Celebrate!

Yesterday was Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. For many places, this means it's time to take down the tree and change the decorations in the sanctuary.

We took down the Hagar's House Christmas tree, which was way more of a struggle than it had to be. Do you have any idea how many pine needles fall off a tree in three weeks? A couple residents and I un-adorned it, finding stray ornaments all over the living room (seriously, the tree did not suffer THAT much abuse. How did that many ornaments fall off?)

We managed to corrall it enough to get it out the door and onto the curb. I covered my brand-new jeans in tree sap (sorry, Granny...Barrett told me it comes out, though!) Someone swept up all the pine needles, and in most places, Epiphany leads to the holiday lull between New Year's and Easter (Valentine's Day is totally contrived and therefore does not count.)

HOWEVER! Epiphany also means it's the beginning of CARNIVAL SEASON!!! After going to see Invictus (note: that movie entirely about rugby, NOT Nelson Mandela. He's in there too, of course, but...yeah. It's about rugby,) Nichol, Angela and I went on a quest to find the year's first King Cake!

King Cake is a cinnimon-roll style cake, covered in sprinkles. Picture courtesy of Wikipedia:

It also comes with a baby! The baby is not actually cooked in the cake anymore--something about "choking hazards," and "lawsuits," I don't even know.

THE RULES as I, a non-local, understand them:

1) It is bad luck to eat a king cake before Epiphany.

2) The person who buys the king cake puts the baby in, so they remember where they put it.

3) Whoever gets the baby has to buy the next king cake.

I am so excited about this! I've had the conversation with Mom and Shirley numerous times that we need more festivals in life. I think there's a degree of joy and celebration of life that we lose without it.

Even if you're not in New Orleans, may this festival season be joyous for you! We live in a beautiful, incredible, fun world filled with beautiful and incredible people. Yes there's ugliness, there are terrible things happening, and we can't ever forget that and strive to change things. But we're doing a disservice to this amazing life God has given us if we don't take time to celebrate, and be happy.

So go eat king cake! And hope you don't get the baby. :)

Christmas and a visit home!

Since my car spent her Christmas in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, my brother came down from Birmingham to pick me up to go home! Yay! We had a wondeful ride back up, (which almost never happens...usually after the sixth hour or so we end up fighting about immigration of socialized medicine or something...) and stayed on pretty good terms through the whole trip.

Going home was fantastic. I haven't been pining or desperately missing home or anything, but it was amazing to remember how many people I love and love me. Even though I felt like I was catching back up with people non-stop, there were still a ton of people who I'd love to see but missed. I'm sorry to anyone I didn't see! But I got to see some of my best friends from college, and lots of people from church I adore.

Also I got my mountain fix! Yay! (In eighteen inches of snow...)

It was a nice and relaxing trip, and I'm ready to get the new year started!

(Oh, the mechanic I want to go to is closed until after New Year's...so that particular problem is on hold for another week. Let's hear it for enabled procrastination!)

My Weekend

SATURDAY


ME: GOOOO APPLACHIAN!

SKY: (rains)

ME: Let's go to a restaurant and watch the game!

ROOMMATES: Um...there's a game?

ME: APPALACHIAN DON'T YOU KNOW?!?!?!

(Drives to Wit's Inn, a restaurant/bar up the road.)

ME: (noms pizza, watches game.)

SKY: (deluges)

ME: Um...there's a lot of water on the porch.

JENNIE: There's a lot of water on the road, too.

CAR: (floods)

ME: OMG MY CAR!!!!!!!!!!!

ROOMMATES: Gasp!

RESTAURANT EMPLOYEES: Well that sucks. At least you can watch the game!

RESTAURANT: (floods)

APPALACHIAN FOOTBALL TEAM: (loses)

ME: (leave my car there, go to Hagar's House, watch cars flood on street.)

SUNDAY

ME: (walk to Wit's Inn to get my car.)

CAR: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!?!?!?!?

ME: I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry please work.

CAR: (cranks)

ME: YAAAY!!!

(Drives to the church, water sloshing about inside the car.)

CAR: (pulls into driveway. Dies.)

ME: Oh noes!!!

(Texts all roommates for help.)

Five of Eight Roommates who responded to an 8:30 AM text on a Sunday Morning: "Here I come to save the day!!!!"

(Push car into parking space)

ME: (Fills a shop-vac full of water from my backseat.)

CAR: Why does she hates us, precious?

Detergent, really?

Laundry detergent is expensive. And we've had kind of an annoying problem of running through it very quickly in the house. So, in a move that everyone on staff hates but is still needed, we now keep the detergent in the office and give it out when a resident is doing laundry.

Last night one of our residents, "Joy," took out the detergent half-full. I mentioned in passing that it was the super-concentrated stuff, so she didn't only needed to fill it up to the first line. (This is very difficult to say without being patronizing, but I think I did OK on that front.)

She agreed, sure, fine, and took it out to do her thing. When she brought it back in, she handed me the bottle with a quick "thanks" and headed away. Then I realized--it was empty!

I talked with the other person on staff about what to do. I mean, I didn't want to talk down to this woman or anything, because a) she's awesome, b) it's hard to care that much about detergent, and c) I hate being like, "This is rule 1, this is rule 2, etc."

Jennie (the other staff person) and I talked about it for awhile. We decided it would be a good idea to dilute the detergent, but I still wasn't sure. Should I say something to her? We had quite a little conference on the stairwell.

Anyway, when I came back upstairs, Joy held up the full bottle. "Want the real one back now?"

And everyone upstairs died laughing.

Have I mentioned I love this house?

Captive Israel

Last night, I went with some of my roommates to a Taize service nearby. If you're unfamiliar with a Taize style service, it's a service of music and silent meditation.

We walked into the chapel to find it full of candles. The first song we were in there to sing was "O Come Emmanuel."

I know this song--I've sung it all my life, I have the words memorized. But last night, repeating the first verse in a chapel filled with flickering candlelight, I heard the words in a new way.

O come o come Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel


In hearing this song, I realized that to me, Israel is now New Orleans. And New Orleans is captive--captive by crooked politicians who sit on federal money and refuse to rebuild. Captive by federal contractors who condemn and demolish sturdy buildings and replace them with shacks. Captive by a devastating housing crisis and crime rates among the highest in the nation. Captive by a levee system only repaired to pre-Katrina strength.

But like Israel, there is joy and beauty in New Orleans. It's a city of joy and love, commradire and struggle. It's a place of music and history. It's a place where people at two seperate tables who have never met strike up a conversation and share their wine.

Rejoice! Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee
O Israel


Emmanual--God with us--comes to this city each time a church opens a food pantry. Each time there is a meeting to struggle for a viable public health care option. Each time there is a festival of music. Each time a community of worshipers comes together regardless of race, class, gender identification or language, God is with us.

And through the captivity, through the struggle, through the fear, God is with us.

Emmanuel.

First Families!

Ladies and gentlemen, Hagar's House is now open to women with children! WOO-HOO!!! We now have a mom and baby, a mom and two kids, and another resident with a baby on the way, IN ADDITION to the five single women already living here! Whew! It's been chaotic, but mostly in a joyous way.

This weekend was wonderful. I went down to Bourbon Street with Nichol for the first time and feel absolutely no desire to ever, ever go there again. However, when there's an icky guy trying to talk to you, "I'm a missionary" is a FANTASTIC way to get him to clear off. :)

Children's Choir Sunday went VERY well! The power went off about a half hour before we started, (boo,) but we had candles and it was fine in the dark. After six kids last week, we had twelve show up Sunday! We were thrilled.

Two of my wonderful roommates!

Nichol, on the left, is heading up the children's choir. Jennie and I are helping--Jennie playing piano, me as an assistant. It's been a lot of fun so far.

The sanctuary at First Grace

As you can see, the sanctuary doesn't look too typical. There's tile floor, chairs instead of pews, a small alter. That's because when the church re-opened after Katrina, they decided to use the resources they had to start ministries up, rather than pretty up the sanctuary. Jennie showed me some pictures of what the church looked like two years after the storm--I'll have to see if I can load them sometime next week.

Our church!

This is FGUMC from the corner of Jeff Davis and Canal Street.

And finally...

MO'ISA!!!

We have a dog! I can't remember if I mentioned that before. His name is Mo'Isa, which is a combination of Mohammed and Jesus. (That's what they told me anyway...I'm not really sure how they create the name 'Moi'Isa' but I'm prepared to go with it.) He is tiny and adorable. And no, of course he is not sitting on my bed because that would be UNHYGENIC and WRONG, and I would NEVER ALLOW IT.

Ahem.

Hope you're doing well!

Don't judge me!

OK, so I know I haven't posted a blog in awhile. But there is so much happening I don't even know where to start!

My life is falling into normalcy as I adjust to a new home.

I've definetely adopted a "Feet-First" method here. I LOVE First Grace UMC. It's a wonderful picture of a church. In addition to Hagar's House, the church has a food pantry, Spanish classes twice a week, English classes twice a week, Bible study, a mobile health clinic that visits everyday, Faith/Health Alliance upstairs...it's the most mission-oriented church I've ever been to.

As far as space, the church has a lot, which it uses really well. Most of the upstairs is devoted to the intentional community, (of which I am part,) but there's also the Faith Health Alliance up here.

The history of First Grace is really remarkable. First UMC and Grace UMC were two seperate churches--predominantly white and black, respectively. After Katrina, the two chruches didn't have enough membership to be sustainable. So they joined churches.

For those of you unaware that things like racism still exist, this was kind of a big deal.

When the church first united two years ago, there were about 60 members. Now there are much closer to 150, and that number grows almost every week. It's really a remarkable thing to be part of!

As far as MY life here...I've been going to Spanish class (happily, Pastor Oscar is very patient with me,) Bible study, and choir. Nichol is starting up a Children's Choir next week, and I'll be assisting her with that. There are a TON of young adults that go to FGUMC, and we're going to start meeting and getting together soon.

On the secular side, I've joined the New Orleans Concert Band (YAY!) and found my first New Orleans geocache. I have a bike for the first time in ten years! (No klutz comments, please.) It's a great way to get around the city, and I'm actually enjoying the chance to ride.

(Note: riding a bicycle is NOT exactly like riding a bicycle--you can actually forget.)

There's a lot more I'd love to update on, but I'll save it for another day. Reading long blog posts test the limits of my endurance...so long for now, lovlies!