Email: Stephanie Pashby

Dear Friends,

I hope that this email finds you enjoying the magical colors of fall. I’m imagining them from afar, because it’s like continuous summer down here. The palm trees are as green as ever! And I am very much enjoying the sunny days. On Friday night it rained in Hollywood for the first time since I moved here. I felt like running in the streets and jumping for joy. It was an amazing thing to fall asleep to the sound of rain on the rooftop, and know that I won’t hear that sound for quite a while.

For those of you who do not have very much time to read this email, here’s a list of things the month of October has rung in for me:

• A new perspective of the wall between the United States and Mexico, thanks to the Borderlinks trip I went on.
• Awe at God’s beauty, especially in the sunshine.
• Perplexity at the dichotomy between rich and poor here. Working on an outreach team, I drive around in a van around Beverly Hills and Hollywood. We pass out lunches and informational flyers to homeless people there, and bring those in who are ready to go into a shelter. There are times where I have seen a homeless person right next to a designer shop. How can this be normal?
• Being overwhelmed at the number of churches in this city—please pray that God will show me which one I’m being called to regularly attend.
• Thankfulness for my roommates and the provision of our apartment.
• Joy at receiving a free ticket from my office to go see “Wicked!” (a musical that tells the story of the wicked witch of the West. I highly recommend it!)

That is the short end of things. Be looking for a lengthier newsletter that I hope to send out towards the end of the month. For now, though, I have finally jumped on the bandwagon and started a blog. Although I am still pretty illiterate, I hope you enjoy visiting my blog. I hope to be putting up more posts and some pictures as well when I get the chance.

May you rest in God’s peace this week,