Happy Birthday Pocket!

Our dear Pocket turned 25 this past week and of course that meant LOTS of celebration! Tuesday night five of us went out to happy hour at bodega, a wonderful wine bar by campus, and then Saturday night about 20 of us had a bonfire on the beach to hang out and celebrate her. Enjoy the photos!

Sophie, Becca, Jenn, me and Christina at BodegaChristina & I

Becca gave Pocket a paint-your-own-tea-set for her birthday--I am not sure which one of them is the most excited!Talking to my wonderful boyfriend on the phone =)Huntington BeachAlethia and Christina looking a little chilly--it was SO windy and cold!Ryan and AlethiaPocket ate a ridiculous number of marshmellows

Dave seems pretty excited about the s'mores as well

Tammy gave Jenn several things that would grow if placed in water--the favorite by far was the "grow your own bling"

Christina, Tera, Sophie, Megan and Alan

Fer-Fer and Phie-Phie....long story

the whole gang

playing with the eye mask Tammy gave Jenn

re-enacting their wedding cake with a s'more

Christina, Sophie, Becca & Aaron

Ryan shielding himself from the crazy hot fire they built--it was a little tough to roast stuff over it!

Congratulations Steve & Christina!

Friends of mine from Fuller are going to get married in September in Houston, and since most of the Fuller-folks won't be making the trip this fall, we threw them an engagement/wedding shower before everyone takes off for the summer. Since both are from Texas, the theme of the night was Texan, and we had wonderful food, a time to pray for them, and great fellowship. Here are a couple of photos:

The happy coupleJenn was in town visiting for the weekend so the poor girl got dragged to several random events, including the engagement party -- luckily she is a great sport and very adaptable!no we did not plan the white shirt thing...i promise....Christina, Sophie and BeccaSophie's masterpiece--a cake in the shape of TX, complete with signs for each of their home towns

Becca, Sophie, Christina, Jenn, Alethia and me

This is My Body

This morning at Burbank we celebrated the sacrament of communion, and it was announced that the tradition of only celebrating communion once a quarter has now been changed and will be now celebrated monthly, which I was thrilled to hear. It has actually been my biggest pet peeve about the church for my two and a half years there, the sacraments are not celebrated nearly enough in my opinion. In the Reformed tradition we believe the Word and the Sacraments go hand in hand, you cannot separate the two, the sacraments are the Word being enacted for all of us—we can experience the Word through the sacraments in a way more mysterious than any other way we experience the Word in this world. So when we only participate in communion once a quarter, I think we deprive our congregations of the chance to sit in wonder at the mystery of God’s grace on a more regular basis. Anyways, all that to say, I was thrilled to hear Ross say during the service that we will now be partaking of the Lord’s Supper together monthly.

Instead of having the ushers dismiss each row to go forward to receive the meal, the invitation was given to come as you feel led. In theory, and theologically, I appreciate this, however in practice...well….it kind of causes a bit of a traffic jam as everyone seems to take that to mean “get up all at once and move forward.” But hey, it’s LA, I may not like traffic jams of any kind, but I am learning to adapt. As I was standing in the center aisle, not really moving, just looking around and hearing the words being spoken to each person “this is the body of Christ, broken for you. This is the blood of Christ, shed for you” I realized in a powerful way that I was standing in the midst of the body of Christ. This is My body. Yes, Jesus was holding the bread when he said these words, but I believe he was also looking around at those seated around Him. This is my body. The young couple, expecting their first child, her hands protectively wrapped around the slight bulge in her stomach, his hand resting on her shoulder. The elderly woman limping down the aisle, cane in hand, leaning on the arm of an usher for support. The teenagers, coming together from their seats in the balcony, toes painted, hair styled, giggles sometimes too loud as they make their way down the aisle with hands open to receive the piece of bread. The middle aged son pushing his elderly mother down the aisle in the wheel chair. This is my body. The individual who insisted on creating drama and dissention at the last congregational meeting coming forward next to the single mother, baby in her arms. The beautiful, tragic, brokenness of humanity converged upon the center aisle of the church at the same time and slowly made their way forward to receive, with outstretched hands, a tiny morsel of nourishment. Yet somehow, in spite of the fact that one receives only a mouthful of bread, that seems to be enough. The congregation returns to their seats by the outside aisles, the teenagers still giggling, the son still wheeling his mother in her chair, the single mother still juggling her infant, and their problems have not magically disappeared. Yet we return to our seats having been fed, through the hearing of the Word and the enacting of the Word at the table, and somehow, that food is nourishment enough to carry us back into our lives of fragmentation and joy and brokenness and anticipation. And you can almost hear Jesus whisper… “This is my body. My beautiful, treasured possession, My gift to this world, the ones I will continue drawing to myself in order that they might be sent out, fed and nourished, to go love the world in the way I love this world. You are part of my body. I have fed you, I will continue to sustain you. Now go, go and love those I have placed in your life, for they are part of my body as well.”

Because Earth Day should be celebrated! (And other beginning of the quarter updates)

I just realized we are already beginning week 4 of the quarter, which is slightly unfortunate since I have been out of town so much and not doing homework like I should have been these past few weeks, but they have been such wonderful weeks I can't really say I am feeling all that guilty! (And don't worry, Mom and Dad, I AM getting caught up!) There are several random things that have happened in the last couple weeks I found amusing/post-able, so here ya go...

**Last night Chuck and I walked to Coldstone to grab some ice cream after studying for 6 hours straight. The girl behind the counter asked us where we were from, and when we said we lived here, she looked surprised saying "wow, you totally don't look like you are from here, you look so much more relaxed than people who are from LA!" Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment :)

**I've been learning about and looking into the Presbymergent movement, an emerging church movement located within the PC(USA), basically saying that we recognize there is value in the structure of denominations--in having support, accountability, a doctrine that is clarified, a rich tradition and history, and financial support from a denomination, yet this group wants to be able to do church a little differently. Focusing on authentic lived out community, spiritual formation (reconnecting with the spiritual disciplines/practices of long ago that bring great richness and depth to our spiritual lives that we do not encounter in a 'normal' sunday worship service), and justice in our world. There are some wonderful blogs out there for those interested in more of this on going conversation that I have been enjoying reading. Probably one of the most well known from a fellow PC(USA) person is Princeton Seminary student Adam Walker Cleveland's blog

**Chuck & I celebrated 6 months of dating this past week by enjoying a picnic dinner and an evening at the Griffith Park Observatory. For those of you in the LA area, I would HIGHLY recommend this FREE evening of entertainment! It was a beautiful night with a full moon and amazing views of the entire valley. The only thing we'd recommend doing differently is getting up there before sunset so you can see LA in the light and watch the sun go down from there. Here was the beautiful full moon that night:

He tells me his favorite posts on my blog are ones where I tell people how great I think he is :) So I'll just say it has been an amazing 6 months and I really do have the world's greatest boyfriend who I am pretty crazy about :)

**Becca and her roommates hosted an "Earth Day" party on Saturday night, complete with reusable cups/plates, great wine (strawberries floating in white wine--a wonderful invention!), and a party game that proved highly entertaining.

Becca and her roommate, Becky

Pocket, Tera and Dave took my camera when I was not paying attention and gave me several photos to choose from when looking for ones to post!

**I love both of my classes this quarter--Reformed Worship & Perspectives on Christ and Culture. Reformed Worship is a Presby class designed to help us look at questions such as "what is worship? Who should participate? What elements of a service should be present? Where do the sacraments fit? What does scripture say about worship? How do you write a wedding or a funeral service (both of which are services of worship). My Christ & Culture class is a philosophy class looking at the various ways throughout history people have thought Christians (Christ) should interact with popular/secular culture. It's taught by Dr. Richard Mouw, Fuller's wonderful president, and has been fascinating; I have loved looking at a theology of creation and of how as Christians we can be involved in helping Christ as He transforms culture and this world that He declared to be good. I just finished reading a wonderful book called When the Kings Come Marching In: Isaiah 60 and the New Jerusalem, by Dr. Mouw which is a short but very profound book I would highly recommend to anyone interested in issues of secular culture and how that intersects with the Church.

And it was back to Texas for us...

This past weekend Sophie and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel back to Houston to help staff another renewal weekend with the Presbyterian churches there. We made some amazing new friends, got to see God move in powerful ways, and were once again reminded that we are loved for who we are, not for what we do (which is always an important reminder when your whole life is spent in an academic setting with people constantly grading you...) We are both SO thankful for the community there and for the ways God has used them to love, encourage, and bring us joy. Here are some photos of our recent adventures and our new friends.

One of my responsibilities was to ensure we collected enough home baked fudge and cookies from people--so here I am our first day in Houston helping collect baked goods from folks.

We have a storage facility to store all the items needed to put on a weekend, and so on the day the staff heads to camp folks have to load the storage unit onto a uhaul trailer. Sophie and I were given the job of standing at the gate with the code to let people in. We got a little bored because no one showed up for awhile. So we played with the self timer on her camera. Welcome to Palacios, Texas! A beautiful gulf coast sunrisetwo of our staff members hard at work on various projects before the participants show upPutting together a tray of cookies at about 7 AMI was also given the job of making coffee for all the staff and participants...and after a few disasterous pots I got it figured out :) My spiritual advisor and I -- she gave me lots of moral support as I fought with the multiple coffee pots I was trying to keep going!us staff members receiving our marching orders from Courtney, our wonderful moderator!one of my very favorite pastors of all time, Anne Beall, was on staff this weekend. I had the chance to meet Anne and her husband Jim while I was a participant two years ago and since then she has held a very special spot in my heart and has set an amazing example of a woman who has an unbelievable gift of preaching and communicating.our three spiritual advisors--Hawley Wolfe, Anne, and Sophie--otherwise known as Grandma, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Big Bad Wolf!
LaNoe and I--LaNoe was the head table cha and I was her co-head...luckily she knew exactly what she was doing because I didn't have a clue! But she was wonderful and patient teacher! She and her husband, Robert, also put up with Sophie and I and housed us, fed us, and drove us to both training and to camp--they have a very special spot in our hearts!
me with little red riding hoodour musicians goofing off one evening
we got to see our friend Sam! Sophie bought me a new butterfly t-shirt as a present and gave it to me Sat. morning, and then asked me to help her serve communion Sat. morning, so we looked like twins up there...which is kind of a Cursillo tradition, we usually end up in the same butterfly t-shirt at least once during each weekend!my new friend, Tim, and I--we got to serve as table chas together all weekend
Sophie and I
my wonderful team having fun
I think they are with the band....
Sophie had no idea what Steve was doing until she ended up upside down! I think they were supposed to be helping with clean up on Sunday--they look like they are working hard... Sophie got to wear her robe for the first time! She looked so official!I was so proud of her--she's a real pastor! (Ok she'll be really official on Aug. 17th when she is actually ordained!)

Presby Retreat 2008

This past weekend thirty of us Presbyterian students headed up the mountains, out of LA, to the beautiful town of Big Bear for a relaxing time of fellowship, music, games, food, out door walks, naps, and teaching on the topic of discernment by Dave Pierson, a presbyterian pastor from San Diego. Having stayed here for spring break, I was desperate to get out of the city, so it was wonderful to be away! Here are the photos from the last couple days. Sophie & I leave tomorrow morning for Houston to serve on the staff of Houston Presbyterian Cursillo #50 this coming weekend (Thurs-Sunday) and will be back in LA Monday, so stay tuned next week for stories/photos from Cursillo :o)

Attempting to wake up Saturday morning--me, Chuck, Dave and TeraChuck and IStacey, Tammy & Jessica enjoying the beautiful day!Dave and Tera found the playground equipment by the lakeSo did Pocket!Apparently Pocket was cold, so Chuck decided to turn her into a "hot pocket"Saturday afternoon Tera, Dave, Chuck, Karl and I played Ticket to Ride because it's just an amazing game :) Dave won but I had the best game I've ever had so I was pretty excited!free time = nap time for seminary students!Stacey, Laura, Pocket and DaveMy favorite part of the retreat is always the jam session that inevitably happens on Saturday afternoon. We have SO many who are so talented with music and play for hours for anyone who wants to listen or join in! Here is Laura...and the group has grown! we have now moved into old VBS songs...here are the hand motions for "deep and wide"the beautiful big bear lakeone group went into town for a bit of free timeMegan and Jenn enjoying the huge caramel applesmmmm...Alan looks happy!We had 4 Daves on the weekend--here is Dave to the 4thTera and JennTamara needed to work but wanted to be outside, so she set up her own little camp.Jenn and ChristinaDave putting away dishes. Or at least that was what he was supposed to be doing!Chuck wanted a nap. I wanted to eat a cookie. Ryan and Alethia, our expert brownie makers baked for us both nightsSarah, Jenn and AlethiaDave Pierson, our speaker, was Ryan's and Jean's youth pastor from Alaska while they were growing up. Dave now serves a congregation in San Diego and was gracious enough to give up his weekend to come share with us. He finally got to meet Ryan's wife, Alethia also!my random attempt at an artistic/creative shotthe lunch stuff went out on Sunday and it was a feeding frenzy! Saturday night we played Trivial Pursuit pop-culture edition--our team somehow became known as "Team Dave" because Dave K was the only one who knew the answers to anything for awhile...except my random contribution (wild guess that happened to be right...) that Deepak Chopra used to specialize in endocrinology before becoming a gu-ru of natural medicine. My team was going to guess brain surgery or something and I convinced them it had to be something more related to the glands and lymph nodes if he transitioned to natural healing. So I convinced them to go with endocrinology and it happened to be right :) Gotta love having two nurses for parents! However, we lost to Team Lava in a sudden death round because their final question was "what kind of fish was Nemo?" Seriously. We get to guess endocrinology and they get to answer questions about Nemo...

"Life is Good" moments

One of the things I have tried hard to do this quarter is to focus on cultivating a spirit of gratitude and celebration, even when things aren't always going perfectly--and believe me this is often easier said than done! But I just realized how often so much of what we say in normal conversation are actually complaints. "I'm tired, I didn't get enough sleep, it's too hot, it's too cold, I don't have enough time, I didn't get the grade I wanted on a paper..." One of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning, has a lot to say about gratitude, and he has shown me that we only become grateful people when we start practicing being thankful for the little things in life. He writes in his book Ruthless Trust "the foremost quality of a trusting disciple is gratefulness." Then he goes on...

"The grateful heart cries out in the morning 'thank you Lord for the gift of a new day!' and it continues to express its gratitude as the blessings unfold. 'Thank you for the gift of loving and being loved, for the beauty of the animals on the farm and in the forest, for the sound of a waterfall, for the darting beauty of the trout in the brook. Thank you for the deer leaping across the meadow, for fire and water and the magic of Monet, for the rainbow after a summer storm, for a woman with windblown hair striding down the hillside, and for a steaming hot cup of coffee. Thank you for the smile on the face of a child licking an ice cream cone, for the wagging tail of a dog and the touch of his cold nose against my face. Thank you that I was born in that house on East 48th St in Brooklyn and not in the house next door, for had my birthplace been different, I might never have met Jesus and the many beautiful people I know through him. Thank you for the four seasons, for each glorious day of sunshine, and most of all for the gift of the Unsetting Sun, Jesus Christ, who by his death and resurrection has set us on the road to glory."

I used to be really good at keeping a list each week of the things I was thankful for--big and little--and somehow these last few years I stopped doing that. So I decided to reinstate that habit, which has been SO fun! (I would highly recommend it, it is especially fun to go back and re-read the things you are thankful for a few months later!) Here are a few of the things I have been especially thankful for this quarter:

• all the wonderful cards, emails, visits, phone calls and prayers from people as I recovered from mono this winter.
• the incredibly theologically profound music of JJ Heller
• the chance to preach a few more times (in class, not in a church)
• time I got to spend in Houston last weekend with Sophie and other HPC friends
• my wonderful boyfriend who manages to make me smile a lot :)
• the chance to experience worshipping with several different congregations this winter--Mosaic, Bel Air Pres, First Pres Burbank, Eagle Rock Pres, Pines Pres and Memorial Drive Pres in Houston.
• Wireless internet (especially as I was stuck on my couch for a couple weeks!)
• my parents coming to visit
• starting therapy
• and most of all as I re-read my journal from this winter, I realize I am incredibly thankful that we have a God who has BIG hands and can handle all the emotions and frustrations and confusion and joy and excitement we want to throw at Him!

Several various things happened this quarter that never got their own post on my blog, so in an effort to continue thinking about all the random moments that make life good I thought I'd include them here:

In January Pocket had a dinner party to welcome everyone back from Christmas break--Ryan had the camera that evening and took some TERRIBLE pictures of all of us--this is one of the ones that is the least horrific :)

And this was taken that night too--we all absolutely love it, the expressions are just classic!

Also in January, Sophie packed up her apartment and moved in with her aunt and uncle...and the Presby moving company was on hand to help of course! In February we enjoyed a girls night out for happy hour at Bodega, my favorite wine bar around here. So here are Becca, Megan, Laura, me, Sophie, Christina, and Jenn

Also in February, my aunt, uncle and cousins got a new puppy--Eliott (as in TS Eliott, the poet) and I loved this picture of my cousin Mikaela playing with him.

Last Wednesday Chuck's friend Brian (ok he's become my friend too!) had a birthday, so we all did a late night trip to Yard House to celebrate since Brian had to work until 10:30. There was a HUGE crowd of people there to celebrate him, this was just our table.

And those are all the random photos I have to share now...all in all, life is good...stay tuned for more as we head into spring break!

I don't think that's ever happened before...

Some of you may have heard rumor that for Christmas I asked for a coffee grinder and received a Keurig one-cup coffee maker instead. My thought behind asking for the grinder was to start trying to cut down on the number of visits I pay to coffee shops each week to help out the bank account. I wasn't so sure it was going to work, and I really wasn't so sure about this whole new Keurig system--if it was going to work for me or not. I'm kind of a coffee snob--I just never got good at drinking drip coffee, I usually want steamed milk on top or various flavorings. Well apparently the new coffee maker is working. I haven't spent money at Starbucks in quite awhile (I have spent my Christmas gift cards, but that doesn't really impact the bank account so I don't think that counts!). I knew something had changed this morning. My wonderful boyfriend, who very very rarely frequents coffee shops just called. He's picking me up soon for church, but he said he was going to stop by Starbucks and did I want anything? For the first time in probably my entire life I actually said "thanks but I am just finishing the coffee I made this morning, so I think I'm good." Yeah, I dont think Sarah has ever uttered those words out loud before, or turned down free Starbucks. Apparently I wasn't kidding earlier this winter when I said I thought my new coffee maker was one of the greatest inventions ever!