mosaic

in the past few weeks, i've grown in my appreciation for mosaic...this is a church whose vision is to change this city and to change the world...i fully believe that it will, and i feel tremendously blessed and privileged to be a part of it.

it's weird 'cuz this past weekend, i've had multiple conversations on what makes a church dynamic vs. stagnant, and i feel that what we talked about was pretty much confirmed by what pastor erwin talked about on sunday...one of the defining characteristics of a dynamic church is that it has a vision and is actively moving to accomplish that vision. on sunday, pastor erwin talked about mosaic's direction and vision, and what the church is doing now to accomplish that...it's amazing to see how the leadership has been walking in faith, and God has been doing such great things that we could never have planned or anticipated.

so they did a piece on mosaic on npr...gw, i hope you don't mind, but i lifted this off of your site...

KPCC 89.3FM http://www.scpr.org/

Full Version (TRT 6 min)
Sun, Feb 20 on "Pacific Drift" at 9:00pm (mp3 will be posted after 10pm)

The following copy was taken from the website posted on
KPCC:

Erwin McManus

Erwin McManus leads Mosaic, an evangelical Christian
church that's trying to find a place in the City of Angels. Mosaic is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it's liberal. Second, it's really young - the average parishioner is 24. Third, Mosaic meets in a nightclub. Ben visits with Mosaic worshipers as they get the Mayan salsa club ready for Sunday service.

Mosaic @ The Mayan
1038 South Hill Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
(Mosaic has 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. service at the club on every
Sunday.)

birthday fun, cont'd

so yesterday, i had a birthday lunch with my study group (got a free birthday sundae), then went into work to celebrate a little with co-workers. my friend got me a king's hawaiian cake...one of my many favorites! (others include junior's, sweet lady jane, baskin robbins, and porto's...that's not a hint - more like, you guys gotta try these places if you haven't already!)

in the evening, went to go play volleyball (woohoo!), won both matches, and then went to johnny rockets with beektory for chili cheese fries and onion rings. had to milk the last few hours of my birthday, so we got a free sundae and they also gave us a root beer float for free.

thanks so much for all of you who celebrated with me, called, and sent messages...i'm so thankful for you guys!

good company, yummy food, great cake, free ice cream, volleyball - what more can a girl ask for?

now it's off to fail a midterm...hehe.

birthday fun

i was having birthday lunch with my study group today when it suddenly hit me that i'm now 28...wow, i can't believe it. unfortunately, i'm in the middle of midterms, so i didn't really plan anything big...just been doing little things here and there, but it's been really, really good.

had dinner planned on friday night, so mel came up early and we hung out with tina and lisa in the afternoon. elaine and esther came toward the evening, so the four of us (elaine, esther, mel and me) went to the blue bamboo on la cienega, sweet lady jane for dessert, then back to my place just to hang out. it was cozy and low-key, and i had an awesome time...soooo refreshing to just hang out and talk late into the night.

saturday i stayed home in my pjs all day and tried to study...didn't really succeed. ernest was down...i blame him. my bros went to the market, and ern had this random urge to make jambalaya for dinner...which is all well and good, but he decided that all three of us would make it together. my protests of needing to study fell on deaf ears...hehe. it was fun, we bonded, and the jambalaya actually turned out okay...three hours after we started. dude, those cooking shows make it look so easy.

on sunday i was baptized by immersion...thank you to everybody who came out. it was a good day...and the sun came out for a little bit when i got into the fuh-reezing pool...a nice moment.

yesterday, i had a midterm in the evening, so i spent most of the day studying on campus...finished the midterm, and then went home and worked on homework...fun, fun. oh yeah, it was valentine's day...happy belated valentine's day to you all!

i have another midterm tomorrow, but i'm not really studying...tonight, i'm playing volleyball for the first time in a loooong time. yaay!

amazon knows all...

you know how amazon sends out those promotional "personal picks" e-mails? so today, i'm checking my hotmail, and i see "save 32% on "The Barbarian Way..." and there's pastor erwin! very cool...also very cool that we got our copies for free at leadership advance. if any of you non-mosaic-ers want a copy of the book, they're $10 (a little cheaper than amazon's 32% off) at mosaic. place your orders here...

;p

to run or not to run...

...that is the question, having just witnessed jen running the half marathon. seriously, whenever i talked to jen about her training, i'd get all inspired to start running and get into shape...which would last until the next morning. it's hard enough to get started, but more than anything, i don't think that i'd ever be able to maintain a running regimen...so why bother even starting? but eating lunch with all the mosaic runners yesterday after the race (dude, i felt like such an out-of-shape wuss)...there's this whole lifestyle and culture associated with running that i kinda felt drawn to...

at any rate, congratulations to all the mosaic runners! you guys are inspirational!

on another note, what do you guys do when a friend starts nodding off during service? for me, it's a choice of either a) smothering giggles whenever i see his/her head jerking up and down out of the corner of my eye, or b) nudging them a little to try to help him/her stay awake. i felt bad laughing at my friend yesterday, so i decided to nudge her, but then, in retrospect, that wasn't very nice of me, either...just a random thought...

u2...

i was looking into u2 tickets...didn't realize that they went on sale on sunday, so now they've sold out both nights...dude, they added additional shows everywhere because of the craziness, and those have all sold out! i shoulda known...

checked out e-bay, and the highest i saw was 2 tickets going for $1,600 (crazy!)...lowest was a coupla hundred, but they're sure to go up...i guess my only chance is to win tickets on the radio somehow...