Home Sweet Hood

After over 24 hours of travel, I've arrived! I'm living in the Harehills, which apparently is the ghetto of Leeds. Needless to say, I'm loving it. One of the most diverse areas in England, over 72 ethnicities represented. I share a rented house with 3 other girls, right up the street from the other 4 of our team. 

So lectures carry on tomorrow, Holy Spirit week so I am quite excited. The following weeks will be concentrated on community outreach. The team here has quite a heart for the community, it being an urban DTS, so the focus is spread out in several directions. We have an art piece due every two weeks, community projects and then we tackle a social justice issue the alternating weeks. On weekends we're expected to volunteer with one of two organizations. One is kids club, which shuttles and hosts about 500 kids to programs ever Saturday. The other is Street Angels, which provides a monitoring system for the night life here in Leeds. Seeing that people get to their homes safe, handing out water, flip flops ect. 

It's pretty spectacular being surrounded by so many different art forms, we have dancers, a sculpter, painters, photography, visual artists...heaven on earth for inspiration. I'm excited to see some collaborations born :) 

I'm also praying I can find somewhere to get my 8mm film developed....

They tell us it gets pretty dangerous round these parts sometimes, drugs and all. This is where I thank my Pops for all that street wisdom he imparted to us kids. Thank God for being from the D. 

Looking forward to lectures! Please keep me in your prayers as I am still support raising. Thanks so much whoever is reading this, I appreciate you keeping up with me :) 

The flight from London to Manchester!

My new street!

Travel trudging. 

Steps

I've got a plane ticket!!!!

And suddenly it becomes all too real. Visa is approved, ticket is purchased, date is set. Talking to a friend on the phone late last my Detroit night and her early Malawi morning, she laughs and says, well....there's no turning back now. 

Duhn duhn duuuuuhn! (dramatic sci-fi movie music) 

As inch by inching brings me slowly closer to September 28th (yeah, my newly solidified departure date) I get to see with blazing clarity the steps the Holy Spirit laid out for me way ahead of time to get to this point. Most of them didnt really look like steps as my feet stumbled over and around a path I couldn't (and still can't really) see. But from this vantage point it makes sense how my insanely and universally wise heavenly Dad set me a-walkin' a course only He could set up. It makes sense that of course I need to be humbled in order to be in a position to learn, it makes sense that desperation leads to reliance on something greater than self. That my fear-crazed scramble for answers can only be assuaged by sitting with, talking to, spending time with, yelling and screaming at, reaching for the God who just wants to see my face turned to Him. 

As I tramped around Northeast Detroit a couple days ago, photographing abandoned buildings and vacant lots for a private real estate investor, I noticed myself instead of hopping in the car driving from place to place, spending more and more time outside in the gorgeous day connecting with  spaces and structures. It's startling the disparity between the distance one feels surrounded by a steel cage and the intimacy felt with gravel and broken glass beneath one's feet. All of sudden I am a part of this scenery and I have lent to the story of this sidewalk, building, neighborhood.

(At this point I have to resist going on a tangent about the Burroughs of Detroit ignored by the grand development craze  and giants of gentrification in midtown and downtown)

The point is, I like to traverse through life surrounded by a cage of certainty and surety, forgetting the fact that God wants me out on my feet connecting with the scenery of this life He has called me to. Yes, getting glass stuck in my shoes and uncovering squatters and getting chased off a lot by huge pitbulls is a bit sketch; so is letting yourself be emotionally vulnerable or believing instead of knowing ...or hopping a plane to a different continent for a year with little to no money praying that God will provide. I guess it's chalked up to learning how to follow step by kind of scary, misplaced step. 

Keep me in your prayers, and I will keep you posted! 

P.s. here are some photos from my little excursion. I'm going to miss this beautiful city! 

Visa stress and family goodbyes

Yesterday my entire family got together for the last time in what looks to be at least a year. I can't remember the last time all my siblings were together.  Everyone is growing up and going different directions, myself to England, my brother to the Army, another sister to India, and who knows when we'll all be together again. But family is love and specifically the kind of love that doesn't crumble with distance. So looking forward to seeing where life takes us all!

 

So the most recent item on a rather long checklist to consistently keep me up at night is the suspenseful visa wait. There is to be no purchasing of airfare until that blasted visa is safe within my two shaking hands, so as you might imagine, I am a teensy bit antsy. Yet another practice in trust. God certainly likes to follow trends when it comes to teaching me. Or it just takes me forever to learn things, most likely the latter. Either way, please keep myself and this visa process in your prayers. I will continue to haunt the post office doggedly, night and day. 

Postscript: It has been absolutely incredible to be on the receiving end of so much support, all across the board. Thank you thank you to everyone who who is praying, has given, and has provided the most unbelievable encouragement to me. There is nothing like the family of Christ!