A few pictures...

Joe's is in a small strip of four stores. Joes is on the end. Next to us is a convenient store. On the
end is another place that Joe's owns. We have been in the process of fixng this place up. This is where we will serve our thanksgiving meal and have children's programs. There is also a lot of people that want to start tutoring and haveing GED, ACT, SAT prep out of it. It once was a small diner, but had been empty for quite sometime. When a huge church in the area heard about what we were trying to do in and around this neighborhood, they decided to use their resources to help starting with man power and electrical skills.

This is the inside space being painted and cleaned!

Everything was pulled out into the parking lot to be cleaned and painted. While others cleaned the windows and painted the outside of the building.

Behind the orange paint is where the kitchen was and where we eventually want to start Angel Food out of.

You can see Joe's on the far left of the picture. The gast station/convenient store in the middle (blue) and then the start of new location on the far right. It will be painted the same as Joe's. It was incredible to see the Body of Christ join together to help with resources and skills that other parts might lack!

Just a few pictures

...but more pictures to come

Short Update...

I am sorry it has taken me awhile to write anything. I have started having to filter my blog more than normal. I realized that using specific names (i.e club names and people names) makes me easily seen on a search. Because of the opening of the newest club, I am having to be more secretive and protected with my words.

Excitement: One of my friends from next door gave me her phone number! Yes, we will more than likely get to hang out soon :).

The coffee shop had its first karaoke night. It went awesome. We will continue to have these every wednesday!

that is all for right now

...sorry

A few stories...

I have been here for a little over a month now. One thing that I am learning is patience. Waiting and trusting the Lord means sometimes you have to wait. However, I do want to share a few of the stories that I have heard or situations I have been a part of:

Bouncer next door- He comes in fairly regularly. He comes in a lot when I am here. Last Saturday, a night I wasn't supposed to work, I was here and he came in and played skipbo with me for a while. He started talking to me about his life and then brought up the topic of God. So i was more than willing to listen to his perspective. After explaining his views, he made a statement that has become a driving force in my prayers. he said "I just don't believe that God can work/do anything in a strip club." How this has stirred my heart. He may not believe that God can work in a club, but I sure do. Therefore, that is what i am praying for.

Dancer next door- She seems very independent and has a hard edge, but she is a tiny woman. Either way, she comes in a lot while I am here. Every time she comes in, I say hello and ask how she is doing. The 3rd time, she smiled when she first saw me working. The 4th time, she answered my question and asked how i was. The 5th time, she asked how i was before I even said anything to her. There has been a noticeable change in her demeanor whenever she is in here. The last time she came in, she started talking to me about dancing and what she thinks about it.

Surgery Man- I don't know his name, but he just walked in today and it was the first time i have seen him. He got his coffee and said he was on his way to surgery. I asked what he was having done. He explained that he is having ulcers removed and he has been throwing up blood. As he was headed out the door he said "My wife died, my daughter was murdered, my son drowned and my parents died...it has been unreal" and out the door he walked. I normally say as people are leaving "have a good day" but at this moment, I had no idea what to say. So i feebly suggested "stay warm." After kicking myself, I began to pray. I want him in here again. I want to be able to talk to him! Or i want someone to be able to talk to him or just be able to listen to him.

...to help direct prayers.

First time...

This past Friday, Me and two other women went to take our gifts to our neighbors. We had planned for almost 50 girls between the three clubs and soon found out that was an underestimation. There were, in fact, 70 girls between the our three little clubs along the street. Even that number will so be too small to include the new "high class" club going in on the left. We put a bath liquid item, nail polish or lip gloss, chocolate, and a free drink card in each bag. As soon as we had separated enough bags for the three clubs, we walked towards the biggest club. After walking in, we were warmly greeted by the doorman and the manager quickly journeyed to us. He began in conversation with one of us and next thing i knew, I was hearing our coffee shop advertised over the announcement speaker. The manager had taken it upon himself to send people from his club our way. (Umm, yes, of course you can do that!! Please send people to us from your club. You have no idea what you are doing :). After all three of us met him, we began to head out the door. The manager gently grabbed my arm and said that he wanted to talk to me for a second. I quickly replied that I had to help deliver the gift bags to the other two clubs and i couldn't stay. When Jamie turned back to help, he motioned her away as if to say "no, i just needed to talk to this girl (me)" However, i kinda reached toward Jamie and we trotted out the door together. Once outside, I breathed a huge sigh and said "thank you." We began to head towards the next club (the one with the least business) and walked in. After explaining why we were there, we walked towards all three of the girls that were working at the time. They were all sitting by the slot machine wasting time. When we handed them the box of bags we had prepared for that club, we saw their genuine smiles. They seemed genuinely joyful to receive anything from anyone. The last club we went into, we know the most people from. We went in and were warmly welcomed by the girls that new us. They smiled and gave us hugs.
Several of the girls have come in already and thanked us personally for the gift bags. How neat it was to be able to give them something without any expectation from them.
We are trying to do something like this once a month. We all three felt like the way was completely paved for us to go into all three of the clubs. What provision we had

...in the clubs :)

Slow..

Is hard!

I feel like things here are moving slowly. That is different from the pace that i most enjoy going at. However, I am constantly learning to be patient. I meet people regularly and have started making conscious efforts to get to know the community that I now live in.

Being here so far has been:
exciting
scary
frustrating
overwhelming
slow

Some things that we are trying to make happen:
1.We are looking to get a karaoke machine. I have been told 4 times by 4 different people that as soon as we get the karaoke set up, all of the people from our neighbor club will be in here. YEAH! So we are looking for the karaoke machine. I am trying to figure out how to get one.

2.We have planned/scheduled story and craft time for kids every Saturday. That will start in October!

3. I am trying to determine how/where i can serve best here.

While I wait for these things to get going, the Lord has been throwing me around a little (when i say a little, I really mean it feels like he is drop kicking me constantly) My thoughts and heart have been challenged in so many way: The roaches, the patience, the sp. warfare, my depravity.

However, in the midst of all those things He has given me people to show me where to focus my attention and to challenge my thoughts and attitudes.

One of the things that increases my affections for the Lord is wrestling with scripture. Right now I am wrestling with Matthew 5 (specifically vs. 38-42) Insight, anyone?

Things I have learned

It is exciting the things that I have learned since being in OK. I have learned these lessons in places that I would never have guessed.

lesson 1: Stop stereotyping

It was my unspoken understanding that people in poorer settings tend to be more democratic. It makes sense because democrats tend to focus more on the individual rather than the large organization. However, in Valley Brook, OK this is not the case. Most of the people that live here are rather anti democratic policy. They tend to prefer watching FOX news and will gladly stand in your face and argue politics if you fall on the more liberal side. It was such an interesting thing for me to see. I guess I need to learn that people really can't be placed in a box.

lesson 2: Insects can teach huge spiritual lessons

I have hated roaches for forever. Mostly because they are just so ugly and nasty and I think the are one of the most demonic creatures. With the house the blessing of a house to live in, came the blessing of thousands of awful demonic creatures. This has been a problem through the course of my stay that is now getting under control. As i was talking with my roommate about how they got as bad as they were, she explained that around 6 months ago, she started to see a few. Before she knew it, she wasn't even able to go in the kitchen anymore there were so many. I started to reflect on the reasons I hate roaches so much and a lesson hit me. Many times in our lives we begin to dabble in sin (whatever that may be). Maybe it is once or twice at first. A lie here, a spiteful word there don't seem like a huge deal. However, one time emerges into a second and a third and before you know it, sin has spread to an uncontrollable level. Like the roaches in the house, you don't realize it until someone comes in and says (me moving into the house) this is out of control. That is when restoration starts. It takes community (jamie and jessi and HGM girls) to help with the problem. However, nothing is going to change unless the root of the problem is addressed. Last night my roommate moved the fridge and stove in order to uncover the colonies living there. After spraying them completely, she will sweep them up and the issue will begin to lessen. Although I hate the problem, the pictures the Lord has allowed us to see in the midst of it is incredible.

These are just the things I have learned in the first week.

Strange happenings

This week has been so busy. I almost don't have any time that isn't allocated to some project or responsibility. That is wonderful from one standpoint because boredom was one of my fears coming here. Oh, but that has not been a problem. Boredom has been eradicated from my recent days in peculiar ways:

New experiences filled my days and nights: 1.Slam Poetry. I have maybe heard of this in passing, but in reality, I had no idea what it was. It was the Wednesday night activity of a church youth group. I left feeling motivated and enthralled at the great power of words. How thrilling to see the tongue (such a painful weapon of destruction) being used to motivate and encourage those that heard.

Thursday held some moments where I was scratching my head wondering "really?" A man who started a business to help nonprofits came into the coffee shop. He makes crosses and sells them in the coffee shop. One of the regulars was sitting in the shop talking about Obama's most recent speech. He was livid about Obama's new plan. However, this cross maker said that people just need to prioritize their finances. this is how the conversation went:
Regular: Tell me this who does the idea of having to have car insurance hurt?
Cross-maker: No one
R: Are you kidding me, a single mother has to feed her kids so she has to have enough money for gas and food to feed them, but if she is having to pay insurance she isn't able to feed her children. She gets stopped by police gets a ticket for no insurance and then can't pay anything else. Her car gets taken away and she has no way of working to feed her family.
CM: She just shouldn't drive then
R: She has to go to a job and to the store and to school.
CM: She has feet doesn't she?
R: Are you kidding me. Is anyone able to get a job these days? The jobs in walking distance are in the clubs.
CM: Silence
Jamie and I (thinking): really, are you serious. Do you ever take a second from your sheltered life with your wife being the worker to look at others in this world?

The conversation was way more heated and longer than that, but that was the main part. If the regular hadn't been here, i would have had a hard time not telling this guy off as well. The ignorance of this man made me so sick.


Thursday I also got to experience HGM's girls night. What a fun gab fest that turned into, surprisingly, I sat back in silence in order to soak it all in. On the foggy drive home, I hit a brick or a curb so hard that it tore two holes in my brand new tire's wall.

I walked to work friday morning to have enough time to play skipbo and talk with the regulars. Shortly after, Jamie came with her daughter and we journeyed home to attack the kitchen. With rain boots and big yellow gloves i was prepped to handle the thing that i hated so much: Roaches. Around 30 secs into our quest, I was done. It was at that point that Jessi opened a drawer and what can only be described as a herd of roaches ran out. I turned and walked straight into the living room. I chose to do work on the carpets instead. Jamie and Jessi quickly discovered the tribes of roaches and they did their best to gather courage and handle the situation. This was far worse than I have ever experienced. However, I honestly think this challenge is good for me.

Like John had said to me, it is easy for people to talk about helping and serving the poor. Rarely is it seen someone who can live like and with the poor. Although i would consider the house i live in to be on the up end of the neighborhood, i am definitely experiencing the "bug of choice."

On a different note: Jamie and I are in brainstorm mode trying to figure out how to go about getting into the clubs. As of now, our idea is to get woman-friendly gifts. Pray for our journey and the way to be completely paved.

In the Brook...Valley Brook

I have now officially been here for three days. It has been an experience already in many ways.

Some of you may recall a post that I made a few months ago about my disdain for roaches. Well can I just say that has already been a huge test for me here. The little house that I have been blessed to live in has an abundance of...yes, you guessed it, roaches. Let me just explain the extent: It was around 10 pm and my roomie and I were sitting in the living room. We stepped one foot in the kitchen (which is pretty dirty, that might explain things) and every spot on the floor began to scurry, quickly, away. I can say that I don't enjoy any moving spots, but this was way worse knowing what these moving spots are. Needless to say, I haven't felt like eating any of the food that I bought yet. It is just the feeling of it all that stresses me out.

It is more than likely a head game, but even that has been difficult to control. I haven't slept through the night yet. I woke up yesterday morning and I heard this heavy air being circulated. Because it was hot in the room, i went and stood by the floor vent thinking this would cool me down. I was dumbfounded when I walked to the vent and felt nothing. I messed with the lever and nothing helped. Then I stood up and realized it was my unintentional heavy breathing that was making the sound. (this might seem very dumb, but i think the lack of sleep was a huge factor in the inability to realize what was going on).

Aside from the roaches, everything has been awesome. My days have been quite busy. I am having the opportunity to participate with the Heart of God bootcamp students with this weeks class on handling people in poverty.

Monday: Move in and go to class and then go to Josiah's (Jamie's son) first freshman football game.
Tuesday: Spend the morning getting my room set up. Class and then journey to an apt. complex with many refugees.
Wednesday: Opened coffee shop and had down time to get online.

So far my schedule has worked day to day. Nothing is set in stone yet, but it has been good, really good thus far. We are working on the relationships with the clubs. We have had some opportunities to help.

There have been things that are discouraging, but in a completely different way they have encouraged me.

I will try to add pictures soon.

So many historic events have happened...

I feel that (like my devotional suggested this morning) I should be honest. I am a fairly awful blogger. I don't feel the need to write anything unless i have something incredibly interesting to post. As you can see, I haven't had anything interesting since January. I think I might be fairly depressed if i stopped to think about that last sentence, but I don't really want to.

New happenings in the form of bullets:

+ I graduate with on Friday in a ceremony of silence (once again depressing)

+ I am moving to Oklahoma to work with joesaddiction.com

+ I spend a lot of my free time looking at photography blogs. It sucks me in like nothing else.

+ I have three rather unattractive new scars on my back. The only reason I say this is because it leads me into the point of this blog.

sidebar: I feel rather showy for what I am about to write. Just understand that it isn't my purpose, the reason I am sharing about my scars and their origin is my dad and my friend Sara have suggested that I do so. Being that I am now officially done with school, I have little extra time to do this.

It was the week before Spring Break '09 when I first thought something could be wrong. I called my dad one morning and explained to him how i felt that i had a gas bubble stuck in my chest. He told me to be careful and not let it get too bad. The next day when the "bubble" left and a strong cough took its place, I thought i was in the clear. Sometimes overcompensating for the feeling that I am weak, I simply ignored the times when I would double over coughing for no reason. Well, there was a reason, just not one that I knew of. I finally went to a Dr. the thursday of SB and was prescribed generic cough medicine, which I honestly think was a placebo which in turn made me feel even more weak. The following wednesday, I opened the Coffee Shop. After about two hours, I reached my breaking point. My chest felt like it was going to explode and I couldn't think straight. (wow, i am going to attempt to make this way shorter than it is on the path to being). After getting someone to come in early, finding a dr., finding another dr. that could see me that day, driving myself to the dr. and getting a chest x-ray, I was informed that my right lung ad decided it didn't want to be a lung anymore. So, out of protest, it stopped working. Thinking this sounded serious, but not knowing how i should respond, I asked the dr.

"how should i feel about this news"

to which he responded, nonchalantly "you should go to the ER"

"oh, awesome" I replied with sarcastic emotion

I drove myself home, called Sara, packed an overnight suitcase and began the journey to Waco. We met my parents at the ER and were immediately admitted. After laying me on a table -awake- (rainboots on and everything), hooking me up to laughing gas -still awake- and cutting into my side -very awake- they began to inflate my lung while i was WIDE AWAKE. This was just the beginning.

That began the 10 day stay that my mom and I enjoyed in the hospital. After surgery a week after admission, I began the road to recovery. There were some nights where I thought I wouldn't be able to ever handle anymore pain. There were other days where i thought my smile wouldn't be able to get any bigger because of the outpouring of love from my friends and friends of my family.

Exciting story- On the second to last day that I was in the hospital, the president of my university called my room phone. The call went like this:

Dr. Cook- Yes, is this Alsia?

Me- Yes, sir.

Dr. C- This is Gary Cook

Me- Hello

Dr. C- So i heard that you were in the hospital. I know how that goes. I am sorry to hear that.

Me- Yes, I am just hanging out in here, but i am doing a lot better

Dr. C- I pulled up your picture, I think i have seen you before. Do you play on the soccer team?

Me- Umm, no, but I thought about it.

Dr. C- Well, great. Listen, if you have any trouble finishing your assignments in school, it will be no problem for you to just finish them over the summer. Just come to my office if you have any issues.

Me- Wow thank you so much

Dr. C- I hope you get out very soon

Me- Thank you very much

I hung up the phone and then looked at my mom with a slight grin.

Mom- who was that?

Me- Dr. Cook, DBU's president, just called to say he was sorry i am in the hospital.

Mom- Woo hoh hoh, that is pretty big

Me- He called me Alisia

we both through our heads back in laughter!

When recounting that story to people, I don't really dwell on what he called me, just the fact that e called.

I will leave you with this last tale: The entire time I was in the hospital, I had a tube coming out of my side. It was connected to a rather dumb looking plastic container that I had the joy of carrying with me everywhere I went. Well after the surgery, they were able to finally relieve me of my constant companion. When talking about the subject, no one ever explained to me how this was accomplished. What is dumber is, I never thought/cared to ask. The following is what happened (My thoughts are italicized):

Dr.- Ok, (to my mom) I am going to go ahead and get you to leave the room.

umm, why would he ask her to do that?

Dr.- Can you lay on your side for me with your arm above your head? We are going to get this thing out of you!

YES, I never thought this day would come. I will be able to do all sorts of arm motions now. I can make a windmill...if i had a reason to.

Nurse 1- Where do you need me?

Nurse 2- I will just stand at the foot of the bed until you tell me otherwise

Dr.-Ok Alyssa (as he slowly pulls tape off of my body and from the tube), I want you to take a deep breath and then when you breathe out, i want you to tense everything like this (demonstration).

I am glad he is making sure my lungs are working. Hey, I still have some abs. I thought I would be nothing after a week in this bed.

Then the Dr. takes a firm grasp of my tube and with one motion, while i am tensing everything, he whips the tube out of me -EVEN MORE AWAKE-. All I see out of the corner of my eye is the tube flying out of my side. It looked like he had pulled the freakin tube out of my body like a sword from a sheath and then brandished it above his head and mine. Horrified would be an accurate word to describe my emotions at that point. However, that wasn't even the worst part.

Nurse 2- Oh wow

Dr. - Did I get you a little?

Nurse 2- oh yes, well

Not only was my surgeon treating my like a leather sheath, he was freely sharing my bodily liquids with my nurse. Umm, I don't ever recall signing a waver for that!

Oh awful! It was traumatic and I am not sure I ever wish to go through that again. The hospital, only lung thing was nothing compared to my zealous Dr. and his joy with chest tubes!

It has been a very eventful semester, if there is one thing i have learned it is to not wait so long to blog. Way too much has happened

...since my last post

These are my lung pictures. The Dr. told my parents and me that I had "Beautiful anatomy" to which he quickly classified "Beautiful lung anatomy, I am used to seeing older messed up lungs" Yeah, sure!!! hahaha

I HATE...

You know something is wrong when your heart starts pounding for no apparent reason, or at least you think. "Why is it doing this?" is one of the first questions that runs through my mind. This question is quickly answered with a quick glance towards the floor where my feet are happily resting. A rather large black object is hustling across the floor right near my feet. The only acceptable and understandable reaction is to jump towards clearer grounds-literally:

Just five minutes ago, while trying to be studious (didn't happen), I noticed this black object out of the corner of my eye. Yes, it was a roach...bah huhuh. I quickly jumped from my seat at the table and climbed onto the farthest chair with a whinny shriek. I hate few things as much as I do roaches. Call me superficial, but I think their ugliness unnerves me.

***I really can't help my reactions to the situation. At one point in my life, I wondered if I often overreacted to roaches because there were people around. However, after just one roach experience by myself, I realized this was not the case.***

My experience just now was no different. I was sitting at the table all alone waiting for my parents to come home when I saw it. It was crawling between me and any form of defense (besides distance) that I could have. Strangely I wasn't able to control the stream of words that escaped my mouth. Words like "no (several times)" and "Come on (pleading with the roach does nothing, let me tell you)" and "mom (who wasn't home yet, may I remind you)"

I, in a mortified state, watched (while doing a frightened dance- a cross between "I have to go to the bathroom" and marching) as it crawled toward my bedroom. "How am I going to sleep tonight knowing that it is maybe journeying to see its family?" Finally, in a flurry of adrenaline, I was able to grab the broom out of the closet. This action was brave in and of itself. The roach was guarding the closet. With a "uh no no no" I feebly lowered the broom onto the devil of the insect world. When my attempt, weak from fear and mortification, didn't do anything, I tried a second time. This time, I held control of myself briefly enough to knock the thing on its back and into the bathroom across the hall from my bedroom. "That would do until mom got home, ehh, I hope."

I anxiously skip-jumped back to the table with my computer to start this account, but quickly had to stop. My hands were shaking and my mind was racing so fast that I couldn't type. Finally, I began to write what you have, to this point, read. My mom came home and found the roach angrily crawling toward my room. Luckily she made it in time to save me and my sleep from future harm.

All this might seem to you as a bit of an overreaction, but if you knew the experiences that I have had with roaches, you would more than understand.

I couldn't stomach putting a picture of a real roach here...this is all you will get!

...Roaches burahh huh- gross!!!

Reflections from...

So, this has been an excellent Christmas break. Family, school, new friends, old friends and coffee...well let me just tell you a little about it:

Family time is always good...i was able to experience a lot of that before and during the Christmas week. How lovely it is! I choose not to linger on that because it is always enjoyable.

the following is a list of highlights from the break without lots of description...because that gets old:

1. I spent most of my first week (during the mini) tallying the number of times a fellow student interjected unnecessary stories from his life. Although that seems very pathetic and lame, his number hit 94 by the end of the week. YEAH, I KNOW....WHAT??? I did take the creative liberty to add a few bonus tallies because he cursed in a class presentation and he said that i wasn't important. I totally had the right to do that!!! So this was a student that i had the "delight" of having in my voice and articulation class a year ago. He offered without being asked that i sounded like The Nanny from a TV show in the 90's. Yeah, not a compliment...at all. I guess one could say that i already had a bit of a bias against the nanny man...but can you blame me? No, thanks.

2. I started the following week in a large class (50) that had also decided to take Philippians with me. I got to sit by my one of college long friends. That was quite enjoyable. This experience was elevated by the fact that our Professor was AMAZING. I have come to the conclusion that classes with professors that are extremely intelligent and a bit socially awkward are my FAVORITE. I had many of my friends in the class as well. We were able to talk for many minutes on how much we loved our Professor and how we would like to be able to speak and everything sound like a poem. We often attempted to do that...I have come to the conclusion that only very intelligent and a bit socially awkward Professors are able to do that. (you might be wondering why i continually capitalize "professor"...no it is not because i tend to do things like that on accident, it is more because i feel that our Professor deserves that kind of respect...i mean seriously, everything he said sounded like a poem.)

3. This week was accented by getting to go to lunch every day with good friends and having good conversation. On Friday to end our great week of joy with a bang, my friend (Jason) took me and my other friend (Ally) to his favorite restaurant: Spiral Diner. This just so happens to be a vegan restaurant. Can I say that it was such an exciting time. It seemed like such a different culture! It was so unique and enjoyable to watch those who worked there and those who journeyed there. I couldn't help but notice Jason's posture while we were there...a mix between relaxed and maybe a tinge of pride (in a good way). I got a BBQ sandwich (yes, i know that is a sandwich with meat..but have you already forgotten we were at a vegan dinner?). It was made with wheat protein instead. I very much enjoyed it.

4. Can i take a number (4, to be exact) to talk about the weather on these days? Ok, stellar, thanks! The days this week were so intense and lovely. I believe that this first week of 2009 found incredible joy in being extreme. side note: i believe it was attempting to set the standard for me this year! Day 1: freezing with rain-Day 2: warm and sunny- Day 3: i don't remember, but awesome-Day 4: slightly overcast and a little hot-Day 5: OH GOODNESS...so beautiful, like a painting crossed with purity.

5. Now I sit in Panera Bread with the uniquely beautiful Sara. There aren't many words to describe this time. I am not sure that many things surpass that happiness that i experience while sitting in a coffee shop with good friends and fun.

6. I feel like there are times in my life when the Lord just lavishes joy through things in my life. I am so thankful that this has been one of those times. The beauty of desiring The Savior and being able to see Him in your surroundings! How Glorious!!!

Just because I hate not having a picture to keep readers interested:

...a truly splendid break