A new, great city

Two entries in one week? That's absurd! Well, I guess that's what you get when you live in a place like Pittsburgh where there's always something going.

Yesterday they had a guy who went through the Pittsburgh Project's after school program (who is in college now) come and show us all around for a day on the town. They guys and the girls split up for the day with separate leaders. The girls went and did girly things like take a boat ride and eat at the Cheesecake Factory. The guys, on the other hand, we spent the day visiting the strip malls and lots of little stores along Carson Street. It was a good time. We ate at this college joint that had erroneously big portions of french fries. I was just glad to be eating American food again. The day before we had gone to an India restaurant where I actually ate authentic food instead of wimping out. It was ok, but I think I felt the after effects for two days straight. All good now.

Today I went to church at the place where I am intern-ing. It really made me even more excited to be working there. The worship as a whole really seemed to be very spirit-led and sincere. The music minister that I will be working with did an amazing job focusing everyone on praising God and just simply giving everything to Him through song. I think I will be able to learn a lot from her.

This afternoon we had a cookout at the house of one of the Pittsburgh Project employees. They are very culturally, environmentally, socially aware people. Really that's just a nice way of saying that they're very "hippie" (whatever that means minus the drugs). It was really cool to talk to them and learn about their experience working with the Project. They were both vegetarians, so we got to have mushroom burgers among other things. I ate half of the burger, but the rest of the homemade vegetarian friendly food was really good. Especially the homemade salsa.

Tonight we are going to go to an emerging church called The Open Door. Kyle interviewed there, and he told us all about how great he thinks it is. I'm excited to go. I just really like exploring different styles and ways of worship. Tomorrow is Labor Day and we don't have anything scheduled. I think we're going to all hang out as a group tonight since no one has to get up for anything. It's really interesting to see how people who, at Bluffton, wouldn't normally hang out or even hardly talk to each other are growing so close here in this place. That exploration of community is just another thing I love about living here. Hopefully we don't all start to gnaw at each other, but I guess that's what community is all about: learning to live amidst all our quirks and differences. Time to head off to the Open Door.

Peace.