Happy Mother's Day Ma!

I asked my ma how I could make her day special, her response was, "Update your blog." Right, about that. It's been on my to do list, just things have been going so fast I haven't set aside the time to do so. Until now.

I have been sooo blessed by my family. More recently I've realized how much they've impacted, supported, and influenced me throughout my life, highlighted now by living far away from them. The past few weeks my schedule has been booked and a bit demanding so I've had a couple meltdowns in which I called my ma in tears, needing to talk it out and get a fresh perspective. No major crisis is happening, for which I am very thankful. The stress comes from being involved in many things, which comes from my variety of interests and passions, fueled by the desire to get to know people better, trying to fill that ever-present hunger for deep, genuine, and meaningful relationships, like I had when I lived near my family and close friends. All that to say, I am so grateful that God put me into the family He did, and that we can communicate(via technology), even though we're many miles apart.

I'm writing from Philadelphia. I spent this weekend with Luke and Liz(my sister and brother-in-law). It's been quite refreshing and comforting to be with them.
My last two trips down here were during my Christmas vacation and then in March, to attend a conference at their church. Luke's mom and brother joined us for Christmas vacation. We had some fantastic experiences together. Among them were: seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in NYC, doing the tourist thing in NYC, eating in some fine restaurants in downtown Philadelphia, seeing The Adventures of Tin-tin in 3D, exploring the Franklin Institute(an interactive science center in Philly), enjoying the excellent Christmas music and services at 10th Presbyterian Church, and greeting our family in Oregon via Skype on Christmas Eve.
In March, 10th Presbyterian Church hosted an Urban Ministry Conference. Liz asked me ahead of time if I wanted to come down to volunteer and attend. She's responsible for many of the events and conferences at that church, so was going to be very involved. After looking at my calender and checking out the information on the conference, I took her up on the offer. Of course it was a great weekend. The conference was packed with encouragement, practical instruction and many resources for reaching out to spiritually and physically broken and hurting people. It gave me a lot to think about. Probably the talk that impacted me the most was on true compassion, the kind Jesus showed to those He encountered while on this earth. He saw, cared for, and addressed people's deepest needs. He knew rightly relating them to God was the key for any kind of positive change. But He didn't ignore their physical needs and condition.
Back in NY I was given the opportunity to be involved in a local ministry to homeless families, through a national program called Family Promise. I'll go into more detail about it later, but just wanted to mention it.

I'm still in Philadelphia, planning to drive back to NY within the next half hour, so am going to sign out for now. I hope you all enjoyed some special family time today, appreciating and honoring your mothers. They are the best!