Summer certainly is different here in Northern California.  All my life the dress code for summer has been shorts (not too short of course), tank tops, tshirts, flip flops, swimsuits, and sundresses.  [Can I get an 'Amen' from all the Texans out there?] Summer was a time when it was sometimes too hot to even wear jeans. I can remember at youth camp in the summer, we weren’t allowed to wear shorts or skirts to the evening service.  It was so hot even at night in our jeans. We’d wear them to the service only and then go change back into our shorts as soon as it was over.

Well, not here in Northern California.  Yesterday we went to church and I wore what I thought was going to be just fine.  I wore a cotton dress that goes to my knees and has short sleeves.  Perfectly acceptable for a summer day, right?  Nope.  The second I stepped outside I wished I had picked differently.  I also wished that we weren’t running behind and I had time to go inside and change.  I was really cold walking from the car to church, etc.  So today I wore: Jeans, tshirt, and a SWEATSHIRT!! I still wore my flip flops but did have a couple of moments that I wished I’d worn tennis shoes instead.

This is certainly a new experience for me.  Now for all you out there who are thinking I’m having a “I miss Texas” moment, that is not true at all.  I’m perfectly happy with this change.  I’m not complaining. Just stating obvious differences that I am experiencing between Texas and California.  I am more than happy to put on a sweatshirt on August 18! By the time we arrive back in Texas it will be sweatshirt weather there, and I’ll be ready!

46 Days
4,709 Miles driven
12 States passed through
4 Times zones passed through
12 Different beds slept in
2 Trainings completed

Finally home.

Where is home you ask?

For now, it is Alameda, California.

Sam and I were so glad to finally arrive here in Northern California on Monday evening. We spent most of this week resting from the past month on the road and getting settled into our new place.  We are really grateful for the place Sam’s parents found for us to live.  It is convenient, affordable, and cute!

I am looking forward to experiencing all the things that Sam loves so much about this state and town. So far, the weather has almost won me over.  It is pretty wonderful. I am sure there will be things that are not as familiar and I have to get used to. But, that’s okay.  I hope this extended time here will be great for me to know Sam even better by understanding this place and culture.

Here are some pics from our journey from Houston to California.

The Alamo in San Antonio. I’ve lived my entire life in Texas and this was the first time I visited the Alamo.
I actually found it kinda boring…Shh… don’t tell.

Who knew Texas wasn’t flat? Not me! The drive from San Antonio to El Paso was actually quite pretty. Surprisingly.

We spent a night in Phoenix and our friends the Tinlin’s hosted us. Thanks Tinlin family! We had fun hanging out with you guys.

Rain over the mountains. Pretty cool to watch from afar. We saw this a couple of times.

The first place we ate after entering California. :-)  Becoming tradition.

Los Angeles. We got to hang out with Christine in LA. Fun times walking on the beach and down the 3rd street promanade.

I’m watching the USA vs. Spain basketball game on TV right now and it gives me joy to hear “Roundball Rock,” John Tesh’s NBA on NBC theme, again.

Is that weird?

After our training was finished we went to Chicago for some play time! It was a blast.  We love Chicago! This was Sam’s first trip to the city and my second.  We had the most amazing accommodations thanks to our friend Steve Ku.  Thanks Steve!!

We really only had one full day in the city but we did a lot, thanks to our event planner, Bethany Lee.
Our activities included:
Walking around Michigan Ave and enjoying the sites
Portillo’s Hot dogs
Frozen Yogurt at Berry Chill
Homemade breakfasts (each morning)
Tour of the Chicago Tribune (thanks Esther!)
Giordano’s Pizza
Millennium Park
Architecture River Tour
Sushi (with Anne) at Oysy

Here are some pics from our time in Chicago.

Friday dinner at Portillo’s.  Interesting…

Alvin and Bethany inside of Trader Joe’s.  Shopping for breakfast supplies.

View from window of the condo.

From the balcony

Michigan Ave

Sam made yummy french toast on Saturday morning.

Lunch at Giordano’s.  Mmm.

The BEAN (cloud)!! SO cool.

Our reflection in the bean.

On the boat ready for the architecture tour! It was great!

We are thankful for the time we got to spend in Chicago before heading back to Texas. We arrived here in Houston on Monday night (just in time for Tropical Storm Edouard…which wasn’t all it was cracked up to be). We have spent the past two days organizing our stuff and packing. We hit the road tomorrow to start our journey out to California.   We anticipate arriving in the Bay Area on Monday afternoon. Thanks for your prayers as we continue traveling for a few more days.

So we’re currently at the Houston stop on our massive road trip. As I look back on the places my car has been, I’m pretty impressed. I know other cars who have traveled more extensively than my modest car, but I never expected it to travel this much when my dad and I purchased it. My 2003 Matrix, the one that Nicolette affectionately calls the “Marshmallow Car,” has visited 21 states in the six years I’ve owned it.

I don’t anticipate it visiting any new states before we head overseas, but who knows. It’s already exceeded my expectations. It can do it again.

Many of you will remember our requests for prayer for our friends Matt and Lauren Larsen in a previous post.  Lauren struggled through a very difficult pregnancy and delivered her baby girl (Gracen Life Larsen) on Thursday night. She and the baby have an infection that has severely effected baby Life. Please join with us in praying for this precious family.  For specific ways to pray and to stay up to date, check Matt and Lauren’s blog.  Thanks friends.

Today we begin our journey back to Texas. We will be driving for the next two days and arriving in Dallas sometime Monday evening.  Only days after that we will start the drive out to California! Lord willing one week from now we will be making our arrival in So Cal and then arrive in the Bay area on Monday.  Please pray for us as we have many hours and many miles of driving ahead of us over the next week.

Well, we have moved from Dearborn to Farmington, Michigan. We finished our first training last Friday.  Now we are at the SEND International headquarters going through Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills (SYIS) for the next week.  So far it is great and will hopefully be a very beneficial week for us.

I wanted to share pictures of some of the highlights from our time in Dearborn. It was difficult to update that often because of our busy schedule, so you are getting a bunch of pictures that happened over three weeks all at once. I will give explanation as necessary, but mostly it’s just pictures. These pictures are a mix of new friends, good food, and places we visited.

Bob Evans - Where we went several times for brunch

This is a precious family that we became friends with. We got to take them out for Chinese food! Our time with them was certainly a highlight for all of us.

Outside the Chinese restaurant

our dinner. yum.

We (the girls) had a great opportunity to get to know these two ladies. They were so much fun to interact with and get to know.  When we left we felt like we had known them for longer than a few days.

There are so many bakeries up here in the north.  This one was our favorite!

Baklava…mmmm!!

Inside of the bakery

Us with our new hats and yummy desserts! We were there celebrating the birthday’s of two of these people.

Birthday girl #1 (it’s today actually. July 28!)

Birthday girl #2 (her bday is Wednesday July 30).

This is one of two mosques that we visited while in Dearborn. This one is the largest, newest, and most beautiful.

Bethany and Felicity with some girls we had met at the park the week before. They remembered us when we were at the mosque.

Kids playing during prayer

Girl praying after most people had left the mosque

That’s all for now folks. Hope the picture update was enjoyable for you. Our first day of SYIS has been really good so far.  I think this week will fly by and then we will begin our journey back to Texas. Thanks for journeying with us friends. We love you and miss so many of you.

We’ve begun our time here in Farmington, Michigan, about 20 minutes away from our previous training in Dearborn.  One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about our time in Michigan is the weather. It’s been in the high-70s to mid-80s with low humidity. It’s glorious. It reminds me of the weather in the Bay Area and it makes me look forward to returning there soon. One of the fondest memories that I would often reminisce about while I was in KZ was the slow drives home on sunny fall days after a day of subbing with the windows down, left arm outstretched with the breeze blowing through my spread fingers.

But as we approach the end of our trainings in Michigan and prepare to return to California, I find myself thinking more about our time there. There are plenty of things that I’m looking forward to, that’s for sure. In addition to the weather, I look forward to eating good Chinese food. I look forward to moving into and getting comfortable in our new apartment that my dad found. I look forward to seeing the newly renovated movie theater that opened recently in Alameda. But most importantly, I look forward to spending time with old friends and family. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to spend a lot of quality time with people in the Bay Area. Over the past five years I’ve only been able to do so during short breaks when I’ve been back between semesters. It will be good to spend the next four-plus months there.

One uncertainty, though, is where Charis and I will find community. Though we’ll have a number of friends in the Bay Area (including several Dallas transplants in San Francisco), they’re spread out all over the place. We’re looking for friends with whom we can spend regular time. Who knows, they may be old friends or they may be new friends we make at our church. But this bit of uncertainty is something that we hope will develop quickly.

For those of you in the Bay Area, we look forward to seeing you soon. Please be our friends. Haha.

1. You have Mexican food! Yum!!

2. You get a pinata (thanks to an awesome husband!).

3. There are flowers! (thanks mom and dad)

4. You have awesome friends! Thanks everyone for the bday wishes. And thanks Bethany, Christina, and Felicity for arranging for me to receive them.

I know it was over two weeks ago, but I had a wonderful birthday and wanted to share about it.  So far, (2 weeks in) being 30 is not too bad.

So, as you know, we’re still in Michigan for training and my role is still one of a gopher. Today, Avery and I were asked to go teach English at the outreach center where the organizers of our training work. After a little confusion with where our classroom was we settled down with two Yemeni guys. Their English was limited so we ended up spending about two hours with them explaining different grocery store vocabulary from a picture dictionary.

We got along well with the two guys and near the end of our time they asked us if we were from China. Understanding that they were asking more for our ethnicity than our place of origin we answered in the affirmative. We were having a good time, so they then asked us if we knew kung fu. This was an obvious stereotype that we couldn’t perpetuate (neither of us have ever had any type of martial arts training) and Avery wanted to show them that generalizations are hard to apply to individuals. Here’s what transpired:

Kamal: Do you know kung fu?

[laughter]

Avery (smirking, but wanting to show that stereotypes aren’t true): Do you know how to ride a camel?

Saeed: Why yes, I do!

Kamal: Yes, I ride camels!

Avery (thinking): (Shoot.)

It was pretty funny. I don’t think either of us expected them to know how to ride camels. Avery quickly recovered, though, and got them when he asked if they knew how to drill for oil. They didn’t.

So today marks our one year anniversary. So you get two posts today. Ha. But as you know by now, either because you’ve kept up with us or because of Charis’ last post, we’re currently training in Dearborn, Michigan with our team and a bunch of other folks. Because I’ve already gone through it previously in the summer of 2000, I don’t have to sit through the classes. So while Charis was learning in the sessions I was out doing random things for the organizers of our time here. The whole time I was trying to think of something to do for our anniversary. As we just arrived yesterday I didn’t have a lot of time to scout out the area and plan something nice.

I ended up asking for a suggestion from someone who worked for the church where our training is located and made a reservation for six o’clock. But it felt so lame and contrived. I kept wishing that I could’ve done something more elaborate and more original and more romantic. It’s our first wedding anniversary! I wanted to do something memorable.

However, Charis and I talked about what we wanted and I expressed my disappointment about the situation and we eventually decided to go to the Buffalo Wild Wings that we had passed by yesterday (her suggestion). We had eaten salad for lunch and were hungry a little early, so we headed out during the rain to go to dinner. Not elaborate, not original, not romantic.

Yet, when I think about it, this was the perfect way to celebrate our first anniversary, despite what you may think. I can imagine some of you being disappointed in our decision or my lack of planning, but this typified our relationship more than something more elaborate. I asked Charis over dinner what her favorite memories were about our past year together and she asked me the same. Our answers were similar. Our favorite times were not the big moments with much fanfare and celebration; they were the small things about our relationship that we shared. As I compose this entry while Charis watches the fancy events on The Bachelorette finale, it’s even more striking the contrast of the things that we appreciated most about this past year with each other. We loved spending quiet moments with each other; we loved laughing with each other; we loved just being with each other. And as we sat eating at Buffalo Wild Wings and as I got food all over myself and as we laughed at/with each other, it solidified for me even that this unelaborate anniversary dinner was OK because it perfectly exemplified who we are and our time together as husband and wife this past year. Though we like and appreciate the big and fancy things, it’s the small and mundane things in our relationship that we love.

This past year has been great. Charis is wonderful and perfect for me. I love her dearly.

It has been a while since our last update and that is because a lot has been happening and our internet availability has not been as regular as usual.  So, where have we been and what are we doing?  I’m so glad you asked!

On June 27 I worked my last day at Dallas Seminary. My last week there was very bittersweet. I have been so blessed to work there for the past (almost) two years. I worked for the greatest boss anyone could ever ask for. Dr G is such a servant and loves students so much. He cared for me and encouraged me in ways I never imagined a boss would/could. I admire him so much.  I believe that he has the most difficult job on campus and yet he works with such joy and devotion.   Thanks Dr G! It was a true honor to work with and for you.

On June 28, with the help of a few great friends, we moved out of our little apartment in Lake Highlands.  This only happened after we sold/gave away/trashed a large portion of our belongings.  There is something about packing/moving that makes you realize how much stuff you really have and that you don’t need most of it.  As we left the complex and headed to Houston, I couldn’t help but think about the significance of that apartment.  It was occupied by me for 1 1/2 years and by both Sam and I for the past year.  Many memories, good and bad, were made there. Actually no, not bad memories. Just a few hard times. Hard times that made us grow, trust, communicate, and love better.  That apartment is where Sam proposed to me on February 10, 2007, where I recovered from 2 surgeries, where Sam and I both finished our studies at DTS, and where we laughed a LOT as we learned to live together!

After spending a few days in Houston (storing our things and being with my parents) we hit the road with the rest of team and made our way to Dearborn, Michigan.  Our roadtrip started in Dallas on July 4. We arrived in Michigan yesterday (July 6) evening.  Our journey here took us through Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and finally Michigan! Here are some pics from our journey here!

Day One:

BBQ and Fireworks in Memphis on the 4th! (technically not Memphis, but Germantown)

Not sure what Sam is looking at. The fireworks had not yet begun.

The Chan’s enjoying hanging out with Pam and Ben who hosted us for the evening. What a blessing to be the recipients of such hospitality!

Edward and Christina waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Alvin enjoying the sweetest sweet tea any of us had ever had!

Day two:

Night 2 in Cincinnati!

Bethany at the entrance to Jungle Jim’s.  (giant international food market)

Dinner at Skyline Chili!

MMMM! It was yummy. Very unique.

So, we are here in Michigan and will be here until August 1.  We are taking part in two different sets of training.  After we leave Michigan the road trip will continue… stay tuned!

In the midst of preparing to leave Dallas, Sam and I were able to take some time to go on an awesome “last date” in Dallas. Sam’s cousin, Patty, gave us a gift card to an incredible restaurant for a wedding gift. We had not been able to use it until about two weeks ago. It was well worth the wait! I had never heard of The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in my four years of living in Dallas; but, apparently I am one of the few.  As I told a few friends about our wonderful dinner they were familiar with this Dallas hot spot.

Thank you Patty for gifting us with an exquisite dinner.  I have been to a few places in my life that were known as fancy or elite, but this certainly was better than any other.  In the few experiences I’ve had in restaurants like this I usually seem to be disappointed by something.  Either the service is only average (or worse) or the food is average (or too fancy to know what to do with).  But, that was not our experience at The Mansion.  Not only was the atmosphere beautiful and the service unbeatable, but the food was fabulous.  We ate enjoyed every bite of our simple grapefruit and avocado salad, King Crab, Lobster,  and Filet Mignon.  Plus our delicious desserts! Sam had the Lemon Dessert. It consisted of lemon verbena pound cake, frozen lemon soufflé, lemon curd, crispy meringue and lemon ice cream.  He loved it! I also loved my chocolate and peanut butter dessert (sounds boring, but I promise it was incredible!).

I wanted so badly to take at least one picture during this dinner, but we didn’t want to make a spectical of ourselves, so we didn’t.  We tried to take a picture when we got home while we were still dressed up…. this is what you get…

No comments please. We really were trying…just laughing too much.

I fell asleep. What’s new?

Sam made a face. Again, what’s new?
One more try is all we get!

Yay!

Did anyone else get their graduation DVD from this year’s DTS graduation? I just skimmed it today and I’m featured pretty prominently at the 4:35 and 5:10 marks, much to my own amusement and probably to the exasperation of the video editing department. I’m so mature. Hahaha.

How is it possible to be a follower of Christ and still experience times when you feel abandoned (for lack of better words) by the Lord?  How does one maintain faith, trust, HOPE, and dependence on God in times like this?

Psalm 44 has captured my thoughts this morning. As I reflect on the words of the Psalmist and all that has taken place in Israel up to this point, the trust and hope in the Lord that is shown is so inspiring.  This is what it looks like to maintain belief and faith in the promises of God when His hand is not evident.
I will let the Word speak for itself. It needs no explanation.

—————————————-

Psalm 44

We have heard with our ears, O God;
our fathers have told us what you did in their days,
in days long ago.

With your hand you drove out the nations
and planted our fathers;
you crushed the peoples and made our fathers flourish.

It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face, for you loved them.

You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob.

Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes.

I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory;
but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame.

In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.

But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies.
You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us.
You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations.
You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.
You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
You have made us a byword among the nations;
the peoples shake their heads at us.

My disgrace is before me all day long, and my face is covered with shame
at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

All this happened to us,
though we had not forgotten you or been false to your covenant.
Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path.

But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals
and covered us over with deep darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.

Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

We are brought down to the dust;  our bodies cling to the ground.

Rise up and help us;
redeem us because of your unfailing love.

———————————————-

May I be found faithful no matter what may come.
HE is faithful and HIS love never fails!

So, we’re part of a world record making team now. Are you?

And so it begins…

Today my coworkers took Sam and me out for a farewell lunch at Chuy’s. It was a lot of fun and a sad realization that goodbyes are beginning. What is more than that, it will be a long time before they end. I knew this was coming. Goodbyes really aren’t fun no matter how much you think you are prepared for it.

It is a very bittersweet thing to say goodbye to friends here. For the most part when we all met, we never expected to be together forever. Each of us came to Dallas to study and be equipped to go out and do what the Lord has called us to do. It would be a very sad thing if we all just stayed here and never pursued the things we know the Lord is leading us to.

So, the long goodbye process begins. Please know that no matter how hard it might be or how sad I might seem as I say goodbye, I am SO thrilled to be taking this next step and doing what I know without any doubt the Lord has called me (us) to do.

Here are a couple pictures from my fun lunch today with my AMAZING coworkers.

The ladies of the 3rd floor and Chaplain Bill.

I love this couple! I will miss you Lynn Etta!

Rachel, you have truly been amazing to me this year. I can’t imagine having gone through the past months without you. Thank you so much for being a friend and an awesome member of the DOSS family!

After lunch we stopped by The Crooked Tree. It is a great new coffeehouse in Uptown. If you are in the Dallas area you should totally check it out. Great coffee, great people, great atmosphere. Love it.

We are fans of The Crooked Tree! Can’t you tell?

Thanks for an awesome lunch friends!
It really has been a joy and pleasure to work with each of you. I love you.

Throughout the latter half of this year’s NBA playoffs I’ve been a bit ambivalent about which team I want to win. None of the teams have ignited my passions and I’ve found myself just rooting for whomever is behind so that it would be a good game or series. For the finals I’m still conflicted because there are a number of reasons why I want neither Boston nor LA to win.

For Boston, I’m tired of their teams (Patriots, Red Sox, and now the Celtics) being so successful and as a result, their fans turning into pompous jerks. Related, I dislike how Celtics fans arrogantly claim that their rivalry with LA isn’t really a rivalry because of Boston’s dominance in finals appearances against the Lakers (historically, the Celtics have a series record of 8-2 against the Lakers with the Celtics winning the first eight of the series). Also, whenever a Boston team does well Bill Simmons, my favorite sports writer, writes incessantly about Boston teams, which I find uninteresting and self-indulgent. Though I like KG and have been impressed by Paul Pierce, I think Danny Ainge lucked into the KG trade after years of incompetence as the Celtics’ general manager and I don’t want him rewarded for being lucky.

On LA’s side, I am decidedly not a Kobe fan and don’t want him to win another championship. I don’t think he’s as good as Jordan and would prefer Kobe to not gain any more accolades that would continue comparisons to the greatest basketball player to play in the NBA. I don’t like how he bullied Shaq out of LA a few years ago so that he could selfishly take the team as his own and I hate that he’s finding success after demanding a trade at the beginning of the season. Additionally, I hate the bandwagon Laker fans that only come out when their team is doing well (this was especially irritating when I was living in California). This is exacerbated by the reputation of Laker fans for their arrogance and general jerkiness, as well.

Well, this ambivalence all changed on Sunday night with the emergence of Leon Powe.

I’ve been a Powe (rhymes with “show”) fan ever since he began playing at Cal, leading the basketball team to an NCAA berth. I loved that he was a hometown hero who graduated from Oakland Tech (other notable alumni: Clint Eastwood, Rickey Henderson, and my mom). I wanted the Warriors to get him when he decided to enter the draft (unfortunately they passed on him in the second round to pick the unproductive Kosta Perovic). But what made me an even bigger fan was reading and hearing about the story of his childhood and learning about his work ethic and love for his family. The East Bay Express has a magnificent article about him written in 2003 when he was still in high school. It details how he grew up poor and sometimes homeless, needing to miss school to take care of his younger siblings while his mother went looking for food and work. It also depicts his penchant for hard work, both on the court and in the classroom, and his never complaining spirit. In more recent articles about him you hear about his desire to bring his siblings (who have been scattered in various foster homes) back together under the same roof and his wish to help the community in which he grew up. It’s hard not to root for this guy.

So on Sunday when he was featured on ABC’s halftime spotlight, when he scored 21 points in a mere 15 minutes, and when the crowd in Boston chanted his name, I was happy for him. He had worked hard through difficult circumstances to come to this point. But for me, I finally found something to root for, instead of just things to root against. Tonight, and for the rest of the series, I will now root for the Celtics because of Leon Powe.

That’s it. Only 19 days left in Dallas. I don’t think it has really hit me yet. I am excited about the next step in our journey and really have no idea what to expect from our time in California. I’ve lived in Texas for 28 of my 29 years of life.

This is my home. The Texas heat and humidity is what I know of the summer.

I am not sad that I’m going to miss the hottest part of the summer in Texas. When it is 101 degrees with 100% humidity in the middle of August, I’ll be in Northern California.

I’m very okay with that.

There are so many people I want to see before we leave and I’m realizing that there is no possible way for me to see them all and spend the time I want to with them. Sad. Thankfully we will be back in Texas after December and hopefully I can see some of them then.

We have a calendar that is almost full for the next 19 days. It is going to fly by I know. If we aren’t with people or working, we are probably packing. I am finishing up my job at DTS. We are transitioning leadership for our awesome LifeShare group we’ve been leading for the past year. Every nook and cranny of our apartment is being sorted through and either sold, given away, or packed. It certainly is a weird and very exciting time!

I imagine you will read more about this as we walk down this road in the coming days/weeks.