Rockford, WA Population: 500 (our Friday night)

So Josh is our friend who volunteers with us at West Central and he was celebrating his 22nd birthday on Friday. Ebay and I decided to take part in the celebration along with many other West Central volunteers and friends. Little did we know that we would be heading to Rockford, WA for a wondrous evening at the Harvest Moon bar...

Located 45 minutes from Spokane, Rockford has one street light, two bars and lots and lots of tractors. We walked into Frednecks bar and even with our plaid shirts, cowboy hats and boots we were called "city slickers". Not feeling the vibe, we headed down the street to Harvest Moon where we felt more welcomed :)

Analisa and Ebay dancing to: Larger than Life By: Backstreet Boys

Before you knew it, the 10 of us were on the dance floor doing the hoedown and dancin country style. Marty, the dj allowed us to request any song we wanted. Let's just say we had quite the variety: MC Hammer, Michael Jackson, 50 Cent, Technine, Backstreet Boys (yes, Ebay and I performed our dance), Lady Gaga, ACDC...the list goes on. We danced from about 8:30 to midnight, had the country bar on it's feet and got some locals to join us on the dance floor. I even believe the girls made it on top of the bar when the song "Single Ladies" came on. This night turned into much more than we could have ever expected from a town like Rockford. Long lasting memories were made as well as 15 embarrassing videos recorded :)

The Sunday Night West Central Dinner Crew :) These people are AMAZING!

Saturday was amazing as well! Had a wonderful phone convo with mommy, went to a yoga class, carved pumpkins, made lots of yummy treats, watched Hocus Pocus and ate Burger King :) LifeCenter was great on Sunday and we talked about the famous question: If God is so good then why is the world so bad? I got some great perspective on this topic! Sunday afternoon was relaxing and then Sunday evening the West Central crew stayed in and made SUSHI :)

LOVE YOU ALL! Have a great week!

Westboro Baptist Church Demo

Today Whitworth and the Spokane community came together in unity in response to a demonstration put on by the Westboro Baptist church. The WBC is a church group located in Topeka, Kansas that has very radical beliefs. To voice their beliefs, they travel all around the country demonstrating and holding signs. According to WBC, they came to Whitworth because, "the college students spend more time pursuing their drunken sins than their academic success. Their professors happily teach them the lie that "it is OK to be gay" and its just fine to flip off God and mock his servants". We know this is very scewed and far from the truth. While it is disturbing and frustrating to hear this, Whitworth responded in such a way that demonstrated love and peace.

Whitworth students united by wearing the color red to represent love. A "Love Walk" took place around the football field as a fundraiser, prayer went on in the chapel all day and signs were made to show that God loves everyone.

While WBC held up disturbing signs, Whitworth faculty and students held a sign saying "LOVE" and stood silently behind the protesters.

This was a bitter-sweet even. In one aspect it was a great thing to be able to show our love for these people and hopefully let them know that God loves them and EVERYONE. However, it is sad to see such awful messages represented on the signs and that people actually believe them to be true. Hopefully this only brings the Whitworth community closer in embracing everyone for who they are; a son or daughter of Christ.

Relationships are fundamental to life!

The past 3 weeks Ebay and I have been lucky enough to have guests! Jackie came over the beginning of the month, Lindsay followed the weekend after, and Ande and Claire were our recent visitors!

Ande's blog had a wonderful summary of our time together this weekend! I though I would extend her blog by adding a few details to our weekend :)

1. First off, hanging out together in the living room and chatting away felt as if we do it every single day.

2. We ate lots and lots of crackers, cheese and carrots at Manito while watching two men take numerous pictures of their car (yes, their car) in front of the Japanese Gardens. They made sure to hit every angle as well as get some with the hood up and hood down. Interesting.

3. Joanna, Claire, Ebay and Ande attempted to lick/suck on ENORMOUS lollipops that Ande brought. Very entertaining to watch them try and stuff a six inch, square sucker in their mouth.

4. Ande suggested Taco Bell for dinner (AHHHH TACO BELL). We all enjoyed a taco or two and watched a cute homecoming couple enjoy a Taco Bell dinner with a table cloth, candle and real dishes!

5. To work off our Taco Bell, we watched a tutorial on "How to do the Jerk", to the song "You're a Jerk". We learned the moves the reject and dippin.

6. Decided we needed to show off these moves downtown so we hit up Jimmyz where we were far from impressed by the males. Rollad and his dance moves, the guy that claimed it was his 23rd birthday and his friend Luka, Michael who was impressed by our jerk and Ross just did not cut it. So.....

7. We left and went to McDonalds for three small fries, a cheeseburger and 7 ketchups for Ebay.

8. Sunday, we went to Dutch Brothers before church only to watch a guy drive reverse through the drive-thru, try and scare us by putting on a Halloween mask and then throwing confetti out his window...

9. Oh and Ebay never really got the jump down :)
Overall, it was a wonderful weekend filled with more amazing memories!

Daze...

The past 8 days has been quite the daze...

Last week I had my first official Graduate school breakdown that resulted in my walking out of class half hour early! Ebay and I had many overwhelming days where we felt constantly confronted and reminded of the brokenness that exists in our own backyard. It seems that we couldn't go anywhere without feeling depressed about the things we were seeing. Whether experiences with our families in West Central, issues with our students at school or simply making a trip to WinCo, I feel like I am intentionally searching for any bit of hope that exists for these people...

God of course came through and at church we received an important reminder that while all of this brokenness does exist, there are many people out there helping. Joe began the new lifecenter series called "Filling the Hole in Our Gospel"...he reminded us last Fall that as a church we sponsored 1,500 kids in ONE day! He also explained that our giving went up 7% and therefore, 20% of finances went directly to local and global ministries. They introduced a new program call Love 360 that focuses on local and global service. He encourages everyone in the church to get involved with SOMETHING! So it was good to be reminded that many people are giving time to serve and help alleviate the brokenness we are confronted with.

School is busy and stressful...I feel like I am going going going. Grammy had a set back that put her back in the hospital. All I can know is that God is taking care of her. This week has been hard but a song that has helped rejuvenate my hope is Jesus Saves by Jeremy Camp. Listen to it!

It was also so wonderful to see Lindsay this weekend! Linz, thanks for sleeping with me :) Nothing makes me happier then the times I get to spend with such wonderful friends. Looking forward to seeing Ande and Claire this weekend :)

Peace and love,

Analisa

A weird half hour

Tonight I had a weird experience. I was studying and doing homework at the Service Station like I typically do. There was a YoungLife event going on so I saw a ton of Whitworth people I knew. It was wonderful to catch up and be immersed into the community. Looking around @ the coffee shop I observed many different bible studies going on, students studying and others simply hanging out. All of this is pretty typical for a night at the Service Station.

After studying, I had to make a stop at the grocery store for a few things so as I normally do, I crossed the street and headed to WinCo. Now Ebay and I go to WinCo probably 3 times a week and it is no surprise to us that the culture of WinCo is one of its own. Unfortunately, many people in the community resort to WinCo because of the cheap prices of things. Therefore, there is an expectational diverse population. Tonight when I walked in I felt as if I were walking into a grocery store in a third world country. I'm not sure if it was just the night or the contrast between the Service Station and WinCo but I felt my heart breaking. I am definitely not trying to place judgment or assumptions on the outward appearance of people because that is not my place. It was however apparent that there are so many people struggling simply to afford groceries.

Feeling in a bit of a daze I waited in line at the checkout. The nice lady at the register noticed my Willard Elementary badge and asked if I was a substitute teacher. I told her no and explained to her that I was student teaching. She proceeded to tell me that she is a substitute in district 81 and has been for the past four years. However, she then explained to me that she holds a Bachelors and Masters in teaching but has not been able to get a job since arriving in the United States from the Philippines four years ago. She explained that she is completely qualified to teach but her heavy accent turns people off for hiring her. Therefore, on her nights she works at WinCo to pay the bills. Here I am, 22 years old working on my Master's Degree. In less than a year I will probably not have a problem getting a job because of my race or language...but here is this women completely qualified for a teaching job (probably more experience then most) but can't get a job because of her accent...

WinCo has not just been a place to buy my groceries but has been a place that reminds me about the small blessings I have in my life. "Lord, break my heart for the things that break yours".

Welcome Fall :)

We are matching in our dresses and black sweaters!

It's 7:30pm and pitch dark as I sit at the service station on a Monday night! With an iced mocha in hand I am attempting to be productive at homework, completing to-do lists, working on Tanzania TA stuff, lesson plan reviewing and of course updating my blog! However, after a yoga class at OZ fitness (Ebay and my new home), I feel simply NAMASTE :)

This past weekend I had a spontaneous visit from best friend JACKIE! After missing her last weekend while I was home (she was in New York!!!) she decided to hop over the mountains for a weekend in Spokane. She arrived Friday night and we wasted no time and headed out to get some THAI FOOD! Shortly after, we enjoyed a bottle of red wine and a movie. Saturday was quite busy! We stopped by OZ fitness where Drew gave us a tour and a free week trial! We then headed to Nordstrom Rack, Value Village, the boys house to say by to Zach :(, Praire to sunbathe until the sprinklers got us, WinCo for groceries...then we cooked a yummy dinner, got some bulk candy at the store, picked up Jimmy and Bill for our movie date and saw Despicable Me @ the Garland and then headed home! What a fabulous day!

Sunday was glorious! Church was wondrous and appropriate. The message was all about not getting burned out, tired out and stressed out! I'd say this is a great time for each one of us to prioritize our lives and make sure we are taking care of our bodies (hence joining a gym and doing some yoga). Jackie took off and I did some homework! Ebay and I had our first workout session at the gym which was good. I had a soccer game with the good ole' Ninjas in the pouring rain and then we had a blessed evening down in West Central.

There is an update friends! Looking forward to many things this week. Missing Liana and the rest of the family but g-ma is still hanging in there! Love you all and keeping everyone in my prayers!