Community Fellows Update: Sarah

Hello Family and friends! I hope this finds you well. Thank you so much for all of your prayer and support over the last couple of months. It is hard to believe that I have been in this program for almost a year now. We only have two months left. I feel like we just moved into our apartment that we have lovingly dubbed “Hood Unit”. There are still some problems that have just become a
part of our everyday lives: such as our neighbor always parking in front of our garage, the ants,
our neighbor yelling to her cats at odd hours in the day while I’m trying to sleep, and random strangers ambling down the driveway. Such is life.  We are learning how to live in Bellflower and be truly comfortable with the wacky things that once irritated us.

There has been a lot going on in the neighborhood since I last updated you all. One of the more exciting things is that our church, which is a Christian Reformed Church, has decided to allow women to hold a position of leadership. I would say that, on a personal level, this issue has been the hardest to understand while I’ve been engaged with our church; but the church has prayed about it quite a bit and decided to implement that decision.  Our pastor has been very gracious about discussing the issue openly.  It has been quite encouraging to see the church coming together over this difficult decision, and I am excited to see how God will continue working in this place.  I am encouraged by meeting more members of the church and getting to know them better.

The second thing that I have been the most excited about in the last few months is that Lindsay and I are now part of a weekly youth group with some kids in our friends neighborhood. It has been such a blast! They are high school students and a couple students who are recent graduates.  God has been opening doors for some really great conversation and I have really loved getting to know them better.  It is so much fun to be involved with these kids and be learning more about the way they grew up, their relationship with their parents, and discovering how much their family and past influences how they view themselves.  I can only pray that I can help them understand how much Jesus loves them and is chasing after them.

I still am in need of your prayers. Always. I so appreciate them. I would really love prayers for direction in the coming season.  As lovely as it would be to just enjoy my last few months here, I do have to be thinking about next year and where God will be leading me.  I know it will be something great but I have no idea what it will look like.  Thank you again, for walking with me through this year.