NEW STEPS IN LIFE Part one... (or some other dramatic title here)

Well, I've been in LA for a few weeks now. It is a strange feeling here for me. There are elements of comfortableness for me and then there are all the very strange things also. Due to my summers here, I know the city relatively well and am knowledgeable about the cultural elements. My living situation is one that will take some time to adjust to. I live in a house with four other young(er) people about my age and a family of four. The parents of the family run the house and have two small children. The house runs as a sort of New Monastic community that I will explain later. In sorts, the house is open most hours of the day to anyone from the community to stop by, we have dinner together as a community most nights and anyone from the community can join us, and we have community Bible study and prayer times. We try to make is a very open and welcoming place for anyone that enters. One of the difficulties that living this way brings is it is a challenge to find time and space for yourself away from others and distractions. Personal, alone space is practically unknown here.

As you know, LA is a pretty crazy place and there's always tons of traffic and people in a hurry everywhere you look. For some reason, I really love to craziness around me and the Lord has really put this place on my heart to want to serve and share His love around. I am excited and nervous all at the same time about these next few years of my life. Two years from now, I hopefully will have completed my Master's degree at Fuller Seminary and am preparing to serve to Lord in an urban setting here or across the world. In three weeks, I will be starting the next step in the process leading up to that by starting classes at Fuller. I have been looking into the classes that I have decided to take this fall and am getting a little nervous about them. Each course will require 1500-2000 pages of reading and this is in a ten week term, plus a 12-15 page research paper for each class. Whoa! Am I prepared? Not likely!

So, as all this is happening, I recognize that I need some prayer. Here's a few requests for anyone that is looking:

• Peace for me as I prepare to start school. I want to learn better to take my anxiety to the Lord as soon as it comes to me.
• Patience and love for the people I live with. I want to extend grace to those around me jsut as God did to me through Jesus.
• Compassion for the people around me that are lost in the eyes of the Lord. Just as Jesus wept for Jerusalem, I want to weep for this city and long for revival here.

Lord, thank you that you have called me into your kingdom and you have included me in your plan in this life. Thank you that you have chosen to use me to share your love in this city. Allow me to have sufficient grace and love in this place. Lord, come in power in this place.