Missing Home...

Hey all...
Its going great here in Santa Cruz..which is no longer that sunny for those of you who were jealous before. We had one huge downpour all weekend, which brought up some very fond memories from Oregon. Its cleared up some now..but there are no beach trips on the horizon as of late.

We had an 80's party on Halloween night, and it was insane! We had a huge dance party, and then a cupcake decorating contest...unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too well so I left after the first..oh..half hour or so..but it was really fun dressing up. I had a huge sweater that looked like someone ate purple and black yarn, and then threw it up. And I wore more make up than I ever want to again. One of our boys, Jason, shaved off about two months worth of facial hair, leaving his mustache..and its still there. We all laughed pretty hard at that..Jason is our "class clown" :)

Another update on our homeless ministries...Wednesday night was my last night out on the streets..I will be switching with the other half of our group, who has been in the bible study at the mission this whole time. So it was one of my last chances to really open up conversations with the people I have built up relationships with. My friend Shannon and I prayed before hand for about thirty minutes and then set out. Of course, God decided to do things his way, rather than the way we were expecting. Irish (the boy I was telling you about in the last post) was one person we prayed for specifically, and Satan tried to combat our prayers by attacking him..sadly enough he fell into temptation right before we talked to him. He came over and gave me a huge hug, announced proudly "I'm trippin' on LSD right now! Haha!" and then he walked away because the "fuzz" (or police) were coming up the street. It was heart breaking seeing him filling his life with drugs rather than with the God he so obviously needs. Please continue to keep him in your prayers and that somehow, on a Saturday night when we are out on the street, he can be reached and a seed can be planted.

But God answered my prayers in a different way: there is a younger guy who has come every week to the dinner served on Saturdays at Elm Street Mission, and we always said hi but conversation never went deeper, and God has been laying him on my heart for the past two weeks. He was walking by on Wednesday night and just started up a conversation with me, which opened up so many doors to discussing God and the role he longs to play in each of our lives. It was awesome, but the devil is really adament about Nathan (that's the guys name) not hearing anything related to God. People kept coming up and interrupting us..until finally I had to go. Nathan didn't come to this Saturday's dinner...so please pray that he will be there this week. He has alot of heart for those people who can't fend for themselves and has such potential to serve God, but he doesn't realize yet that thats what he needs to do to feel fulfilled. Like many others out on the streets, he smokes weed as much as possible, and drinks insane amounts of alcohol. But he expressed a desire to be free from his addictions. He also carries around the Bible with him, and acknowledges that it has good messages..but he doesn't know if God is real or not. Its so obvious that God is calling him, so please pray specifically for Nathan that he will respond to the call!

The Lord has blessed me so much through this experience..and though it is really hard being away from my family, I know that this is where God has put me. Only three more weeks until I get home though! Which is awesome!!! I can't wait to see you all!