College Christmas Party

This year we had the pleasure of having six college students come to our house for a Christmas party. We enjoyed food, games, crafts, and more. We thought we would just share a few of the highlights from the party with you all:

 Food: We decided to have little barbecued weenies (against my better judgement... all hot dog products should be band) and Nelson decided that putting on the ham sandwiches I made was the best idea ever. Why might you ask is this the best idea ever? Because it tastes like a McRib sandwich. This was first of all not a selling point (who likes a McRib sandwich??) and secondly we have always wondered who those people where who were keeping the McRib on the McDonald's menu anyways.

Games: We enjoyed two games.The first was a present unwrapping game. We only had one girly gift wrapped up and of course one of our guys was nearly stuck with it. Luckily Colleen stepped in and cheated so he would have a chance at something more unisex. Our second game of the night was Catchphrase. None of our students had ever played before but by the second pass around the circle everyone was a pro and loving it! The best clue of the night had to have been when I, Laura said she's a female singer and Joyce immediately answered correctly with Maria Carey!

Crafts: We decorated a gingerbread house together. There was absolutely no game plan anything went as far as they were concerned. The first piece of candy to get glued on was the snow man on the roof. We'll just say it was very Picasso like.... (interestingly ugly)

More: Steve and I have been working on a 2,000 piece puzzle since the day Christmas break began and it is currently taking up our entire coffee table. We were so happy to have many pieces put together by our students. It is now a much more put together mess taking up our coffee table.

The Things We are Thankful For: Dinosaur Soup

So, as Thanksgiving week is coming to an end and everyone is recovering from a Thursday of food, friends, and family, I must take the time to reflect on a major blessing in my life: dinosaur soup.

Some of you may be wondering what this is all about, so I did a little research on the actual "Dinosaur Soup Recipe" (which does exist...clearly because the recipe is online). You can also buy a whole book of such recipes at the always-classy Bobs Your Uncle Shop which I also found in my intensive research (completely limited to typing "dinosaur soup" in Yahoo). I believe the recipe is designed to make children eat their vegetables by calling it something more appealing. If you know me, this is still required for me to eat certain foods which are red (because that means they have tomatoes in them), green (peppers are gross), and crunchy (get them stinkin onions outta my food).

Ever since I have engaged in this activity which many of us call "marriage", my lovely wife and I have had quite an adventure learning about daily household chores such as cleaning, doing the bills, buying new pet fish when we kill 6 in one week, and cooking dinner. When I say, "we had an adventure", I truly mean, "Laura had an adventure" because I am a lazy man who refuses to believe that I don't live in a college dormroom anymore. While I could spend considerable time elaborating on the many chores which I didn't know existed prior to marriage, our story at hand is directly related to the chore of cooking (which leads to my chore of eating).

Each day since July 31st, Laura asks me one simple question "What do you want for dinner?" To be honest, at first, I found some power in answering this question as if I could just make some sort of genie-in-the-bottle type of wish and my table would be filled with my favorite O'Charley's soup and rolls. Well, I quickly learned my choices were basically beef, chicken, or fish. So, to spice things up, I quickly begun answering the question with "Dinosaur soup" (not knowing that any such creation existed....I just thought it sounded funny....remember, I still think I live in a college dorm). So, for the past three months, my wife makes a variety of dishes which I refer to as Dinosaur soup.

Now, you know the quick story. Why am I thankful for this? Well, to put it simply, because I have a wife that actually puts up with my "I'm married but I still act like I'm a single kid who refuses to wash his clothes" attitude. I am blessed to have someone with such patience and kindness in my life...and a pretty good sense of humor (which I test every day...I promise). While I know that I will be forced to grow up one day, she is only forceful about it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Yes, it's a miracle I'm married. That's why I'm thankful, people! I'm thankful for Dinosaur soup and the woman who serves it to me daily.

Thankfully,
Steve

The Things we are Thankful for: Our Families

This year has brought quite a few changes for us in the family department. Not only are we a family now but we have each been blessed with a new extended family as well. On many occasions since July 31st we have talked about just how blessed we are to have these new moms, dads, grandparents, sisters, and brothers (yes, we are including brother and sister-in-laws so the plural of brothers is correct :-)). We know that we are in the minority to have such a solid loving family.

We want to tell you how much we appreciate you all but words just don't seem to do it justice.

Thank you firstly for the gift our our significant other. Without you, there would be no us. Thank you for raising us to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is our reason for living. Thank you for your support in us living for Him. Not many families would given their blessing to us. Moving across country to train in order that one day we can live on the other side of the globe. Your sacrifice is great and more than greatly appreciated.

As tomorrow quickly approaches we are reminded just how different it will be without you all. We love you and miss you all more than you know.

Happy Thanksgiving Bullocks and Reynolds'!

Love,
Laura and Steve

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/o2p3Z5NNZXMaPZeL (Happy Thanksgiving Moms and Dads!)

The Things We're Thankful For: Our Church

Laura and I are gearing up for our first "official" holiday together (Laura doesn't seem to count Halloween and my birthday as national holidays...the jury is still out). Although we are excited about the Thanksgiving break together, we are a little sad about the things we are missing. Such things on my list include the annual Thanksgiving fight between family members (which I usually start) and a deep-fried turkey (yeah, we fry everything in MS). I never thought that I would admit this, but I will even miss my grandma forcing everyone into holding hands and saying things they are thankful for in our lives. After spending several years in complaint, I have decided to embrace the Thanksgiving spirit and use the next few blogs to state things which we are thankful for this year. Don't worry, they won't be my usual "family" and general "God" answer that I usually give around the Thanksgiving circle.

I have decided to dedicate this first Thanksgiving post to our local church. As many of you may know, Laura and I were extremely weary of finding a new church home when coming to CA. We have both been blessed in our churches back home in MS (and we still miss you all!), and we knew we could never find such churches again. In the first few weeks of visiting churches in the Bay, God showed us that He is definitely at work among his people here! We were introduced to excited, vibrant churches with Spirit-filled worship and solid teaching. Things were looking up for the Reynolds' church hunt. After several weeks of visiting, I contacted a church which was searching for seminary students to do ministry; since Laura and I wanted to be involved in our church, we thought this was necessary. The church was a Mandarin (Chinese) church with an English ministry in the city. After a brief talk with the pastor, we decided to visit a Sunday service.

Upon arriving at the church, we were immediately welcomed by members of the church. But these weren't just the "greeters" of the church...these were the youth of the church! Now how many churches have youth which are openly willing to greet visitors?!? This surprised us both. During the "shaking-of-the-hands time" (an odd tradition which is always held by a good Baptist church), we could hardly find our seats through the eager greeters! The service proceeded into a time of contemporary worship consisting of awesome songs which I haven't sung since 7th grade (and I'm NOT complaining). After the service, the church went into its traditional time of refreshments (every church should have refreshments...nothing like donuts and bagels to help me get my praise on). Then, Laura and I went to the college class and enjoyed the fellowship of young leaders learning about the Lord. Since this day, the church has elected me and Laura to head-up this fellowship (which has been incredibly rewarding......by the way, I use ALOT of interjections in my writing, just to let you know). Finally, to tap off the day, the English and Mandarin ministry join together in Chinese meal....and I don't mean that Americanized Chinese stuff. It's great.

Now that I have gone through a typical Sunday service at our church, I will list the reasons why I am thankful for this church:

1) I am the minority. I somehow find it refreshing that I am the "odd man out" in this congregation. It reminds me daily that the world is not a white, middle-classed society of Southern men.

2) The leadership of this church is both loving and bibically sound. While this may seem to be a given, this is actually rare in our modern "church" culture.

3) Refreshments are awesome.

4) Even though we are the minority, we are loved and accepted in this church. We have never felt left out in any aspect of this church. We truly feel at home there.

5) We are challenged to be ministers for Christ. Many seminary students ignore the ministry while being students, but we thank God that this church challenges us to use what God is teaching us.


So, on behalf of Laura and me, thank you San Francisco Mandarin Baptist Church for standing in the gap and serving the relocated people of San Francisco. You are doing a ministry which is deeply needed in a country where the nations are gathering. We are proud to be a part of your ministry in reaching the nations.

In Christ,
Steve and Laura

Fall

It's hard to believe that Fall is finally in the air. We have not taken time to update you all on what is really going on in our lives recently (Sorry!) So since I am slightly ahead on my reading Steve has tasked me to do just that.

October was a busy month for us. We were excited to host our first guests here and test out our new air mattress (Thanks again DLocke!) We were shocked (and slightly jealous) to find out that it is bigger than our bed!

Spencer came out to tour the seminary and we really enjoyed having him. While he was hear we got to do some touristy stuff like the beach, fisherman's wharf, Lumbard Street, and China Town. It was encouraging to see how God is moving him towards a life of ministry. (We are praying you specifically Southern and Ole Miss students that God would continue to use you in ministry after college. If any of you feel the call to seminary on the west coast and want to visit here just drop us a line! We would love to host you!)

Kwangsu was our second visitor of the month if you couldn't tell by Steve's video post. He thought the class was a little dry... we agreed haha. I also had the pleasure of cooking him his first sloppy joe. It was hard to tell but I think he liked it!

We wrapped up the month with baseball fever (since the Dallas Cowboys are no longer worth watching...) as the SF Giants won the World Series. We may have confused a few of you with my facebook post on watching the games. Some of you believed we were actually going to a game when we were only watching it on TV. Unfortunately tickets started at about $400 to stand only!

November is promising to be just as busy and exciting. We are getting very involved with our Church. We have officially taken over teaching the College Sunday School and in January we will be meeting for a Friday night College fellowship. Please pray for us as we continue to brainstorm over what that will look like.

We are also dealing with the stress of school right now. We each have between 3 and 4 papers due in the next two weeks. We will be welcoming Thanksgiving break!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving we just want to remind you how thankful we are for all your prayers and encouragement of us. We miss you all!

Love,

Laura

A picture of our friendly neighborhood deer!

McDonald's and Theology

Today, my life was shattered by the incredible news that San Francisco leaders had voted to ban toys from being sold in McDonald's Happy Meals (here's the link). I can't imagine how many five-year-olds are at their favorite fastfood joint watching the "Man" steal away everyone's favorite display of Hotwheels and Barbies. This is seriously the worst thing that has happened since they ran out of the white PowerRanger action figure when I was eight (I'm still recovering from this life episode). Way to go, San Francisco! Moments after making everyone soooo happy with our World Series Championship, you make kids cry. Nothing is more inhumane than making a child cry! Do you have a heart?

Ok, now that I am done ranting, let's get to the serious lesson learned here. If I was actually eight years old, I would definitely be mortified by this infringement on my right to eat extremely unhealthy food for a toy which costs the company twenty cents to manufactor; the truth is, I really did love McDonald's just for the toys. And, as much as I don't want to admit it, this new legislation can actually teach us all a lesson.

The reasoning behind the ban on toys in Happy Meals is stated as being because the meals are "unhealthy". Basically, these toys are luring children into eating unhealthy meals with a reward. While this legislation makes sense when viewed from that angle, what about other things in our lives? Isn't this the way our heart works? Don't we like to see past the long-term consequences in view of something with immediate reward?

Last summer, I read a book by Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, which focuses on the issue of idolatry in our lives. This book kicked my butt. While many of us may view idolatry as an ancient practice of bowing to statues, they still linger in our present society. Our idols (e.g. money and success) tend to act just like the Mc Donald's toy luring us into consuming something which will lead to our death. The sad thing is that we usually care more about our physical death by protecting our children from harmful food, but we totally ignore our spiritual health by chasing after idols. All the while, children watch our every move and grow up chasing the same things. Of course, Happy Meals are delicious, but those chicken mcnuggets will kill you if you eat them everyday. Idols usually look good, feel good, and taste good, but they are more deadly than we think. Our society is full of these types of things. Money, relationships, television, and sporting events all can make us lose our minds at times. Are we meant to live this way?

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. 1 Corinthians 10:14

When will we, as Christians, ban the toys from our lives?

Final Video from Seminary Class

God's Provision

There are many things I don't understand in life. There are almost zero things I understand about God. One such thing I cannot wrap my head around is this idea of "grace". Why in the world would God, the Creator, Sustainer, and Judge of this entire Universe, want to give an unwarranted, undeserved gift to ungrateful sinners such as us? It blows my mind! It blows my mind so much that I am up at 1:48 AM working on a blog post to talk about it!

Today, God reminded Laura and me of His grace through a simple reminder of a promise which He makes to us: He will sustain us. For months, Laura and I have cried out to God for financial provision. Getting married and moving to California to go to school isn't exactly the best financial decision we have ever made (as we have been reminded), but, for some reason, we knew He wanted us here. Yesterday, I was offered a job opportunity which seemed to be God's provision. I was quick to say YES due to our need. Well, as I thought through it, I figured out that I would not be happy in the situation, but I figured I would take the job anyway. Today, God stepped in and allowed us to see His provision through other means: none other than His Church (in particular, our local congregation). Our church voted to help provide for us so that we would not be forced to take two and three jobs a piece. This small congregation saw our need and answered the need. We know that God lead this decision. Praise God for His leadership and His Church.

As I said, I know very little about God. But I will say that the few things I do know about Him make me want to love Him passionately. Every time He even shows a peek of the unstoppable Glory which defines Him, I just want to call my mom like I do everytime I get a good grade on a paper (yes, I still do this....just ask her) and scream. We love Him because He first loved us.

I read this tonight in an incredible book of Puritan inspired prayers, The Valley of Vision, and wanted to share it with you:

           Thou hast shown me

            that the sensible effusions of divine love

             in the soul are superior to and distinct from

             bodily health,

            and that oft-times spiritual comforts are

             at their highest when physical well-being is

             at its lowest.

Praise God for His infinite grace.

In Christ,

Steve

Kwangsu comes to class....

Our friend, Kwangsu, who decided to visit from South Korea came to class with us tonight....

Join us next week as we have the final week of our 10-week course @ Golden Gate....hope to see you there!

Video Blog #2....Same class

My question for tonight...
When is the last time your school had an icecream party? 3rd grade? Should have come to Golden Gate...

A Little Glimpse into Seminary Class...

Our class hit a "low-point" tonight, so I thought I would sneak you guys in for a minute...

Top 10 Reasons Why We Love California

Before moving here Steve and I were questioned quite a few times about why we would ever want to live in California. I think some of you may still be wondering why. Hahaha. So I have decided to enlighten all of you Southerners to the top ten great things of the West Coast. In no particular order….

1.       Every public bathroom has toilet seat covers.

2.       Deer appear more frequently than squirrel (Steve said we saw a 10-point last night… whatever that means I’m not sure).

3.       The beach is about a 10 minute drive away.

4.       There is no need for heat or air conditioning

5.       There is free fellowship lunch after church every week in the Chinese church.

6.       Goodwill sells almost exclusively designer clothes.

7.       Dogs are allowed in any store.

8.       Casual clothes are always appropriate.

9.       Minimum wage is eight dollars an hour.

10.   The ethnic food is authentic.

(Us enjoying studying in the beautiful California sunshine!)

Fun and games aside there are some other reasons we have come to love this place too…. We pray that you will partner with us in loving this place where very few are showing the love of Christ.

1.       San Francisco is only about 3% churched.

2.       There are about 2 million college students in CA without any Baptist ministries on their campus.

3.       San Francisco has between 7 and 10 thousand homeless people.

4.       San Francisco has the highest percentage of Homosexuals and Bisexuals of any major city in America. This amounts to over 94,000 people.

5.       Most churches are small and in need of strong discipleship and leadership.

6.       Tiburon is one of the top 10 most expensive cities to live in in the US. Many idols exist in the form of wealth here.

7.       The top two religions in the area are Roman Catholic and Muslim.

8.        More than 20 abortion clinics are in the bay area.

9.       21 different Wicca groups exist in Northern California. (Some who practice at night around Golden Gate Seminary)

10.   On average more than 25 people commit suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge yearly.

Please pray along with us that God would break the hearts of many Christians for the people of California. Pray that he would send more workers to this harvest field. We know that our God is the God of this city and will be worshiped here.

We love and miss you all!
Laura

Encouragement from the Father of Modern Missions

I must admit that the days are getting harder here. School is busy, bills are coming, and a job seems further away than ever. I have spent this morning listening to Leviticus on audiobook (thankful to Dr. A for allowing our Bible reading to be a listening project as well), checking emails, and reading a biography on William Carey. The biography, Faithful Witness by Timothy George, has served as a great source of encouragement in the past days. Sometimes, we need to read of the strength of others to remind ourselves that we aren't the only ones dealing with hardships. I encourage each of you to read this biography. William Carey not only served as a great example for global mission work but also as an incredible example of a man living through struggles and glorifying God in everything. Here is a writing from Carey's journal following a hard time dealing with death, sickness, and isolation from his family and friends in India:

"This is indeed the valley of the shadow of death to me, except that my soul is much more insensible than John Bunyan's Pilgrim. O what would I give for a kind of sympathetic friend, such as I had in England, to whom I might open my heart! But I rejoice that I am here, notwithstanding; and God is here, who not only can have compassion, but is able to save to the uttermost." -Timothy George, Faithful Witness, 109

I pray that our hearts will be like Carey's: confident in our call to be in this place, confident in God's presence, and faith when fruit is unseen.

Blessings,
Steve

When Football is Unsatisfying, There's Always Baseball

Well, the Ole Miss football game just ended, so I thought I would do a post. After all, waking up at 9 AM to watch a loss to Vandy really leaves me in no mood to watch more football. Don't worry Ole Miss football, I will still wake up really early and stay up really late to watch you regardless of the season you are having. I just can't help it!

On higher notes, after a rather unsatisfying week of college and pro football, Laura and I had a great time this week at another sporting event!  Benefitting from an invitation by our neighbors, the Blackaby's, we went to our first SF Giants game last week as they took on the Dodgers. Unlike our favorite football teams, the Giants are wrapped in a vicious end-of-the-season stretch towards the playoffs. Needless to say, the crowd was energized and nervous as this was a must-win for the Giants (who are now ahead by 1 game in the division).

We arrived a few minutes before the game started with our free tickets (thanks to the many hook-ups that the Blackaby's seem to have) and begun to search for our section, in the 200's. Well, we found the first level then supposed it would be the next up so begun to walk up the stairs. The next level had closed doors so we climbed higher but the next level was 3. So we decided to ask the man at one of the closed doors and he told us to walk through the doors at the next level which happened to be the "Club Level". Yes, you guessed it, we had amazing seats to this intense game. As we arrived, Laura and I felt a little guilty as we haven't always been the biggest fans of MLB (with Laura not even knowing if the catcher was allowed to hit with the other batters....sorry, Laura, I told the world of your ignorance towards the game of baseball). We even had a little card to order food from our seats so that we wouldn't have to walk to the concession stand (and you BET we used the little card to get two chicken baskets and some Coke). We felt special! After 9 hard-fought innings, the Giants won and we had a great time at our first SF sporting experience. We will definitely have to find our way back to another game (if only we can find $140 laying around our apartment one day).

So, the lessons we learned from our Giants experience (because there is always a lesson to be learned):

1) Free tickets are ALWAYS worth taking.
2) While concessions stands cost about 100 times more than any other place, you can't resist buying their food.
3) Everyone wants to see a home run during their first game, and, most of the time, it comes from the other team.
4) Nothing else matters when you beat LA at any sport, especially baseball.
5) When football fails you, there is always another sport.

So, to all you Ole Miss fans out there, here are a few ways to find relief after another bad Saturday morning: pick yourself up, walk yourself home, and dust off your baseball mitt that you haven't used since you were in 5th grade. Baseball season is just around the corner!

Hanging in there,
Steve and Laura

La Casa

We have finally (sorry for being so late!) taken time to put up some pictures of the house. It's a small 500 square feet, but it's ours! And as Steve said before we got married "We can't help but to grow closer in such a tight space!"

Let us know what you think!

Love,

Laura

One Month in the Bay

It's hard to believe that tomorrow will mark our one month anniversary of being in Mill Valley!  I thought it would be appropriate to give you the one-month analysis of our lives here followed by a few prayer requests:

-Our home is officially unpacked!  There are ZERO boxes on our bedroom floor (which is a big accomplishment if you know Laura and me) and the curtains are up.  After weeks of unpacking (by us unpacking I mean Laura unpacked and I placed things where she told me to put them), we can finally call this place a home.  It's tiny, but it's ours.  As one of our neighbors told me the other day, "It's fun to see how people decorate their box around here."

-We have finished three full weeks of school and things are just getting busier.  Laura and I are working on reading (which doesn't get any less if you were wondering), papers, and lecture notes.  While school is busy and demanding, we are blown away by how much God is expanding our knowledge and understanding of the world around us.  Nothing changes your mindset like reading about Polycarp and William Carey!  If you don't know about these two folks, you should look them up.

-Laura has a couple of jobs, and I "might" have a job.  Laura is enjoying her jobs with children at a playground and babysitting a couple times a week.  While we are still praying that I would find a job that suits me, we know God is faithful and praise Him for allowing Laura to work.

-We are beginning to search through wedding pictures!  They are great (thanks to Mike and Shannon L)

-Lastly, we are constantly making new friends and meeting new people.  We praise God for so many awesome people here at the seminary and in the Bay area!


Now that you are fairly updated, here are some prayer requests for those thinking of us back home:

-Pray that Laura and I will not grow tired and complacent in ministry.  This is a huge problem for seminary students, and we hope to remain fresh and involved while learning.  We don't want to to just have knowledge poured in, we want to pour out while we are here.

-Pray that Laura and I will learn to manage time between school, work, and marriage.  This is important as we don't want to neglect marriage while we are here.  Once again, this is a huge problem in ministry.  We also want to put enough time into school to feel that we are really learning and growing.

-Pray that we will find a loving, support, multiplying community in a local church.  We have visited a few and love them all.  Pray for the right choice to be made in where we minister.

-Pray for me a job and that I will trust the Spirit in leading me to a job.

-Most importantly, pray that Laura and I will continue to grow more in love with eachother as well as the Lord each day.


We love you all and praise God for your support! 

In Christ,
Steve (and Laura in spirit)

Lifes Little Lessons: Budgeting

As you can tell from the title of this blog Steve and I are learning how to budget. It sounds like a fairly easy math problem A-B=C (A make some money, B the budgeted amount, C Money left over after.) Unfortunately as most of you know I've never been very good at math (I sweet talked my way into a C in Algebra) when they stick in all of those "unseen variables".

As a result we are taking some advice from Dave Ramsey. Our first step to success was made just two days ago with a trip to the ATM, a few magnets, and a few envelopes. Our plan, pay for everything in cash. I guess you could say it's working so far... but again it's only been two days. We will keep you posted on our success.

If any of you are budgeting masters we would love any advice you want to give us!

Faith and Textbooks

Ok, so our first week of seminary has ended (well about 4 days ago.  Sorry for the late post!).  After a full week of classes, syllabi, and job-hunting, I think our seminary experience will mostly be summed up in two words (as shown in the title of this post):  Faith and Textbooks

Of course the "faith" part is usually implied, but I must admit that I had never thought life at seminary would require so much of this often-used word.  Before, I thought I knew what faith meant, but now I am beginning to grasp the concept in a much deeper way.  For the sake of the reader, I will list out the reasons:

1) I am a newly married man who has no idea what I'm doing (and I figure this out more each day).
2) I am new here.  As stated in the first post, there are many differences between California and Mississippi!
3) Seminary really is graduate-level learning!  Yes, this should have been known, but, let's be honest, most people (including myself before last week) think seminary is merely "Bible school" and picture it like VBS or Sunday School. 

Number 3 brings me to my next word which defines my life: textbooks.  Laura and I have developed a new hobby called "reading".  It is a new concept to both of us, but I think it will grow on us.  And, while we absolutely love learning and growing through the reading of textbooks, we are definitely in over our heads after one week of seminary and probably about 250-300 pages of reading after one week of class.  Thus, we must use our first concept, faith, to even believe we will ever pass classes! 

Laura and I are enjoying marriage, California life, and school more than we can ever imagine, but let us please remember that we can NEVER accomplish anything in these three areas outside the marvelous hand of our King.  For that, I am thankful to know that my strength is inadequate.  I have learned that it is in the most physically and spiritually demanding times that I learn and grow the most.  As I have heard quoted many times, it is in the valley where the fruit grows and not on the mountain top.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  He has brought us here, and he will sustain us here.

In Christ,
Steve

Moving to the Bay

Life as we know it has officially been turned upside down and we are loving every minute of it!

We wanted to make sure to keep you all updated on what God is doing here and in our lives so we decided the best way to do that was start a blog. We will be sure to include everything from the funny and exciting moments to the confusing and thought provoking moments of our lives here. Make sure to check back often and let us know if we are slacking!

We decided to pick a few of our favorite memories from the bay since we've been here...

When we first arrived we did not have Internet at our apartment, so we were forced to go to Starbucks. It was interesting to "people-watch" while we were there. Our company ranged from business men to mom's with wild children and other Internet junkies like ourselves. The most interesting of characters, however, came halfway through our visit. He was dressed much like a hippy wearing cropped pants and an untucked button down shirt with a matching footlong beard and shoulder-length hair. He looked to be about 50 years old and was carrying 2 walmart bags of grocery's with him. His drink of choice was a small cup of water with about 7 sugar packets mixed in. Soon after he sat down another friend of his whom we cannot describe to you joined him. We can not describe him because he was invisible. Yes our hippy friend started talking to himself. It was fascinating to watch. He would talk and then give ample time for his friend to respond. Most of the time it was hard to hear what he was mumbling but a few of our favorite quotes we could make out include "What do you mean the sun isn't hot?!! You can look at it and tell it's not hot!" and "You can't do that!! You'll get sued!" If only we could have heard the other half of that conversation...

(Enter Steve with his comments)

Yes, life here in the Bay is definitely different from anything we have ever known.  We escaped the land of 4x4 trucks and Walmart to find ourselves in the land of hybrid cars and Starbucks. 

My favorite moment must have been our first church experience in San Francisco.  Laura and I had decided that we wanted to check out church in the city, so we drove across the bridge (which actually costs money....since when does it cost $6 to cross a bridge?!?) and parked ourselves in downtown.  After entering the church and passing their coffee bar (so far every church we have visited has one of these) we found a lovely couple from the seminary to introduce us to the church. We talked for a few minutes then the service began.  While the church building is similar to everything we had ever known (complete with hanging lights, choir loft, and those stained-glass windows with pictures of Jesus petting sheep), we quickly noticed that the congregation was different from anything we had ever experienced.  Much like our Starbucks experience, we saw people of various cultures and upbringings.  Attire ranged from your traditional khakis and buttoned shirt to shorts and tee-shirts.  If any of you know me, you know that this excited me!  Laura and I knew that this would be a worship experience like no other.


As we sat down and the choir began to enter the choir loft, I noticed a few things.  First, the choir was small with a grand total of 5 members.  Secondly, the choir matched the multi-cultural make-up of the congregation to the extreme.  Of these five members, there was an elderly lady of Asian descent, two middle-aged ladies of Asian descent, and two males (one African American, and one Hispanic gentleman).  Laura and I were amazed and excited!  As we joined in worship, the passion in the choir and congregation was like no other.

While this story isn't quite a funny story in itself, you must imagine how Laura and I felt as we have spent our entire lives surrounded by middle-classed, Caucasion congregations.  This was definitely a culture clash for Laura and me.  I am not ashamed to admit that, for a moment, we didn't know what to do or think.  And, while it was not really funny, I couldn't help but to laugh.  And, for some reason, through all the weird thoughts and confusion, it just felt right.  Now we know that this church, like all others, has its problems because it involves humans, but we can't help but to think that for all the money and stained-glass glamour that is typical to our "church" life, this experience seemed to be a more biblical view of every tongue, tribe, and nation crying out to the One True God.  Yet it still isn't perfect.  There are literally thousands of ethnicities in San Francisco alone which aren't apart of this worship.  We are excited to be here and serve in a place where the nations are at our doorstep.  Welcome to the Bay!