Justin: Week 2

Another week has gone by, which was our first whole week on site at City Team. I have many mixed feelings which are some great ones, but also some feelings of weariness having to wake up by 6 every morning for breakfast. Yes, 6 AM. As a team, we made a commitment to all be at every meal to be as much within the rehab program as possible with the men, so some are waking up at 5:30 to get ready (which are the girls) and the guys waking up between 5:50 - 5:59.

Personal Life
For me personally, BAyUP has been really good. At home, I normally get so caught up with everything, it is really hard to make space for my quiet times everyday, but as a group, we have a designated time for our quiet times to reflect and pray and to be in the Word daily. This normally comes after we have bible study with the men in the program.

City Team
Since we have arrived on this site, we have been so blessed by these men in the program and the staff. They have welcomed us into their homes and have been so gracious towards us. Working with these men have been such a blessing. I have learned so much from them and have seen a whole other part of this world. Having grown up in an affluent neighborhood and a college atmosphere in school, I couldn't wrap my mind around about all the statistics that I have heard about people dropping out of school and not having a high school education. Living with these men and hearing about the experiences that they have gone through has really shown me how blessed I was growing up where I did with the parents that I had. Slowly God is giving me some wider perspective that I am not at the center of my life, but He is.

So far at City Team, our team has done most of our work in the Learning Center tutoring. And boy, does God have a sense of humor. I would love to tutor Math especially because I like Math and am quite good at it, but so far, I've had the privilege of tutoring English. And if you know me, then you know that English has given me a lot of trouble in school and is probably my worst subject. But so far, it has gone quite well with no major fall outs.

Every morning, the program has a bible study (DBS) at 7 am. They have 3 different bible studies and I have been going to the one on the top floor with one other guy from BAyUP, Jeff, and 3 guys from the program. This was one of my favorite times with these guys because the bible studies give us a great opportunity to talk to these men about their faith. I will not be using any of these guys real names, so please bear with me and these other names. After one of the bible studies, I was able to get into a conversation with one of the guys, for blog purposes let's call him James. James is normally a quiet guy in the study, so someone asked him what he believed. James responded that Jesus is his Lord and Savior, but didn't really know what that meant. He didn't really have much else to say, so I had the opportunity to talk 1 on 1 with him after the study as everyone else left to get to what was next in their day. We talked a little about his life after he was released from jail and an experience at a church that he visited. Through this interaction, I had the opportunity to lay out the Gospel for him and to share with him what it meant for me to call Jesus my Lord and Savior.

This is one of the experiences that God has given me since I have been here. And I'll be volunteering more in the kitchen with the men, so pray that God will be moving within these men to transform their hearts more like Christ.

Prayer Requests
Since my hour is coming to a near, I would like to extend some prayer requests:
* Some men in the program only read the bible and go to the bible studies because it is part of the program. Pray that God will give these men a desire for him and a desire to get into His Word.
* Pray for opportunities for my team and I to deepen our relationships with these men. That our trust with these men may grow that will give us more opportunities to share about ourselves and our faith as testimonies for their faith.
* Pray for endurance and perseverence as our days are very long.
* Pray for a transformation that cannot be contained within our hearts, but poured out into the city and our neighborhood
* Also, at times I do feel a little homesick, even though I have yet to leave the Bay Area, and can use some prayer in that I seek my refuge in God when I do feel sad.

Hope all is well with you guys and if you have any prayer requests, shoot me an email so I can also be praying for you. I wish I could write more, but I guess you guys will just have to ask me when I return home and wait until next week. One more thing is our Friends and Family visitor day is one week away. Sunday, July 12th, from 1 to 3 is an organized time of sharing and a tour of our site. At 3, we will have a pot luck somewhere off site, so let's all contribute and bring some goodies. Our address is 722 Washington Street, Oakland, CA 94607, so please come out and see how God is working with us at our site.

Grace and peace brothers and sisters,
Justin