A NEW BEGINNING!

As I left mom and dad standing behind me at the airport this morning, I felt many feeling of being nervous, anxious and excited all together mixing in my stomach.  Why do we fear the unknown?  Was the nerves I was feeling due to leaving home?, of starting what could turn into a new life?, or just that though of the unknown and not knowing exactly what I was going to Miami for...

The plane rides went very well and made a few friends to make the trips go even faster.  I sat next to a woman on the first plane from Wichita who produces and

 models in many commercials for FOX Kansas.  She had her MacBook Pro out, doing her work and was very quick to show off her work, which, being an artsy person, I was very excited to be able to see.--The next plane I sat by a New York City native and lifelong resident.  What a different accent!! WOW!....I do enjoy the fact that I dont have an accent, yet, it could be pretty fun if I did! (Thats all about her.  She was nice but definitely the Eastern attitude of being better.)

I was met at the doors of the Ft. Lauderdale airport by a fellow DOOR member who was on her way to Miami as well.  She took the long route and drove from northern Iowa and was nice enough to share her car with me, saving me the taxi fare.  We met the DOOR coordinator and fellow DOOR peer who I am sharing a room with until my term is up.  We all ate on the coast, which, let me tell you is just a rough place to eat when you look at where the food came from when eating.  To put this into perspective, imagine eating a burger while sitting on a deck overlooking a feedlot!  Just seeing where the dolphin grew up as you are shoveling it into your mouth really is quite the experience!

The house that the 5 of us are sharing is a nice, almost ranch style house just on the skirts (well a few blocks) from Little Havannah.  However, there seems to be a Cuban or hispanic influence on the architecture around.  Our neighbors have the typical barred up gates that they park their cars behind, the breezeways in the houses, and also the bright colored buildings.  It really is a different world having palm trees in my yard compared to pin oaks.  But, I think I could get used to it.

We went to church tonight (every saturday night and sunday morning to make up for my lost time) at a contemporary church service called the "lighthouse."  It really was a different church service than I have really ever experienced.  I mix of Caucasians, Latinos, African-Americans, old, young, homeless, people who live in houses and about every other aspect you could think of except famous!  However, the musicians easily could make it famous some day.  The music was just outstanding, as they have a worship band who has been playing together for 8 years.  The pastor was a man who lived across the street from the Panama Canal and talked about how we need to not just say we are Christians, but live it.  You know, kinda like every other sermon you ever hear about in church.  But he did it in such a way that related to the younger generation and made us all think about it.  The young adults go to a restaurant most nights after the service, and tonight I went along.  It was a great way to reflect on the sermon, hearing what everyone got out of it while also getting to know the people that will be around the area the next couple of months.

Well it is getting later than I planned on being up.  This experience is going to be a good one, I can tell already.  I head to church in the morning, I think the beach in the afternoon, then start school on Monday morning when I hopefully find out exactly what my assignment is going to be until Christmas!