Monkeys and Pine Sol

Hello friends,
It has been 10 days and now I have been rejoined by Sam, Christy, and Dion here in Pasadena. Well I haven't actually seen them yet, but they were supposed to get in last night from Seattle. I was kindof a sloth this past week-I worked on making drinks in the cafe, I tried to figure out some more stuff on the cash register, and did some more odd jobs getting ready for the opening of the cafe. (FYI We are opening up on the 18th of August! That's quite soon...) There are a lot of things to be done still but we're not stressing, we know God knows what He's doing. God has already proved himself faithful with money as there has been a very generous response by our friends and family. We greatly appreciate it. While we aim on being financially independent and successful, there are a lot of initial start up costs that can add up pretty quickly. I've also been working on ordering supplies for the cafe, and I'm finding out that there's a good amount of research and effort that goes into that.

Avandre, a friend from Crux, had his cousin shot and killed a week and a half ago. It has been tough for the family but we've been trying to love on them as much as possible. We had a car wash at the church last week to raise money for the funeral and we had a post-funeral hang out kind of thing on Friday, so it was good to be able to use the church facilities to bless their family.

I'm stoked to be getting a chance to get to know some of the guys here a little better. I'm meeting with Leo (one of the guys I live with) on a weekly basis, and I'm excited to see what we can learn from each other. We've been keeping each other accountable with reading the word over the past week ,which has been great. I've particulary enjoyed the Psalms, just seeing how honest and forthright David is. But he is always giving God praise, no matter how sucky the circumstances are.

Some great news is that Mitch is now home! He got out of the hospital yesterday and he was incredibly excited. We immediatley went to Outback (where he works) and got some delicious steaks for free. It was glorious. Then he relaxed with some other friends and caught up with them. He should be home for a little while-he will probably have to go back on the 18th or so, depending on bed availability. His blood counts aren't all the way up to normal, but since they have been climbing steadily and he is healthy, the doctors let him go. It's cool to see how far God has taken him. We've gone from initially worrying about how long Mitch was going to be alive to praying about his boredom in the hospital. It's great to see how far God's healed him and to give Him the glory for it!

One final note: I went to a Dodgers game on Saturday, and despite the fact that they lost, they are still the superior Los Angeles team (I say this because of my good friends Kyle and Smashley).

Smashley is down in Dena with me right now. That is neat.

Thanks for your prayers! I'm going to hang out with her and Mitchell

-Doug