirts. I think most of the people I know have more than they know what to do with. I got to that point at the beginning of the summer when my t-shirts didn't fit into one dresser drawer. Sad...I know. I have to say that I don't know if what I did with them was exactly original but I love the result.

First, I had to figure out which shirts I was willing to give up. I had three main sections of shirts: Random, FSU, and Rollins. I couldn't think of anything I could do that would make sense for the Random shirts and I still work at Rollins so I wear those shirts very often. So that left the FSU group. I would never think of getting rid of my FSU shirts because they are full of memories. What better to show them off than to make them into a quilt!

I don't own a sewing machine and when I was younger I made several blankets by knotting. So that's what I decided to do. What a process this project was. Just to give you a run down: cut the shirt to separate the front and back, decide the size of the rectangle pattern, cut all of the shirts to that size, decide on a backing, determine how many rectangles across and down, cut half -inch slits around ALL edges, arrange the rectangles, and start knotting!

Here is the finished product:

Close up:

Shot of the backing I chose. Comfy gray fleece :)

I can't wait for the cooler weather to come! I imagine opening my back doors and enjoying the weather under my new fleece FSU blanket that was made with love!