[beginning days]

"We don't have much"... "but it's enough."
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That was said in our house tonight and it really hit me. We are living simply. There's no doubt about it. Our house is bigger than we thought it would be, but it's simple, you know? Minimal furniture, not a whole ton on the walls, old stuff, in need of repairs, enough food... but not a lot.
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This JVC business is hard. It's a total learning experience. Don't get me wrong, I knew both of those things coming in, but it's now more real. We are not only working at a direct social service organization, but we are living in community, living simply, and cultivating our spiritualit[ies]. It's a lot of work. Not to mention, we have to get used to an entirely new [big] city.
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It's just a lot.
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But I'm ready for this challenge. I'm ready to see how God works in the lives of those who have little [meaning: both my community and those at my organization]. For those of you who haven't heard much about my org, it's amazing. The website is myfriendsplace.org. It is a drop-in resource center for homeless youth in hollywood/LA. We serve ages 12-25 and their children. We teach parenting classes, have a free clinic stop by, give youth a place to shower and get some hygiene supplies, have a meal, do employment workshops, help them learn how to use the internet effectively, offer them food and clothes to take home, and more. It's a safe place to hang out without judgement-- which is something they really need. We have a few hours for drop-in during the morning and then again in the afternoon. Last friday, we went to My Friend's Place (MFP, my organization) to meet up with Frank, my boss. He took us around the city to each of the organizations with which my casamates and I will be working. Dave, one of my casamates from Evanston, IL, is also working with me at MFP. Anyway, so Frank took us to see all of our places and everyone's org really fits them and we all love them. Here's the rundown:
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Kat: Caracen (Central American Resource Center)
Ben: Chrysalis (Homeless Employment Center)
John: Homeboy Industries (Gang -Rehab)--- LOOK THIS PLACE UP!
Shannon: Disability Rights Legal Center (self-explanatory)
Dave: MFP
Hannah: St. Francis Center (mostly a food bank)
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Needless to say, we will be having most excellent dinner conversation.
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So, like I said, we are doing more than just work. We have to figure out how to work as a community. We share our resources, our money, our time and our talents in order to make life feasible. Our first task when we got to the house was splitting up bedrooms. We have 5 of them and 7 of us, so four people have to share two bedrooms. We got it figured out after maybe two hours of talking and deciding what would be best. Ben and Dave are sharing one room, Kat and I are sharing the other (we have a balcony!). Everyone else has a single room. The second task was cleaning. Our house is not very clean. I mean, it just looks like groups of people have been living in it for a few years... which they have. Junk has just accumulated over the years so we went through the main floor these past two days and just cleaned it up and threw stuff out. There's a lot of JVC related stuff that we aren't getting rid of for nostalgia's sake, but otherwise, it's being pitched. We feel better about it already. Kat and I are going to start on our room today in the midst of doing laundry and shopping for non-food items.
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Speaking of food, yesterday went on our first grocery shopping trip. We managed to buy most of the basics and dinner supplies for around $90. We go to the PeterPan Market around the corner. Here's what I love about this situation... we are living in Koreatown, go to a Central American grocery store, and see all kinds of people everyday. Dorothy, we're not in the midwest anymore! And I love it. I've been craving diversity, and I finally got it! For the year we each receive $90 per person, per month for food. That gives us $630 to eat every month. I think we can do that. It sounds ok. We were left with a lot of food (some good, some bad/old) from the last people, so that helped some too. We'll be scraping the bottom of the bucket some months, but for now, "we have... enough."
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Last night (Saturday) we cooked the first meal for our house. Well, Hannah cooked the first meal for the house. Shannon helped her while the rest of us were cleaning the house. We're going to have some chores to divide up amongst us because while Hannah is a GREAT cook, we're going to need to share in all that responsibility. I've got Fried Green Tomatoes on my list to make :) Here's what we had:
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Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
Green Salad with tomatoes and avocado
Peas and Carrots
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It was amazing.
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So there you have it. That's my update. As I write it's Sunday morning and we are all off to church at some point. I'm going to Mt. Hollywood UCC at 10:30 while everyone else is going to St. Brenden's Catholic at 11. There was interest by a few people in our group to go to my church sometime, which I think would be awesome because really, Jesuits are just UCCer's with a Catholic flair. Most, anyway...
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I can't get online too much at home so I'm hoping I'll be able to post at least once a week. We have to spots in our house that get internet-- Johns room and Hannah's room. So, we'll try! If not, maybe I'll take a weekly Saturday trip to a coffee shop or something.
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I currently have so many things I want to post (songs/poems) but I'll just pick one and share the others later.
I just found an Inward/Outward (inwardoutward.org) post that I printed off in my journal. It's fitting for right now... how serendipitous...
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"What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus today? Discipleship today still involves risk and personal upheaval. It involves the relinquishment of our job security, personal comforts, family protection and allegiance to the culture. Discipleship to Jesus requires solidarity wit the poor, adherence to nonviolence, love for everyone, community life, public action for justice, contemplative prayer, eucharistic celebration, and worship of the God of Life. It opens the possibility of failure, loss of reputation, irrelevance, loneliness, pain, suffering, persecution and imprisonment. it not only calls for an alternative personal, social and economic way of life, but demands that we give up our very lives to accompany Jesus as he continues to carry the cross today in the nonviolent struggle for justice and peace.-- John Dear
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Amen.