Learning to Trust

Greetings everyone!! Sorry it's been a little while since I last wrote! Life seems to be busy, until today. Life as slowed down a little as I began to really do the job search thing. If you remember, please pray that God really leads in this area. I've been a little nervous about this whole thing. Which leads me to where I am today. Learning to trust. Learning to trust God, learning to trust those around me, and learning to trust myself.
So, I think I left you with my car being broken down. Well, this is the first way God is saying "trust me." It would have cost far more to fix my car then my car was worth, so after all the laughs we had on our way here, I had to say good bye to my car. So my prayer has been that God would teach me to simplify. In fact, that is what the church will be studying together, "The Freedom of Simplicity" by Foster. But, right now it seems to make things all the more difficult. Many of the jobs I was applying for needed a car. Which doesn't rule out these jobs, just need to look at how it's going to work. The church has around 6 cars that people share, so this is a possibility!

We spent last week in orientation with all the new people. Pretty much how we do life here at Church of the Sojourners. It helped me relax knowing some details of things work. So just a few things, I know a lot of you are wondering how this all works. We live in 4 houses and split into households. My household includes everyone that I live with. So there are 6 of us right now that live in The Florida House. We do morning prayers together Monday-Friday at 6:45. We eat as households 3 suppers a week. We share finances. This part is a little scary in that I don't really have much money currently. But, this is how it works. Everyone in the church lives at the same standard of living, no matter how much you make. So you have enough to pay your bills; tithe, rent, food (which really goes into one pot with your households), medical, loans, debt, ect..... then you get a fund of $275 a month for whatever else you want to spend money on. Then anything else is God's money. And we discern together how God wants us to use it, who to give to, ect....... So another way God is teaching me that what I have is not my own, to trust Him, and trust those around me.
We also function a lot with discernment together. One day we practiced group discernment as one of the new people discerns a job situation. It will be a growing time for me of really trusting that God will speak through those around me. Pretty sweet. The Apprentices (Newbies) will meet once a week to help each other discern life stuff. We will study together a couple times a week. And will also take turns teaching.
This weekend we got to spend at the Quaker Center near Santa Cruz in the redwoods. It was beautiful. It was the annual all church retreat, so it was a great time of studying together what it means to be family, playing together (we got sweet time playing volleyball, bocce ball, ultimate frisbee, and of course settlers, yep they play out here too!), eating and praying together. It was a great to begin to really get to know some people. I'm beginning to really feel connected here. Which is good!
So, here I am learning to trust in a whole new situation. Breath, Nate, breath, God is here teaching me and He is in control! It will be year of great growth, a lot of mistakes I'm sure, new friends, and I pray a new level of trust!