dying to self.

I'm here! Not quite settled in because we hit the ground running with training this week, but I'm here. Training. Since Sunday night we've been training. This includes getting familiar with policies, mission statements, ministry sites, streets, food, transportation, etc. in San Francisco! 8am-10pm days of nonstop reading or traveling or praying or debriefing. Today was our first day we were done at 7pm. It feels wonderful.

In these days we've been hitting up all kinds of different ethnic restaurants we take the students to. In the last 3 or so days I've been here I've had....Thai, Ethiopian, Chicken and waffles, Vietnamese, and tomorrow is Indian. AND I've been trying everything.

So there are 5 hosts here. All girls. All legit. All college grads.
One, named Becky, actually went to Biola! Lived on my floor sophomore year and played soccer :) Then there are my out-of-state hosts (it seems like making friends from other states is common in my life). Kelly from Spokane, Washington. Sherri from Pennsylvania. Madison from Charlotte, North Carolina! (shoutz to cfrank).

All of these girls have amazing hearts and I'm so excited to get to know them more and experience life together with them. We have each been given a day to do a mock hosting where we lead devotions (share our testimony) and debriefing at the end of the day. Mine was Monday so I have that relief of being done. Kim, my director, encouraged me for being 'transparent' and 'vulnerable' with my testimony because that usually sets the tone of how others are going to share. :)

Oakland is fun. We live by Chinatown and a prison. Didn't know that until we did a prayer tour of Oakland. Luckily there aren't many 'inmates on the run' as another director says. All hours of the day you hear people outside talking or yelling. Just 5 minutes ago a man walked by singing.

I'm loving this.
It's still hard to get used to this transition though. I keep thinking of this idea of 'dying to self' and getting over putting my comfort first. I'm excited to talk that through with God.