Pictures from Heroes event

(If you want to see the images larger, click on the pictures to open them up in a new window)
This is Noah at the Heroes event. Isn't he adorable? Our department with Noah: (from left to right) Philip, Annette, Rupa, Candace, Noah, Amber, me, someone else I don't know. Yes, Philip is the only guy in our department and he is quite a good sport about it. :P

My celebrity crush

I have a new favorite celebrity. This is rather odd for me; I usually don't recognize most celebrities' names or have any idea what they starred in--nor do I care for that matter! My one requisite L.A. celebrity sighting so far happened on a church visit, where I happened to sit in front of Tim Allen and shook his hand during the greeting time. Unfortunately the greatness of this moment was rather lost on me, as I've never seen Home Improvement and when my roommate freaked out and whispered loudly, "That's Tim Allen!!" I said, "Who?" :P I just hope he didn't hear me!

But now I have met Noah Gray-Cabey, and he's adorable!! Noah is a brilliant 12 year old actor and classical pianist who is currently starring in the TV show "Heroes." He played the part of our celebrity m.c. for today's big Red Cross celebration of our own local heroes, held as a super nice (fundraising!) luncheon at the Pacific Palms resort. It was a fun but exhausting day of hauling boxes, setting up for the event, connecting media representatives with the local heroes that were being honored, and enjoying the videos of the heroes as well as the very tasty lunch, dessert, and coffee. My coworker and I were sitting in the back, and our favorite part was watching Noah act as m.c. and getting to interact with him before and afterwards--and oh yes, our department staff took a picture with him! He came with his mom, and he is so charming, friendly, genuine, and down to earth--and has the most gorgeous black curls (pictures)! Now if only there was a 25 year old version of him! :P

Other than meeting Noah, it was a weird day of contrasts. It's a bit odd to be living among and making friends with the poor and kids from illegal immigrant families, and then to dress up and work a super nice luncheon at a resort with city mayors, powerful business owners, and wealthy folks in attendance. Working in a development (fundraising) department in general provides that contrast, but it's usually not as visible. I'm learning a lot from watching my coworker Amber Aiello, who used to work for Servant Partners and is still part of a church plant they started in a low-income community in Lincoln Heights. For instance, when we found out that some of the people who bought tickets weren't going to show up, and their food was going to go to waste, she asked our event planner to talk to the resort's food manager and try to convince her to box up the extra meals for us to take away. Thankfully the manager was kind enough to grant our request, so now a couple families Amber knows who live in a constant state of food insecurity will be able to enjoy a gourmet meal for free. The more I learn about how the world works, the more I see how the privileged and powerful are given so much nice stuff for free or discounted rates, whereas the poor and working class are cheated and exploited. This is depressing, but it makes me want to learn how to take actions like Amber and use whatever access I have to those with wealth and power on behalf of those in need. Learning how to do this is going to require developing some creativity, a sense of how to ask appropriately, and plain boldness to actually do it!

Reminders of Manila

For those who were tracking my journey back when my internship kicked off with several weeks in Manila, here's a recent blog post on The Margins from a conversation with Aaron Smith. Aaron and his Filipino wife Ema are the infinitely patient Servant Partners staff who guided our team during our stay in the Balic Balic squatter community. They were recently in the States for a couple weeks and we had the privilege of seeing Aaron again over at Kevin Blue's house, even if it was but briefly.

Depression and Inner City Youth

One of my fellow interns living in South L.A. sent out this article about depression rates among South L.A. high school students. One of the reasons I found this article really interesting was hearing the voices of students saying that they felt discouraged and set up to fail by low expections within the school system. I also was struck by how many students, when asked why they skipped school, cited answers that hinted at clinical depression. Perhaps before those of us who are outside the situation criticize inner city youth for not caring or their families for failing to infuse them with "proper" work ethic, we should consider our own part in contributing to or fighting the status quo of a society in which students in certain areas are struggling to push through every day dealing with abnormally high rates of (likely) clinical depression.

**Ooops. Click on this link and it should download a Word document with the LA Times article to your computer.***

Fire Season's Started

When my roommate and I found an injured bird in our backyard yesterday and called the Humane Society, they said that it might take a little while for them to send someone out because they were dealing with the fires in Arcadia. But I didn't really realize what was happening until I arrived at work at the Red Cross on Monday and discovered that my boss had flown back early from her weekend visit with her sister in Colorado in order to manage P.R. and work the shelters the Red Cross had set up. My other coworker is busy working the phones this morning. Yes, So. Cal fire season has officially started in our area. It's going to be a busy week here at the Red Cross, considering it was already going to be hectic before any fires broke out! For more information on the Arcadia and Sierra Madre fires, click here.

California ESL test

This is a useful site where you can check out how California students learning English as a Second Language are scoring on the state English proficiency test for ESL learners. You can look at results all the way down to the individual schools in your district; for example, I found it really interesting to check out the schools to which the Northwest Neighbors girls go.

Beautiful moments, disappointing moments

Last night was one of the best and worst times with the junior high girls I've had yet. If you want to hear about the crazy things that God did at the end of our study, email me or call me and I'd love to share! I'm in awe of the way God answers our prayers, but I don't want to freak anyone out, so yes, let me know separately if you want to hear about it. Suffice to say, it was cool!

On the worst side, as I was driving a couple of the girls home after they'd spent an extra 1 1/2 hours after Bible study at their friend's house, they told me that they had lied to me about having called their parents for permission and that they felt terrible about not being honest with me. This was distressing, particularly because I felt like now I'd broken trust with their parents because they thought I was the one keeping the girls out so late. I said: "thank you for telling me the truth. I really appreciate it. But I'm really disappointed that you would do that." Then I explained that if they did that, then their parents wouldn't trust me and then we couldn't hang out any more or go places like the overnight retreat we have coming up. I asked if they'd tell their parents the truth about what happened and they said no. To which I didn't really know what to do. I finally said, "well I can't make you tell the truth, but honesty is always the best way to go." Lame, I know. It was a rather silent car ride. As I dropped them off, I told them to at least apologize to their parents for me for getting home so late, and that I don't mind driving them home in the future but that their parents absolutely have to know where they are. I thought afterwards that perhaps I should have walked them into their houses and made them explain the truth to their parents in Spanish, but I didn't think of it at the time.

The whole drive home I agonized over how strict I should have been and how I'd responded to the situation. I didn't want to freak out on the girls because I appreciated that they'd confessed the lie on their own. But I also know it's important for their own growth and development to have boundaries and consequences to bump up against. And I think sometimes I err too much on grace and not enough on consequences. I'd appreciate any wise thoughts on pre-teens, lying, or consequences from any of you who work with youth or have raised kids of your own!