"Many the miles."

Greetings loved ones!

I am writing from Grace Lutheran Church on S 26th Street. Today is technically my first full day of work here, but pastor aka my boss is not in today, so I thought I would take a little bit of time to blog. I think it helps me to reflect on what I'm doing and learning, and I also feel that it is important to share what I can with you all.

This morning, the secretary and I had coffee and talked for at least an hour and a half  - he is from Namibia, studied ethnomusicology there and in Cape Town during apartheid, and is generally awesome. We have plenty to talk about, especially as we are just getting to know each other. This is true at St. Luke's at well. I can't believe that part of my job as Community Outreach Advocate, or Associate, or Community Organizer, or whatever you want to call it, is to spend time getting to know people and that that counts as work time...but it is, and it does.

Then one of the lay leaders of the Sudanese congregation that meets at Grace at 12:30 pm on Sundays to get some help with job application. At noon I went to lunch at the Bohemian Cafe (advertising sign - "Czech Us Out") with one of three organizers employed by OTOC (Omaha Together One Community) who grew up on a farm in mid-Nebraska and got back from Peace Corps in Guatemala last fall. OTOC's member congregations are very active in social justice work. 

I guess I should back up a little bit, too...on my first day of work last Tuesday, I met with Grace's Pastor Laaker first, then went over to meet with him and Pastor Patti at St. Luke's, then we went out to Thai lunch in the heavily Latin@ area of South Omaha, then I came back and continued talking with Pastor Laaker until 5:00. Wednesday-Friday I worked at St. Luke's - went to a Mexican restaurant with Pastor Patti on Wednesday and met the Women of the ELCA ladies (WELCA) on Thursday. I introduced myself at worship at St. Luke's yesterday and one of the awesome Sunday School ladies had made me a beautiful "Welcome" sign which was on display at coffee hour/reception. The whole congregation was so welcoming.

It's crazy, cause I feel like I haven't really done anything yet, and my job right now is to brainstorm. I do fully intend on implementing programs and getting out in the community, but I just haven't done anything yet. My housemates and I are getting taken such good care of already - there's a welcome potluck for us tomorrow at our house, hosted by the board.  I kind of feel like I don't deserve it. But the wonderfully warm welcome is really inspiring me. I feel so lucky to have my job and to be in this beautiful, open city which has been pretty easy to navigate and has so much to offer. 

Here are some thoughts I have had so far in my brainstorming time, that I would like to keep in my mind:

-"The church is not a building...it is a people." (Might help sing the song at a children's message at St. Luke's.)

-Church can be other times besides Sunday morning. 

-On Sunday morning Christians hear Bible to inspire us to go out and do good works. 

My dear friend Ben Perdue is hitting the air to Hawaii tomorrow to begin two years as a Peace Corps volunteer eventually in Micronesia, so I am thinking about him a lot today. I stole the title of his blog to use in my blog, so it's probably fair that I give him a shoutout: http://beninmicronesia.blogspot.com/, 
especially since some of you might be interested in reading what he has to say. 

Oh yeah, and we had some fun this weekend - went out with the housemates
to a free outdoor concert held in the parking lot of a bar/music place
called Slowdown - gorgeous night, fun music, goofy times, again made me
happy to be where I am. Saturday morning we went to the Old Market
farmers market which provided us with much delicious samples, produce
and happy musical and people out enjoying the beautiful day atmosphere.
(I promise pictures next post!) Yesterday afternoon I went to a
community forum on immigration at the Jewish Community Center of Omaha
(a really big nice building) - it's an important issue here. Perhaps you
have heard about the Fremont ordinance: here is a recent article I found about it.

So, there is just a lot! 

The title of this blog entry is the title of a song by Sara Bareilles that
came on Pandora when I started writing. The chorus goes "How far do I
have to go to get to you?/Many the miles," and for the purposes of this
blog post/generally, life, I think of "you" as wherever I'm going and
whatever I'm going to do. I went about 1600 miles away from the home
life in the DC area to get to Omaha, and I have a feeling that, this
year in particular, I got to and I'm going to go a few more. Physically
in the Matrix, hopefully some on the old bikes chilling in our garage
that I helped my housemate fix up this weekend and on my feet - but
those mental miles are gonna get some covering, too. 

Other songs that got me pumped up for Omaha: 

"Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks
"Going On" by Gnarls Barkley.

Until next time!

Anna

PS. Sorry the formatting is messed up on some of this post.