Yesterday morning another shooting affected students at our school. Two of our middle school students watched their father die as a result of him trying to stop a carjacking. I cannot even imagine what this must be like for their family. This is the 5th shooting that has had an effect on our school and the 3rd parent that our students have lost since January1. Pray for this family and for our school. It has been a long few weeks and we are all weary.

Glimmers of Grace

After a long week I now feel like I can start to breathe again. There are still many things running through my mind haphazardly, but this is my new norm unfortunately. What made this week rough was a whole collection of events. Here are some of the difficult things that happened on Wednesday:
1. A nearby school went on lockdown for several hours because of 4 shooters being on the loose. The police eventually caught all 4 and thankfully no students were injured or killed.
2. We had a middle school student who was shot and killed in her own home. It is heartbreaking to have such a young person be a victim of violence. Our middle school staff has been great about looking out for the other students and making sure they have extra emotional supports available.
3. I had planned to stop by Walgreens on my way home from work but couldn't because there had been a shooting and it was roped off by police tape. There have been so many shootings this week that have hit close to home and it is disheartening. However, it does make me glad that I am involved in training and educating young people so that they do not turn to violence and crime as many others in their neighborhoods have done.

What made this week at all redeemable is that one of my students went into emergency foster care with her siblings. This was completely by God's grace. The state wasn't planning on taking the kids but because of bad communication within family services, no one could reach their father by the time the kids were supposed to go home Wednesday. We have been fighting for a long time to have the children taken away from their dad and I'm praying that steps will now be made to take permanent custody away from him.

The family that took my student and her sister are members of a church that works closely with our school. The husband heads up the church's foster and adoption ministry and is going to be a great source of information while I try to figure out what to do about starting foster care.

Wednesday I also found out that I am getting my anticipated raise which will allow me to start saving up for my own place so I can eventually take foster kids. I think my next steps are to start taking foster parent classes and to look for someone to take my place in my current apartment anytime between April and June.

Happy Epiphany

For most New Orleanians, Epiphany just marks the beginning of king cake season (basically a cheese danish made into a cake--not anything amazing). Another weird thing about king cakes is that there is a tiny plastic baby Jesus buried in the cake and whoever finds it in their piece is supposed to bring the next king cake. So to celebrate the manifestation of Jesus among us, people are trying to avoid finding Jesus in the cake? ...It is a confusing culture down here.


Celebrating Epiphany is a new experience for me as I've moved to New Orleans. I've come to understand that Epiphany is a season of celebrating the manifestation of Christ among us by recognizing the gradual revelation of his mission on Earth through the visit of the magi, Christ's visit to the temple as a 12 year old boy, His baptism in the Jordan, and the miracle of turning water to wine at the marriage feast--ending  in typical New Orleans fashion of course. 


Going along with the season of Epiphany, our church sermon today was about God being with us in our daily battles. It focused on 2 Kings 6:8-23, where God delivered Israel's enemies into their hands and commanded the Israelites to feed and serve them. The fact that God miraculously saved them from their enemies reminded me that I am not alone in this battle of ministering to my community. Not only that, but God is constantly at work. I have a tendency to picture God sitting and waiting in heaven until the day that he decides to call us home, but he has not left us alone. He has given us the Holy Spirit to be with us. 

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,  to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified."

Isaiah 61:1-3 (KJV)

"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Romans 5:5 (NIV)

"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."

Romans 8:11 (NIV)

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will"

Romans 8:26-27 (NIV)

"We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."

1 John 4:13-16 (NIV)