Rising To The Surface

It's Tuesday of the first week in Southern California. Today marks exactly one week since we arrived. It's a new place, a new challenge, and a new set of opportunities, all of which calls for a new approach.

I haven't known what to blog about these past seven days. They've been an avalanche of events and tasks, and I haven't had the confidence or the energy to sort them out. But amidst the unpacking, the applying for restaurant jobs, and the phone calls to denominational personnel, there have been a couple of beautiful experiences.

There was lunch on Friday with a good friend at a great Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills. It's an oft-patronized spot for our friend, so the owner knows him well and treats his accordingly. He sat us outside and personally took care of us, bringing us free appetizers we didn't order, cracking jokes, and treating us to a dessert that wasn't on the menu but that they were "cooking up just for-a you." It was the proverbial red carpet treatment, and we are very grateful to our friend for it. We couldn't have felt more welcomed to California if the Governor himself had met us at the state line.

Then on Sunday we worshiped at one of three Presbyterian churches in Riverside, the one closest to our apartment. We went to their "contemporary" service, which was only contemporary in that they served coffee, used a projector, and played a guitar; most of the roughly 20 worshipers were over 50. But the three women who sat at our table (the room was arranged into circular tables) greeted us warmly. They were all lifelong friends and lifelong residents of Riverside, except for the short stint when they all went to Park College in Parkville, MO. It's little coincidences like that that make you say, "This place isn't so different. We can handle this."

By the end of our hour with them they had invited us to the church's 4th of July picnic and had drawn us a map to the best deli in town.

This is going to be tough, I have no doubt. But I'm hopeful.