24 Hour Car Rides Stink...

***Warning***This first blog is lengthy

Hello everyone, this is a blog for those who want to stay in touch with the happenings of my life in SoCal. I am going to send out monthly newsletters but this blog will be updated at least once a week, maybe more often depending on what happens down here. Of course, this may only last for a few months and then I'll get sick of it, but it will serve as a good connecting point for awhile at least. So please feel free to respond, to write comments, to email me, to mail me, call me, or anything else. I would love to be in contact with my friends from home as life goes on here in Pasadena. My contact information is:

192 S. Allen Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91106
509.844.5711
dlpettis@gmail.com

Ok, some background info. For those of you who do not know, I have been hired by a young church in Pasadena to manage a cafe. The church is called Corridors, and it is run by Pastor Sam Thomas (Matt Thomas' son for those of you who know him) and his wife Christy. They moved down here about three years ago to inject some fresh air into an older, almost stagnant congregation. Among the many remodeling projects they have undertaken on the church, one of the main ones has been the cafe. They completely remodeled the foyer in the church to make it a smaller version of the Service Station. The reason behind the cafe is twofold: to make money which could go support other Corridors ministries (and employees), and to foster a sense of community in the area where people can belong and be welcomed before they have to believe in Jesus Christ. We plan on having open mic nights, prayer and worship nights, small concerts, local artwork, and so on. We also want it to be a springboard for connecting those in need in the community. This could be achieved by having a bulletin board with information on social services in the community. This board could also be a way for people to find avenues to serve. Basically, we want the cafe to be an expression of the church of Christ: meeting needs, serving, worshipping, praying, fellowshipping, caring for the poor and disenfranchised, etc.

Our plan is to have a grand opening on August 18th, a week or two before the local colleges start up again. Corridors is located right next to three colleges: Pasadena City College (which is the one we're targeting the most), CalTech, and Fuller Theological Seminary. So the target demographic will be young adults. We have several new computers that will be available for use as well as printing services and free wireless internet. Hopefully it will turn into a college hangout/homework area. Maybe we will offer tutoring or something...

You might be asking yourself, "Why in the world did Sam hire someone who has no business, marketing, or coffee experience to manage and market a cafe?" That's a great question. Sam's crazy. I'm stoked for the challenge and Sam, Christy and I are all going to be pouring our energies into the cafe together. We're all going to be brain storming marketing ideas and helping run it, I'm just the official manager, the one who will order supplies and all that. I remember my good friend Jason Roberts giving me some good advice earlier this spring. He said that whatever I decided to do, I should put myself in a situation where I have to rely upon God for success, so that I have to give him credit/glory for anything that comes of it. Well, this is certainly a situation where I can't rely upon my experience or schooling. In our weaknessess, God will be strong through us.

Now on to my last week or so in Pasadena. I left Spokane Friday, July 6th around noon. I didn't start packing until that morning around 930, which wasn't too smart (I definitely forgot many things...oh well). I drove my 96 Accord down by myself. I got in to Pasadena around 3 pm Saturday and was quite sick of being in a car. I had slept for three hours, so I was tired, sore, and overwhelmed with change. I think I'm going to invest in some sort of butt cushion for any more road trips over 15 hours.

I am moving into a room in a house owned by the church in the church parking lot. The house is terribly old and pretty gross. It makes me the DriveInn look like a spotless wonder. Anyways, Christy and I spent the next day repainting the room to a two tone look of brown and avocado. I might get sick of this, but it's fun for now. Then I installed some trim and started moving in. I didn't bring any furniture down because I just took my car, so I am borrowing a bed and dresser and I'm using an end table for my desk at the moment until I get some other stuff.

I've been learning the area in the last few days. It is nice because everything is so close, I don't need to do much driving. I drove down to LA General Hospital to visit Mitch yesterday (FYI Mitch is Sam's brother and has leukemia, but he's doing well and is in his second round of chemo).

Every Wednesday night we have Crux, which is like a youth group deal with a wider age range (6th grade til college age, pretty much whoever wants to come). It was good to meet some new people and hang out. I have been learning quite a bit over the past week. I have definitely realized how important family and friends are. I definitely took all of you for granted when I was in Spokane. I went through a really tough couple of days when I was so homesick and overwhelmed with all the change and pressure of starting a cafe that I just felt sick. But that has gotten much better, although I still miss so many of you. As far as feeling overwhelmed with the cafe, that has gotten much better as well. I have had great conversations with Mom, Christy, and Sam over the past couple days that have helped tremendously. I just need to continue to rely upon God, to press into Him. If this ministry isn't based/guided/empowered by the Spirit, it's worthless. It has been made clear to me that I can't rely on myself for ministry anymore. That kind of ministry sucks. I have also been trying to get in a routine of devotions in the morning, a good amount of the Word and some Greek and some classic Christian literature as well. I would recommend Brother Lawrence's Practice of the Presence of God. It's good. God's also been reminding me to simplify my relationship with Him. Listen, and obey. Hear his word, and do it. Know the word, do it. Discern his spirit, and obey. It's tough, but necessary.

Today we had a big house cleaning day at my house, so we got it looking respectable. That's quite exciting to me.

Oh and on Monday I went surfing and got up a couple times, which was sweet!

Well, I'm sure there's more stuff to say, but I wrote a ton, so I'll write more some other time. In the meantime, I would love to hear from you. Like I said at the beginning, my new email address is dlpettis@gmail.com. While it would be nice to talk on the phone with everyone, it isn't too likely to happen too often, so if you feel so inclined please shoot me an email. Let me know what God is doing in your life. Shoot me the important stuff. Maybe this can be some kind of cyber church or something.

*Praises...I am getting paid and I will have health insurance! Yeah! ... I'm already getting stretched and learning what it means to be away from home and to be out of my comfort zone ... I'm not nearly as stressed/worried/anxious about the cafe and about life now as opposed to a few days ago ...
***Prayer...we need to rent out the church on Sundays to get some money, so however God wants to work that out ... for surrender in my own life to God on a daily, constant basis ... whatever else the Lord lays on your heart ...

-Doug