Sitting right across the street from Stanford, the Opportunity Center serves as a drop-in center and temporary housing for Palo Alto’s homeless.   It’s an awesome program for not only does it give these people a place to live and food, but it has a job incentive program, where it gets people back on their feet by providing them gift cards and goods in return for their work.  For many, the program is inspires confidence as well as gives them on the job training and marketable skills.

It was a great morning.  Not only was it an awesome opportunity to serve and get to know our community, but we had an awesome time doing it together.

getting ready to prep!

these ladies got skillz

(a great picture if you ignore my silly face! ... the sign that i've had a lot of coffee!)

slicin' and a dicin'

the crew

We met the night before Halloween at a local and amazing, yet shady roller rink for an evening of amazing retro fun,

some great hair,

and the hokey-pokey.

With no injuries to report and a good time had by all, it’s looking like Disco Skate Night is back to stay.

We joined UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, and Cal Berkeley a few weeks ago (Oct. 15-17th) at Redwood Glen Retreat Center for our fall retreat.  A remote conference center (i.e. no cell phone or internet reception) nestled away in the Santa Cruz Mountains,  we had the opportunity to get a good break from school, spend good time together, and learn from some great teaching.

Fred Harrell, Pastor of City Church in San Francisco, and David Jones’ RUF Campus Minister while going to school at UT Knoxville spoke on the topic of identity.  That is, how exactly does the gospel inform the way that we think about work, success, and vocation?

A very challenging but essential topic, indeed; especially as college is such a formative time for developing work habits and setting career goals and priorities.   It also was encouraging for me as I look ahead to what I’ll be doing after the internship.

A few pictures from the weekend…

Note the forced smiles-- they weren't too happy with my grabbing this early morning shot...

Only at retreat can we have even the slightest sense of camaraderie between the two...

The cheer squad!

The Game. Stanford and UCLA vs. Berkeley and UCSB. Stanford won, by the way. (just sayin'--gotta be clear about some things... )

A few pictures from the kitchen (due to privacy laws, we are unfortunately not allowed to take any pictures of the residents)…

Two words: grill. masters.

Some good 'ole bean prep

I was a bit occupied in meeting up with new students to document, so these pictures are a bit limited.  I do believe, though, that they do an amazing job of capturing what a great time we had.

when you read, you begin with A-B-C

when you sing, you begin with Do-Re-Me

when you begin the quarter, you start with the servant-leaders-retreat!

We kicked off the fall quarter with an overnight servant leaders retreat in Watsonville, California.  Lodging at a beautiful condo overlooking the Pacific Ocean, we enjoyed an evening of fellowship, fun, DJ teaching on the vision of RUF, and sharing our stories with one another.

It was a great trip!  I came away feeling like I knew the students better and it was so encouraging to hear what God is doing in our students’ lives.

Some pictures…

Some good 'ole pacific ocean football (note that I'm taking the picture! way to cold for me..!)

not sure that any caption could do this justice-- too cute!

nothing like the action shots!

David Jones, laughing as a student showed off his split lip (don't worry, I'll spare you those pictures) -- resulting from the game of football (another reason why I didn't play!)

Girl pile! Right in front of a wall of windows and the bright, late afternoon sun!

Group Shot from Retreat!

…. long-lost blogger!  It’s hard to believe that it’s been 3 months since I last posted.  While in Atlanta for training this past week, I got some encouragement friends to get back to it.  So armed and ready to go with some good shots from this fall, I’m committing to posting at least a few times over the following week.

As for now, I’m going to leave you with this picture from Fall Retreat. More to come tomorrow.  And in the meantime,  hope you’re having a great night (I’ll soon be making dinner– hmm, Real Simple Chicken Paprikash)!

Unfortunately–and as my Dad can verify for you!– I haven’t been much into taking pictures of myself or activities lately, so I don’t have many pictures to show from these activities, but give me a little time and I may be able to mooch a few off friends and dad (who, not surprisingly, took the most pictures during our vacation!).

Other than vacation and biking, I’ve been spending time in Mountain View, relaxing and hanging out with friends and roommates.  Doing a bit of work here and there (on track to have all my materials and discussions prepared for next year by the end of August!) and cooking and sewing a whole lot… This Sunday night, I head to Atlanta for RUF Summer Staff Training and the following week I go to Chicago to visit friends.  It’ll be a busy time, but I’m looking forward to catching up with friends.  The humidity, though, is a different story.  Man, have I gotten pampered here in dry California!