YAV Retreat and week

I am back from New Mexico. I had a good trip. A good amount of time in the beauty of God's creation with good people. I was amazed at how different the retreat felt. My first year every one stayed in their groups. This year there was alot of mingling between sites. Granted the group was significantly smaller as well this year. The material was very similar as my first time, yet served as a good refresher. My favorite part was probably what is called open space technology. People write topics they want to discuss and then facilitate discussion. Both years amazing conversations have come from this experience. Obviously there is more to it than that, if you would like to know more ask.
This week I also shared my life story with my housemates. Prior to sharing, I was stressed out about it. I wrestle with how much to share and how to share my faith journey. I shared wtih how that impacts my challenges and struggles currently, and some of the identity challenges I struggle with. I am excited to go back to My Friend's Place tomorrow. I have found that I missed it over the last week and a half. Even in the short time I have been here in Hollywood, I feel very comfortable. It is home. This seems odd as I realize that I grew up 3 hours from here in a relatively small city. Yet as I think about it, it appropriate that I would feel at home here. My mom grew up in a town less than 10 miles from here. My dad less than 20. So in many ways I am returning to my roots.
In the next week, we will be starting to reach out to our neighborhood. I am excited and feel ready for this. What are we doing? I am not sure, my housemates have plans. I am ok with surprises. Please be in prayer as we are doing our outreach on sunday afternoon. Pray for wisdom in conversations, ability to begin forming connections with people, openness to what the neighborhood tells us the needs are. Thanks