Churches and Circuses

Saturday I went with Miark, Roger, Leigh, and some people from the Stockton club to the circus. It was fun, I guess. It was (I was told) the average size of a circus here, so like everything else here it seemed. . .small. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the majority of the acts, although they had an impressively flexible Asian woman who contorted herself in some crazy ways, and a pair of clowns that were really funny. However, having just been to a circus skills convention, I looked at some of the stuff in a different light. I’d either seen the skills done or even tried some of them myself. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t difficult stuff or I’d ever be able to do any of it, it just loses a little bit of the mystery and the magic when you realize that it IS possible.

Sunday I went to church, turns out that the closest one is a contemporary church which is pretty similar to the one I go to back home. The minute I walked through the door the greeter showed me to the sanctuary. Then as soon as I sat down a young woman named Sarah introduced herself to me and invited me to a woman’ s small group that meets once a week (on Mondays). She gave me her number and then as soon as she left, a third person came and introduced herself and invited me to sit with her. Talk about friendly. The service was nice, I recognized three out of the six songs, which was exciting and unexpected. The sermon was good as well, it was a little long but the pastor was eager to teach and it was a Biblically grounded and pretty interesting sermon, so it worked out. After the service there was tea, coffee, and juice served and I chatted and met some people. Then Sarah gave me a tour of the church and even invited me to have lunch with her! Intrigued and wanting to be more adventurous, I said yes. Once she locked up (she works at the church) we took the bus down to the Stockton town center (I’m not allowed to call it “downtown,” but that’s what it is) and ate and talked at a nice Italian restaurant. Sarah is 23 years-old and really sweet and nice. It was so good and refreshing to just sit and share with a fellow Christian. The people I live and work with aren’t Christian, so while they’re nice, I just don’t get to share that identity with them, you know? And in a place where I stick out like a sore thumb, the connection I felt with her was great. I shared a purpose and an identity with her and it was comforting that the cultural barrier doesn’t effect the oneness of the Church. While I have been working to stay in prayer and in the Word, the refreshment of Christian fellowship for the first time in three weeks was wonderful. God is so good to provide a church that’s just a four-minute walk away and hopefully a Christian friend and confidant as well.

After church I came back to Claire’s and hung my laundry up to dry (I started it washing before I left for church) and then wired a boombox outside so I could listen to music and practice my juggling in the beautiful weather. My friend Nathan mailed me some cds with my favorite music on it so I tried to relax and enjoy the afternoon despite hitting myself with clubs all the time. It is a slow and painful process for me and it doesn’t seem like I’m getting anywhere, but I guess we’ll see. Later that evening I went to Roger’s and he and Miark and I ate and hung out. I had talked to Nathan and my family (via webcam) the night before, and I got to talk to my friend Andrew on Sunday, so I’ve done my share of socializing with home this week, which was nice.

Work today was okay, Monday is the worst day because the orders pile up over the weekend and it is a stressful day for everyone because we have so many orders to process and ship out. I tried to hook up with Sarah to go to that church small group thing tonight but the mobile number she gave me didn’t work and I couldn’t catch her before she left work. So I waited to see if she would show up where and when we talked about meeting, but she didn’t. I’m sure it was just because she didn’t get a definitive answer on me about whether I would go or not. So I gave up waiting in the cold and walked back home. Roger is out this evening, but Miark has keys to his house and I really want to post this as soon as possible, so Miark is going to come and get me any minute and we will walk down to Roger’s and do a little bit of blogging and maybe a little bit of work as well. Sounds like a plan, eh?