What if the "church" isn't a building that people go to on Sunday mornings where they sing songs and then someone talks for a 30-minutes or so. What if the "church" is a middle-class American who moves into the poorest part of his city, with his wife and a few other friends, spread out in a couple houses and they invested their lives into their neighbors, befriended them. It's happening.

There's a person in my houe right now and her name is Mallory and she is walking around and now she is putting unlit sparklers in Jolly's face saying, "making you frustrated!!" and now Jolly is talking "darn" says Mallory.



This is the beginning of the book I'm writing - what do you think? Just kidding.

I've been updating a lot lately. Anyway, London won Host City for the 2012 Olympics - yay! When I was there EVERYWHERE you looked was an ad for you to "back the bid" - so as soon as I got home, I got online and backed the bid. Haha London is amazing....... speaking of London-

Ellie you need to update
Sarah we need to put the past behind us... the past couple reunions have been good
Mel you can't leave Anderson
Megs you have to come back to Anderson

**Edit - I just found out about the bombings. That's sad. I'm glad Ellie's not there anymore other wise I would have been worried.**

Anyway -- last night I talked to Stacy H on the phone - yay for my roomie! And last night Stacy L and I had a late night girl talk again - this time inside, on the couch. It was good. Yay for my... housie?

Thoughts lately - I recently watched Bruce Almighty (for the 4th time this summer, each time with different people) and you know how he gets angry because he feels like God is giving all these good things to everyone but him? I'm kinda feeling that lately. I'm not at all angry with God about it, because I know that His timing is perfect, but it's hard watching everyone else. Two main parts - relationships, and visions. (This is what Stacy L and I talked about last night)

Relationships - Stacy has a little crush on someone... Leslie does too (not the same guy)... Meagan has a little somethin' somethin' goin' on with a guy... Jen Brooks visited and while she was here she went on a date... Francis (neighbor) went on a couple dates this weekend... two girl interns have official boyfriends... a guy intern has a "we're talking" girl... two guy interns have official girlfriends... two guys I know are talking about proposing... a third just did...

Basically Stacy and I are just kinda like "My turn!" (we've both never had a relationship)... moving on...

Vision - So many people are getting these great visions of either a job, side job, ministry, etc. But not Stacy and I... no idea what I want to do after graduation. I know I don't need to start anything right away, but if I did, I only have 10 months to figure it out. Meagan makes amazing journals and is going to start selling them. Hunt is going to do an internship at MAC and then be a pastor. Jonah and Sara have this amazing idea of "The Front Porch" (go to Jonah's xanga and read a few entries back... June 30 I think - I LOVE this one!!!). Erin Sprunger has amazing ideas for Africa, and several other people want to go in on it with her. MY TURN GOD!!

Okay, yes, it's time for another update. I have to tell you about my whitetrash moment...

Tonight I sat on the bed on the front porch eating popcorn and watching across the street at Abbot Apts (where Jen Lo Sasso used to live, for those who know her) where there were two cop cars w/ their lights on and the cops went insdie the building, and I was really hoping for an arrest. There was none.

Today's class was good - but I don't feel like summarizing it. Tonight dinner was interesting. Heather, Meagan and I were the only girls and there were about 15 guys... it became too much testosterone so after dinner I snuck away upstairs... where I'm going again in a second, I just felt like updating this when I came down to get my book. Most of the people are gone, I'm the only girl here now and Kevin is on his computer, and there's 5 or 6 guys smoking on the front porch. I MISS MY HOUSEMATES!

Meagan - not sure where she ran off to
Heather - " "
Stacy - work
Melissa - Kentucky
Audrey - Florida
Leslie - Texas

I realized that last night was the first time since my freshman year of High School (the summer before my freshman year) that I did not spend the 4th of July with either Ryan, Heather, Teri, or Ellie.

Anderson fireworks basically suck, especially compared to St. Joe. BUT... I still had a lot of fun. We went to the church and sat on the roof, and it was good because it's just west of downtown, kind of central, so we could see fireworks from about seven different locations. And Jeremiah was drunk... that was interesting. Drunk people on roofs is kind of scary.

Okay so Friday night went a little different than planned (what's new there?) Instead of sardines we ended up spending $40 on Fireworks and setting them off in the church parking lot. Then came home and Stacy and I sat on the bed outside until 1:30 or 2 having girl talk... it was fun, and beautiful night.

Saturday was LONG! We all headed over to the church at 11 for our work day. I helped scrubbed clean all the walls in what is officially our church office and moved the desk in. Then I helped trim the hedges so you can see when you pull out of the parking lot. I don't remember what else I did... a few things here and there, but everything that was accomplished: cleaning out all the upstairs rooms (they had junk in them and LOTS of dust) and vaccumed, shampooed the carpet in the future nursery, washed walls and vaccumed and set up the office, started sanding the floor in the soon to be coffee lounge, swept the gym, I think there were other things too. And then we set up for the cookout we had for the neighborhood from 5-7... quite a few people came, maybe 35, mostly kids but some parents too. They're all very nice and some of the ladies are really funny.

Then Leslie and I visted Kurt at Starbucks and then stalked some people. Then we went back to the church and put away the stuff from the cookout... got home around 9:15, showered, and then Stacy and I watched Uptown Girls in the basement (where our beds are).

Church was good this morning, followed by a great dinner at Roadhouse.