Old Sacramento

Hola! Como estan ustedes? Today i woke up early to go and work out with Susie. We went to Family Fitness and i got a membership for two months. This is a great fitness center! I am so thankful that i can use it. The neighborhood isn't very safe and it wouldn't be a good idea for me to run by myself, so that is why we thought it would be better to have a membership. It was great, and we even got Starbucks once we were done :)

Then we went back to her house and filled water balloons for after church. We had church in the park this afternoon, which was really powerful. Dave talked about stress in our lives and connected it to Philippians 4:1-9. Two women in the church were disagreeing and Paul called the church to help them not to be anxious but rejoice. How often do we rejoice when we are anxious or in a disagreement? Probably not that often. Pastor Dave brought up some beautiful points in moving through our disagreements to get back to the joy rather than trying to just move around our disagreements.

Here are some verse that really struck me just with the stress that i have been feeling these last three days trying to remember everyones names and all the details of this community:

^"4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

After the message, we played steal the bacon. which is a game where you line two team up opposite each other in a line and put something in the middle of them. Then you each count of, in each line, and then when your number is called you run to the middle to get the object first. If you were on the opposite team and you didn't reach the object first your goal was to tag the other person before they made it back to their teams line. We used squirt guns and made up some of our own rules, which eventually turned it into a raging water fight. It was a blast! Great people and it was fun getting to meet some new people. It is so interesting seeing how some many people have either lived in of are connected to Michigan in some way or another. Even last today when we went to the Jazz Festival in Old Sacramento (the old part of the city) i talked to this elderly lady named Philis, who was going on vacation in traverse city. Really interesting, but then there are many people who have no idea where Michigan is and i once pulled out my hand to show them, and everyone thought it was the funniest thing ever. They said that they are "mentos" since they are from Sacramento, and that i am a "mitten" since i used my hand to show them what Michigan is :)

Today was a long fun filled very busy day, but tomorrow for Memorial Day we are getting up at 4:00am to go to Yosemite National Park for the day.

Please continue to pray for the community and the youth here. Also please keep my grandfather and uncle mark in your prayers.

Blessings,

Kristen