Grace and Solutions

So its been a very long time since I have done this whole blog thing...but I felt like tonight was a good night for some blogging.

Tonight I attended a forum on campus....its a lecture series that has been going on at my school for a couple years and one my favorite Psychology professors was presenting at the series and her topic tonight was: Spirituality and the Therapeutic Relationship....sounds thrilling huh?

Actually it was.  What she did was essentially combine my 2 majors..Psychology and Theology....into a 1 hour talk.  

As I have been going through my senior year I have been thinking more and more seriously about what the heck I am going to do with my life now that I am graduating from college.  It is exciting and I feel like I am ready to graduate but at the same time I have to begin to make decisions about what is next in my life.  I have been thinking more and more about therapy...even the possibility of becoming Dr. Michelle (which sounds weird)....but the idea of becoming a therapist is becoming more and more appealing to me.

Yet, I have been facing this question of what would therapy look like for me?  Do I want to become a Christian counselor?  Do I want to be a counselor in the secular world?  Do I feel like God is even calling me to be a counselor?

My professor..Dr. Hoffman..was talking about the therapeutic relationship tonight and she really made me think....she said that the research shows that the most important thing in a therapy session is not the type of therapy used...whether the therapist uses the cognitive therapy approach or the humanistic or the behaviorist...no one type of therapy has been proven to be most effective.  But the universal effective measure within a therapy session is the therapeutic relationship.  If there is a good relationship between the client and the therapist, then therapy proves to be most effective.  She then went on to say that she believes that it is through the therapeutic relationship that the therapist becomes an instrument of grace.  Its not the type of therapy..."Christian" or secular...humanistic or behaviorist...but the important thing is the therapuetic relationship....and I am beginning to really understand that it is through this therapeutic relationship I as a Christian and as a therapist am able to become one that can administer God's grace to his people.  She said that as a therapist, she does not sit and listen to people's problems all day long.....she is a solution-maker.  Her job is not just listening to problems but being apart of solutions.  That is what is invigorating about therapy...day after day, she is apart of solutions.

So maybe therapy will someday be my call:

I will be an instrument of God's grace through therapeutic relationships and I will not just be listening to people's problems all day but apart of solutions all day long.

May God guide me to where He wants me to go.

God of Justice

I watched this video and listened to this song for the first time a couple of week ago on Jason's blog...Jason is one of David's really good friends...when i watched the video i immediately feel in love with this song. So now im stealing it from Jason...(hope you dont mind)...because i want others to see it too. I feel like this video and the words of this song really are the message that i have been working towards all summer...we serve a God of Justice..and what He requires us to do is go out and act justly...to love mercy...to touch the broken...to feed the hungry...to truely love His people. The video is powerful also because of the pictures it portrays...this is alot of what i see here in LA. There are homeless people all around that so many just choose to walk by and not even acknowledge...but we must go to these people and love them right where they are at. My prayer is always that God will fill me up so that i can be sent out by Him to be an instrument of his justice in this world. I hope you all enjoy the video...thanks Jason for sharing it with me :)

The Poverty We Don't Always See

My group went to a church a church in Watts this past week to help with food distribution at the church. When we got there a church service was going on and then after the service concluded we were there to help set up tables full of food and then hand out the food to the people that came through the line. There were over 100 people that came through the line most of which were families with multiple children. As they passed through the line we were only allowed to give them one item of food per table. This equated to each person getting on bag of salad...one tomatoes...one apple...a random frozen food item (but not enough of those for everyone)...a whole frozen chicken...2 cans of sweet potatoes...2 bag of crushed walnuts..and 4 bags of dry milk...thats it. Nothing more. It was a sad sad reality to be apart of. These families came in needed food to support their family...and we saw the large families entering into the gate to get food but all we were able to do is give them a small random selection of food that they couldn't even make one meal out of for their whole family.
This is the kind of poverty that i think we often forget about....the kind that we look past because it isn't so blatantly visible...its not looking us in the face as we walk down the streets everyday. This isn't the visible poverty of a homeless person sitting on the streets with no food. This isn't the poverty of family that cant afford the cost of living anymore and is in a shelter on Skid Row getting meals from the shelter. This isn't the poverty of mental illness and drug addiction. This is the poverty of lower class families struggling everyday to make ends meet. The help that they are getting is really doing little to give them any sustainable food. The help that they are getting is doing little to move them up the economic ladder to get out of the trap that they are in...they are stuck...
This is the kind of poverty that i think can be found anywhere. There are people everywhere in our own backyards..down our own streets...that are struggling everyday to make ends meet. That are barely surviving and could use more help. These are the people that with just a little bit of help can be back up on their feet.
Im not at all saying that what Lighthouse is doing is not good enough. The church that we helped at is doing a wonderful thing for the people in this community. The people are in need of this food...they just need more. What Lighthouse is doing is great..they could just use more resources so that they can help more people and help the ones that are already coming in a better way.
It makes me think about the places that are helping people like this across the country. I think what they need is a little more awareness and they can help people better and help more people.
I pray that God continues to open up my eyes to the people that need His help wherever I am..not just here in LA..but as i go home too...how can i continue to love and serve at home? There might not be extreme visible poverty in Sioux Falls like there is here in LA..but there are people struggling to make ends meets everyday...how can i love and serve those people?

Idaho

This is a video from one of my groups this summer that i hosted.  Courtney and I hosted this group together.  They were from Meridian, Idaho and were a wonderful group.  One of my favorite groups from the summer  :)  This may give you more of an idea of what I'm doing with my groups and get to hear about what this week can do for some students.  Enjoy!

Door of Hope

I fell in love with a new ministry sight today...Door of Hope.  It is a transitional home for women and children that are victims of domestic violence.  One of the hosts from last summer works there now so we have started working with this ministry more and today was my first day there.  For the most part my group just sorted through donations but the real joy was helping a woman and her son move into their new home.  One of the leaders in my group and I had to go and pick up this woman and her son on a street corner.  We were given an address and direction how to get there and when we arrived there was a woman and her son standing on this street corner with all of their belongings.  They had just left their house because the woman was being abused by her husband and so they were coming to Door of Hope for a new start...and a safe place to live.  This woman was so excited with everything that she saw in her house.  She loved the TV, the couch, the beds, and even though everything wasn't all set up yet and they didn't have everything they needed she was still so happy with all that she had for herself and for her son.  Her son was very excited to jump off the beds and just run all over his new home.  It was a joy for me to get to be the one to pick these people up on the street corner and welcome them into their new home...help them pick out pillows and sheets...and help them to arrange their apartment.  In the midst of this tough transitions for this woman she was overjoyed by everything that was provided for her.  It was my joy to be a blessing to this woman today as she was moving in and starting fresh...my prayer is that God will continue to provide for Elizabeth and Nicholas and that Door of Hope can guide them into a blessed future.

Pick Up Truck of Pillows

Today was another great day...absolutely wonderful!!  My group got up this morning and we went to work at the Los Angeles Mission in downtown.  This is a mission that is right on Skid Row.  Today we were sorting through donations at the LA Mission and we had box after box of extremely nice throw pillows and designer fabrics and curtains and sheets...like full sets of sheets..with the fitted sheet and top sheet and two pillows cases...and blankets.  All that we were keeping for the LA Mission was the blankets.  We were supposed to throw all the other stuff away....yeah throw it away.  And as my group was going through all the donations..we just could not throw all this really nice fabrics and pillows and sheets away knowing there were so many people that would love these things.  So we decided to pray about what we could do with all of this stuff...and after we got done praying..i said.."hey guys, we are on Skid Row...why don't we just pass it all out."  So we loaded all the pillows into the back of our pick up truck.  The kids were shoving pillows where ever they could fit and the truck was FULL of pillows.  Then we separated all the sheets out so that we had made all the nice sets and filled a huge box and put it in the back of the suburban and then filled another box of curtains and nice fabrics and put that in the suburban.  So we all loaded into the cars and drove down San Julian...a street heavily populated with homeless people.  We pulled over on the side of the road and park and got out.  We were in front of a small park...the park has large iron fences surrounding it and people sitting inside the fence...filling the park...people outside on the streets...filling the sidewalk.  We opened up the back of the people and people flooded to our car.  The kids were handing out pillows left and right and people were so excited to have a nice new pillow.  People were yelling to us from inside the park fence and so i started throwing pillows over the tall fences to the people.  They were so grateful for the pillows.  Seriously in no less than five minutes our truck full of pillows was all gone.  We went from almost throwing these pillows away and not using them at all...to handing out a truck full of pillows to many people.  God is so Good!

So after that we moved on to our afternoon kids site and took out our boxes of sheets and fabric and set them out in front of the Salvation Army Red Shield.  The Salvation Army Red Shield is a community center and after school type program for kids and families.  We thought the women dropping off their kids might like these new sheets and nice fabrics.  If it has been hard to make ends meet in there family a blessing of beautiful bedding would be wonderful...and we were very right.  God had directed our thinking well and these women could not be more happy to get to pick out new bedding for their housing and for the kids and pick out beautiful fabric that they could make curtains out of..or table cloths..or couch covers...the ideas were flowing.  Within 15 minutes in front of Red Shield our two over sized boxes were depleted and many people's spirits filled.

I learned a great lesson today about being obedient to God's Spirit.  I know that God had a plan for all those fabrics and blankets and pillows all along but he just needed people to listen and obey.  I was so proud of my group for taking time to ask God what was His plan here and not just fulfill a task of seperated out blankets and thats all.  

What a joy to bless so many people today with needed gifts!!

Wisdom

Today I was blessed by two wonderful women at The Vernon Convalescent Home.  They both live at this retirement home and have for several years.  They are very different women..but they both hold a special place in my heart.

Claudeen is the first woman i met when i came in Vernon Convalescent Home 3 weeks ago (the bottom picture).  She was a firey little lady from the first moment i met her.  She loves me and hates me all at the same time...but i love her always :)  We play Bingo together and i always hide the good prizes just for her so that when she does win she gets the good stuff...oops i dont think im supposed to play favorites like that but i do...i hope Jesus still loves me for that..hehe.  Anyways we play Bingo and sometimes she says she wants me to be her partner and help her and sit by her and talk to her and then the next moment she is literally hitting me in the face with her Bingo card telling me to go away and shut up.  In the picture i caught her in a moment that she was loving me and she smiled with me.  I love just sitting and talking with her even though she gets a little firey at times.  She tells me to come back everyday to see her and i tell her i will as much as i can.  When i left today she said "i will really miss you...you're my favorite."  She is wonderful!

The second woman i met just today is Mother Barry (the top picture...Mother Barry and her friend Joyce that visits her every day).  She is an AMAZING woman!  She is 108 years old...yes that is not a misprint there...she is 108!  She has been a Christian almost her whole life and she is devoted to the Lord now.  She is wise wise wise wise wise...full of wisdom from the Lord and she was delighted to share her wisdom with me.  We talked about Scripture and i told her what i was doing in LA and she encouraged me more than she even knows.  I only got to talk to her for a short time because we had to leave but the short time was enough to see Christ shining brightly through her.  She told me to come visit and talk to her anytime and she would be a woman i would love to get to just sit with everyday and learn from her years and years of life on this earth.  She was proud to tell me she got to vote for Obama...what an amazing thing for her to get to experience.  As i was leaving she asked if she could pray for me and my ministry this summer.  I was glad to have her pray for me.  Her words were so powerful..i shed a tear as she prayed.  If only i could sit with her and gain wisdom more and more...maybe i will get that opportunity another time this summer...but for today that was enough.

The Lord is Good!!