It’s the Little Things

We all have our favorite shower stall. We also all have the same toilet we want. Communal dorms are a special experience for sure but that doesn’t mean it can’t be amusing! For the record, the best sink is the one on the far left (the one on the right is a little loose), the shower that gets the best heat and water pressure is the third one from the left, and the cleanest toilet always seems to be the third one down. The only thing about that toilet is that the toilet paper holder fell down on me once. Oops. It’s a give and take, right? Right.

Gratitude Corner

I am deeply humbled and honored to be a part of the gospel choir community. I have never been with a group of people so filled with the Lord, walking His path every single day. Thank you for being my home.

Operation Deer.

When you put Marie and I together, we make awful spies. It’s really quite bad; we aren’t gifted at refraining from giggling. So naturally, as the only Oregon Shakespeare Festival students (semmies) that got recruited and attended Santa Clara University, Aldo calls us his SCU Semmie Spies. We annoy Aldo all in good fun about a humiliating “deer dance” he had to do years ago at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. So we bought him a deer mask and decided to hide it in his office. We were just about to leave when I said, “I have a feeling Aldo is going to pop out somewhere,” and I kid you not, right at that moment, the big man appeared stuffing his face with a salad. Marie and I booked it out the building screaming and as we ran, all we could hear Aldo say was, “What did you two do now?!” He found out soon enough. And he liked it.

My Soul is Filled and Overflowing

This was a hectic week for sure as week six (yes we count them) always seems to be a tough week to push through with homework and final projects starting to pick up. But let me tell you about this weekend. On Friday I went to the Regional Gospel Choir Festival that San Jose State University hosted this year. The woman who runs the show, Shelene, is one of the dearest and most Godly person I hold close to my heart. The concert was filled with love, compassion, empathy, praise, and an abundance of the Holy Spirit. We were nearing the end of the night, when a drunk, high, and troubled homeless man walked up on the stage and yelled profanity. Shelene immediately grabbed the man’s attention and said, “I am glad you are you,” and he stopped dead in his tracks. She had the music play, and through song, she ministered to this man. He had never stepped into a church before, let alone a gospel concert. We don’t know who he is, but he was lead to us, and when he found his way, we never let him go. The minute Shelene made eye contact with this man, he never let his gaze stray away from her. The man was brought to a fountain of tears, and as I type, I begin to well up also. People in the congregation fell to their knees and prayed with the man, friends of the Lord came up to him and collectively $300 was given to this man. Together, we sang a song called Home and one of the lines of the chorus is, “It’s time to come back home. I need you to survive.” There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that this night, in all of its glory, awe, and power, was for this man. He may not have a roof over his head every night, he may not have food or a table to eat it on, but Friday night, he had a home. He had a family. He had food. He had love. He had grace, and he had mercy. He was cleansed, he was freed of his transgressions, he was changed. Friday night, a broken man, down to his brittle bones came to us, and with open arms, we said welcome home.