real change. seattle.

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog!  I think it's because I've gotten into a pretty good routine and so things seem normal to me now.  There's not as much to take pictures of and not as much to write funny stories about.  Life is sometimes a little boring and not so much something to write about.  But the cumulation of things is something to write about, I suppose.  And my cumulation of time, the month of July, has turned out very pleasantly.  God has provided appointment after appointment for me.  It's been both challenging and full of gentle teaching from the Lord.  Sometimes He teaches us things with the most comforting gentle voice I've ever heard.  My dad (my earthly dad) has that voice too.  He wants me to understand and to practice the things I know in everyday life.  

One area both Daddy God and Dad have been teaching me is in my finances.  I'm not known as a particularly disciplined person with great financial skills and wisdom.  It's something that is so burdensome to me.  I can remember being at the end of this last semester and apologizing to God for not being responsible in that area and for not honoring Him with my stewardship of His resources.  I prayed for financial peace, knowing that it would lead to some spiritual peace as well.  Well, I got home and my dad said that he had just bought this new book/video series by this guy named Dave Ramsey.  The set is called "Financial Peace."  Wow!  Exactly what I had asked for.  I'm almost half way done with the series and I already have a budget all planned out and I'm learning all about how to live responsibly in the future too!  It's been really cool.  I highly recommend anything that Dave Ramsey has written for financial planning and budget stuff.  I am also learning so much about giving from my homeless friends in Seattle.  One woman, Marion, who is homeless and lives in the city gives some of her meager monthly income to a sponsor child in Guatemala!  How can someone who has so little afford to give so much?

I met Marion at the Real Change office on 2nd in Seattle.  Real Change is an organization I have been working with for the last few weeks in order to get an in with some homeless informants.  They have a really great program.  Once a week they publish a news paper, called a 'street paper' that has articles having to do with social justice issues in the Seattle area including housing and homeless issues.  They then sell the papers for $.35 to 250-300 homeless vendors who sell them for $1 all around the city throughout the week.  It's a really great employment program for a lot of the vendors.  Some sell up to 1500 papers a month!  They are also a political advocacy group who advocate for the homeless in Seattle.  I randomly emailed them earlier in my research to see if I could hang out and volunteer or get some interviews with their staff members.  It's been really great to spend time with their vendors and to get an idea of what is going on to help the homeless in the city.  I feel like Real Change is really changing the situations of the homeless in the city.  It's been really fun to be a part of what they are doing and to talk with people about how their lives are changing because of it.  

Although Real Change is not a Christian organization, I have had the opportunity to pray for several of the vendors during their morning coffee breaks.  It has been so great to be a part of what God is doing among the homeless in the city.  They all seem to want their voices heard and I know that God hears them.  One man today at a meeting found out that he could make a long-distance call to check in with some legal issues he had in Portland.  He was SO grateful for that!  He looked at the girl who had given him permission to use that phone and said, "That's the sort of stuff we need to get un-homeless!"  His smile was so wide and he was so blessed by the ability to use a simple phone.  I want to live a life of gratitude like that!  I don't ever want to be self-centered and forget the abundance of what I have.  I have story after story of men and women loosing their families and their lives and now they are living on the streets.  It's hard sometimes to remember that they had a mom that used to say sweet things to them and sometimes children that are counting on them.  Oh Jesus, bless them and give them freedom to live lives of abundance in You!  And grant that to us also, even in our ignorance of our material abundance.  Let us participate in the real change that only you can initiate!  Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you!