A home

This is a very delayed post, but about...I think a month ago... I found a place to live in Redding, CA. I will be living in a neighborhood about 3 miles from where my classes will be and then about a mile from Bethel. I am really excited about this house because it is a part of the outreach ministry that I will be doing while I am at Bethel. My apartment is a part of a lower-income apartment neighborhood in Redding. The people that will live in my apartment and other apartments located in Redding are focused on revival, and they are actually called revival apartments. Our intentions in living here are to love the people around us, to bring people into encounters with God, and to create community that is loving and honoring. We will also be apart of a house church, which turns out to be somewhat like a weekly small group/worship/prayer meeting.
God providing this house for me means so much to me. Before I was seriously considering going to Bethel I considered moving to DC. I was to be a part of a community that is working and living as an intentional community with the diversity around us in DC and inside the house itself. I was very passionate about the idea of interacting with the diversity of DC, but I was not given peace about doing this program and could not figure out why. When I decided to go to Bethel, I had complete peace about going, but a part of me was sad that I would not get to experience what the program in DC had to offer. I desired to live in a place that allowed me to create community with people that I would not be able to otherwise and I wanted diversity. I am so thrilled to meet the people that God will be putting in the boulder creek community in Redding. Also, I have learned that over half of BSSM's student pop. is international!
I have been so excited to go to Redding, but I have been really excited about the things that God is teaching me before I leave. Friends in Annapolis have shown me so much about the potential of loving people and loving God. I am really thankful and joyful about my summer. And let me be honest, a lot of it has been taken up by catching up on tv shows, which has been super restful (is there such a thing as too restful?)
Before I go! I wanted to share something that God has been teaching me...Grace! A lot of my process of deciding to go to Bethel had to do with the question...is this what God wants me to do? Is this His will? And I've learned that no matter what my decision was, God would have been with me. It is so hard for me to apply God's grace to my life sometimes, but I know He will continue to teach me to live it out. Listening to the Holy Spirit's peace has a lot to do with making my decision, but I know that God loves me just the same whatever my decision may be because He knows my heart. "Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you." Psalm 9:10 I am so thankful for this psalm because it reminds me that He is always with me, even when I think He is disappointed by my decisions or failures, but really He loves me all the same.

I am praying that you learn more about His grace as I am learning too. We will never capture the full measure of His grace in this lifetime...it is SO abundant.
Love to you all! I hope I get to see some of you before I leave!! I have 13 days!
E