I love the changing of the seasons! Sunday was the first day of autumn, and the weather here in NC is right on schedule. Temps. are in the 70s, and I remember why this is about my favorite time of the year.

"I saw old autumn in the misty morn stand shadowless like silence, listening to silence."
- Thomas Hood

Returned from LA Sat. night, in time to catch the end of Granddad's and Wayne McClain's conference at Aqueduct on Sunday morning. Powerful. I've got a friend from my Discipleship Training School Iin Europe (she's from GA) who came last night to visit for a couple days. We are headed to the beach this afternoon for a quick overnight trip.

Did I not make the call?! 'Friends' cast managed to steal the show. Katie and Matt even did an on-location Today's Show from the "Central Perk" yesterday!

Emmy ceremony this Sun. night at 8pm on NBC. Conan O'Brian hosting. My money's on 'Friends' to yank all the awards as they enter their ninth and final season.

Just wondering who, if anybody, is reading this blog. If you check it out, drop me a quick line and tell me so!

HopeyNC@aol.com

Finished the Harambee video today (thanks to Dereck and Donald) and touching up the Hispanic op-ed piece hopefully to be published in a local newspaper soon. Now I gotta get things packed up and ready to roll out bright and early tomorrow morning as I head back east. On one side of my head I can hear the Beach Boys singing "California Girls" and on the other I hear the sweet sound of the Embers singing "Carolina Girl." Good Lord, I may very well go through an identity crisis.

A little boy, Jeremiah, was pestering a little girl today. His buddy Jonathan saw what was going on and went up to him in haste saying, "Don't tease a girl, don't tease a girl." He heeded his advice. Then Jonathan looked up at me and said in a tone as stern as a preacher behind his pulpit, "NEVER tease a girl." The little kid is five.

I never did win the Spelling Bee.
www.m-w.com (Mirriam Webster) keeps me looking like I passed first grade. Excellent dictionary and thesaurus.

Another reference: www.searchgodsword.org
This is the spot if you can't quite recall the chapter and verse. I'm talking an expansive concordance with many versions of the Bible, Hebrew/Greek lexicon, one-year Bible reading plan, daily devotionals, and more. Somebody's done an awful lot of footwork from which I'm glad to benefit.

As an aspiring journalist/writer, I've been investigating which news source is the best for all-around current event coverage. I asked Dr. Chuck Stone recently. He's a former White House correspondent and now a hallowed UNC J-School professor. Incidentally, he also reads some 9 newpapers daily. His answer was (...drumroll...) the New York Times. Rudy, who's also quite the news-buff, says to go to other sources other than main-line media get a truer story. (I think that's good advice.) But, he voted for (...survey says...) the Washington Post as the best of mainstream news outlets. In case anybody else was wondering...

Tonight I took 5 children home after afterschool. Actually, it was after they had eaten dinner at Rudy and Dereck's after afterschool. These 5 little jewels are part of the Arriano family and make up only about half of the family's 11 children. DESTINY is written across each one of their faces, and b/c Harambee has taken them under its wings, I have no doubt they'll succeed. So I loaded all these kids into the van and we hadn't turned but a couple of corners when they said, "We have a song to sing for you." The next thing I know, they are singing at the top of their lungs "You Are So Beautiful to Me!" They seranaded me all the way home, sometimes replacing my name into the song lyrics, until we pulled into their "driveway"...the parking lot of a cheap hotel. All of these children, along with their mother, are CRAMMED into a one-bedroom hotel room with only one double bed. This is their home. With sleeping conditions like this, it's no wonder why this afternoon 6-yr. old Tanya was holding her neck in tears b/c of the pain.

This week school's back in session at Harambee Preparatory School. I'm helping with the afterschool program from about 3-6pm, working mostly with the kindergartners. They look so cute in their school uniforms! These children just melt me. They reach into your chest, grab your heart, and by the time you realize they've stolen it from you, you don't want it back anyway.

Tonight it's on...Rudy's got me working like a hard-core editorial writer, and my 800 word op-ed piece is due to him tomorrow at 8am. It's an article written "supposedly" (perhaps we can make it literally) for the Raleigh N & O on the Latino influx in NC. I'm finding all sorts of interesting facts and info. For instance, did you know that the Triangle Area made it on Hispanic Mag.'s top 10 list for best places for Hispanics to live in the US?!

Oh to believe in the undying, unquenchable, irrational love the Father has for me. Most of us don't believe the fact or the depth to which we are loved by Him. And yet I believe our greatest need as humans (all the more as Christians) is to know this this love -- not in a heady theological sense -- but as a down-deep-in-the-belly, gut-level conviction. More than we need to pray, more than we need to read the Word, even more than we need to strive to love God in return, we need to believe He is passionately and desparately in love with us.

Time and time again I am reminded of the angel's words to Daniel (Dan. 10:19): "Don't be afraid, for you are deeply loved by God." If I was convinced God loves me, I wouldn't question my circumstances so much because I would not question the all-together goodness behind the motives of my Heavenly Father. And if I did not not question His heart, I would dare to trust Him, and if I trusted Him, I'd have no reason to fear. Perhaps this has something to do with the Apostle John's understanding that "perfect love casts out all fear."

In his book Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning writes: "The splendor of a human heart which trusts that it is loved gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", the sight of ten thousand butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it."

I'm wondering who came up with the term "blog." The Web address sounds like www.steppinout.i'm-throwing-up-on-the-web.com. Well nonetheless, I suppose it's kinda neat to post your thoughts on the Internet. And it's easy. Just go to www.blogger.com, and you too can have your very own spot to regurgitate on the world-wide Web.

Big night on "the 'Hill!" While Tar Heel fans watch UNC take on Texas and former UNC coach Mack Brown (Go HEELS!), I'll be on the other coast watching the LA Galaxy take on the San Jose Earthquakes for their last regular season home finale.

Well, I'm becoming a "jack of all trades" here at Harambee. Today: a videographer for a wedding held here. Ha! I'm just hoping the dear bride and groom don't get nauseous from watching it -- at least then I'll have somewhat succeeded! It was a Latino wedding; Rudy did the service in both English and Spanish...pretty cool. The reception is getting ready to start up in a few minutes. I hear there's going to be a mariachi band!

Tonight I'm trying to get my friend Christi to go with me to the pro soccer Galaxy game. They play just minutes from here at the Rose Bowl, and the games are a lot fun.

I should also say that when I'm introducing myself to people out here and they don't remember from last summer, I just say "I'm Molly's sister," and their faces light up like 'Eureka!' She definitely left her mark. I think she ought to transfer to Fuller.