I'm so glad i decided to go to Faithful Central on Jan.16. Not only was the service great but I also found out that the City of Inglewood Martin Luther King Day Parade the next day would end with a service at Faithful Central Baptist Church at 10:00am. The Parade started at 8:00 am but i skipped that and showed up for the ecumenical service. It was so awesome. There were some statements made by the mayor and some other folk. Then they had the winners of the speech contest present their speeches. I think the speech topic was "how does MLK's work and beliefs influence us to day?" (or something like that). There were four categories, K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. I thought the best speech was given by Christopher Jones who was a kindergartener. He was so short that they had to put him in front of the podium so you could see him. Basically he shared that we are all responsible to make sure that we live out MLK's ideals by treating each other with love, peace and equality. I think he was 5 years old, it was incredible.
Since I have a tendency to complain, I have been trying to cultivate a genuine attitude of gratitude each day. Lately instead of waking up at 5:30am for family prayer, my dad now wakes us up at 5:00am! At first I was very dismayed and disgruntled by that because i usually go to sleep between 10pm and midnight and it's so early for me to wake up. But now I'm grateful for it because i can have my quiet time at 5:20am (it's extremely quiet at that time). Then go for a run with the dog at 6:15 am. This actually works out pretty well (we live in South Central so my dad said i can't go running by myself) cuz i can run the dog with a minimum of cars and pedestrians. Come back shower and get ready, do the dishes and make my lunch, then head out the door at 7:45 for my 9:00am class. I feel so much more productive cuz at Stanford i used to wake up 10 min. before my first class. Anyhow i'm now excited to wake up every weekday at 5:00am cuz i get so much more done in the mornings.
Something that has really been bugging me lately is guys. At first i didn't mind all these guys in the streets and on the bus hitting on me because i saw it as an opportunity to share Christ with them. For instance, a guy will walk up to me and ask " do you have a boyfriend?" To which I say "no". Then "can we be friends?" And I go, "sure I'll be friends with anybody." Then he'll ask "Can i have your phone number? How old are you? (is it illegal for me to be with you)" blah, blah, blah. So i always try to use this to start a conversation about God and christianity. And they'll usually say stuff like, "I'm a christian, I've gone to church all my life." It's just frustrating cuz it started happening a lot and I feel bad because it takes so much energy for me to have these conversations cuz these guys have one track minds and they don't understand that i'm not interested. But on the other hand i just don't want to ignore every guy on the street for fear that he'll ask the dreaded question, "Can I have your phone number?" So now I'm puzzled as to what to do. I think i'll try walking down the street with my head in my bible. That way you'll know i'm going to preach to you or at least we'll talk about the bible or something. My new goal is to find a way to be thankful for these guys on the street.
Well, actually i'm thankful that the guy on the corner one block from my house stopped hanging out there. This guy was like 54 years old and he would invite me to his house all the time. And I would see him everyday cuz i have to walk that way to go to the busstop and he was there from about 7:00am-7:00am. But for a few months he hasn't been there, so i can walk home in peace.