A Cool Revelation About God I Had Tonight

I had a cool revelation of God's character tonight regarding His love of creativity. There can be no actual infinite constructs in the universe he created, so He COULD have created literally everything (every single permutation of every object and idea, coexisting in reality at once...whoa) in the beginning, and just let us spend our lives enjoying it. Every possible combination of atoms, simultaneously, in one massive universe.

However, He soooo wanted us to enjoy the ability to create that He left the majority of possible realities open to us. So instead of creating every single possible poem Himself, He let us INVENT poetry, and all it's different styles and every kind of poem possible within each style. Instead of painting every single possible painting Himself, He let us INVENT painting, and He let us paint whatever we wanted, no matter how sucky it would end up being. Instead of coding every single computer program for us in every single possible coding language, He let us INVENT coding and computers and all the possibilities that brings.

Sorry I'm Late...

Two weeks (or three, I can't even tell) went really fast. I've done so much, but I have so little time to cover it all, because I've got even more to do now. Ugh.

I don't think I have once left the building, even just to cross the street for a can of Coke, without seeing someone do drugs or someone who is on drugs. Even some the pigeons here are addicts. We call them "crack pigeons", because they are addicted to crack. They find it in the cracks (ha) of the sidewalk, and since they're so tiny, they're instantly hooked. You can tell them apart from healthy pigeons because of how skinny and mangy they are, and they fly crooked.

Anyway, sorry, that pigeon thing was a bit of a tangent. What I was trying to get at is how totally trashy the place is. However, it isn't scary like a lot of people might think it would be. It's kind of sketchy after dark, but during the day it's fine. Just about everyone in the neighborhood is super friendly, and those who aren't don't bother us too much.

In class I've learned so much. Since my last post we've gone through a week on the character and nature of God, a week of how to hear God's voice, and this past week we learned about placing our identities in Christ and not in things of this world. I intend to blog posts about at least half of our study topics. Right now I'm working on one about the character and nature of God, but I'm almost always super busy, and when I'm not busy, I try to do stuff with my friends.

Friends.

Speaking of friends, I've made so many. Like, just a ton. Beyond the DTS students and staff, there's a ton of other staff members in the different outreach ministries that we run out of the base, and I'm slowly becoming good friends with all of them. Then there's the kids at the kids club I'm helping out at. Some of the 6th grade girls have gotten it into their heads that my name is Keven (with an e, not an i. That's important for some reason). All the kids there know I play air hockey. Some of the seventh grade boys actually kicked my butt at it. I'm also starting to develop relationships with some elderly Italian folks at an Italian community center my outreach group volunteers at every other Thursday.

Actually, let me back up and describe my outreach group. The 11 different DTS students have been plugged into different city outreach programs. Mine is North Beach Connect, and as far as I know, it's the only ministry we have that doesn't operate out of the Tenderloin. There's five of us in the group, plus the two leaders, Jen and Markus (pronounced "Mar-Koos", not "Mar-cuss". He's German. Some people call him "Koos-Koos, and he loves it.).

The North Beach neighborhood, or Little Italy, is extremely wealthy, but full of lonely people. There's only one active church for the neighborhood of 20,000 people, St. Peter and Paul's cathedral, which owns the kids club we volunteer at. The place is full of loneliness, especially among the elderly retirees, which is why we go to the Italian community center, where lots of them gather for bingo and knitting and other old people things. It's good fun.

Another big part of our North Beach ministry is prayer walks. If you've never done one, it's pretty simple. You walk around a specific part of a city and pray over particular spots, or over a certain evil that plagues an area. In North Beach, we pray over things like loneliness, complacency, and substance abuse. We pray for the safety of the kids in the area, because it's the neighborhood in SF with the most children (Fun Fact: There's 3 times more dogs in SF than children). We pray that more churches would start up in the area, and that Christians in the area would be activated into doing outreach themselves in their own neighborhood.

And now, pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.

Tonita be photo bombing at the food pantry. Crazy Brit. 

Redwoods! 

More redwoods!

Happy belated Chinese New Year. It's the year of the horse. I know that because my church is in Chinatown and the whole congregation is Chinese other than Ben and I.

Here's a view of St. Peter and Paul's cathedral from the Italian Community Center. 

 

Kids club! Ain't they just the cutest?

Trees by the ocean. 

Look familiar?

Here's the entrance to the bay. There were ships of all shapes and sizes. 

Air temp was just under 40 degrees. The water was significantly colder. I should know. Ben and I brought each brought our trunks, changed on the way down to the beach, and ran in. I can honestly say I've never been colder in my entire life. I would never do it again, but I don't regret it either. 

A few of us took a cable car across the city to the wharf for an In-and-Out burger, and took it back. I rode on the outside of it on the way there, and my hands nearly froze.

Superbowl!!! I was rooting for the Seahawks because my DTS leader Josh was, and I wanted him to bee happy. 

Sara, losing at air hockey to a fourth grader. 

Anne Marie (left) is having a hard time remember how to smile.

We took Alessandro, our speaker for the week from Italy, to North Beach with us. Here he is, looking out over the neighborhood.

 And that way lies Chinatown!

I've seen quite a few red Vespas. They're very popular.

 That tower is at the top of Telegraph Hill. In the old days, people would run up to see if any ships were sailing in with letters or telegraphs. Hence the name. 

 Just a garbage can. Nothing else. 

Okay, now for a bunch of pictures of this one little area in North Beach. This whole city is full of hidden gems like this. There's these steps going up the side of this super steep hill that count as a road, and little wooden walkways that intersect that are the side streets. It's hard to explain, so I'll just show you. Jen and Markus live at the top, and our train to their house dropped us off at the bottom. If we would have taken a bus, we never would have found it. It's so beautiful!

Okay, I'm done. Here it is.

Oh! Wait! There's parrots. Wild parrots. There was oodles and oodles of them the first time we went up. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but they're bright green and make annoying noises.

Okay, here we go...

Even though I've got hundreds of pictures, I've still seen very little of the city. So much of our time is ministry, or going TO a place where we do ministry. In the mornings we have class, in the afternoon we have ministry, and in the evening we often have intercessory prayer or something else as a group. I hope now you understand why my weekly blogging idea isn't panning out. But I will continue to try, because I miss my friends and family back home and this is a way to connect with you all.

Another way you guys could connect with me is through letters and/or care packages! One girl, Tess, has already gotten three care packages full of sweets and treats and goodies. Don't let her beat me! Send me snacks!

Seriously though, one of the biggest challenges here is to not spend money. The staff keeps encouraging us to explore the city and tells us about all the best restaurants and coffee shops. There's a corner store right across from our base with 16 oz cans of Coke for a dollar, and it's so easy to just run across and grab one. 

As I finish this post I'm in a super swanky coffee shop, and to use the WiFi I of course had to buy something. Since I HATE coffee and tea, I got a glass bottle off Coke. It was 2.25.

Please help me not spend money. Send me snacks (I crave Cheez-its) and, if possible, drinks (Juice boxes?). But even just a letter telling me that you're thinking about me would be wonderful.

I don't mean to sound whiny, I promise. I really need nothing but a support money and prayer right now, and I won't need any more money for awhile (and if you make out your check to YWAM SF and mail it to me to give to them, I can't spend it on caffeine!)

Anyway, I gotta go. I've been nursing this last sip of Coke for about half an hour, and besides, I think my friends are ready to leave.

God's Blessings,

Chris