Greater Things

Today I leave for retreat with the staff and leadership of NCC! The title of the conference is "Greater Things" inspired by the Chris Tomlin song 'God of this City'.  Awhile ago Pastor Mark encouraged us to download the song and listen to it everyday. It's amazing because it has become our prayer for Washington, DC.  We believe that there truly is no one like our God and that He has greater and greater things in store.  Our minds are often limited to what we can see or imagine, but this song reminds me that all we need is faith!  We're believing for greater things for this city, for the leadership, for the church, and for our personal lives. What greater things are you believing God for?  Trust that He has it all figured out. He wants us to experience these greater things, but we need to have faith!  Work like it depends on you and PRAY LIKE IT DEPENDS ON GOD!  

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

-John 14:12-14

God would you give us a heart to fully trust Your greater plans.  You promise that Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts and Your ways purer than our ways.  We seek Your thoughts and Your ways and ask for you to give us faith to believe for greater things than our human minds can even imagine!  

my body blanket

Over Christmas I got this "body blanket" and I LOVE IT! Today DC is pretty much iced over with snow and I thought it would be appropriate to wear this! I am a big advocate for it because I am sitting here drinking coffee, typing on my computer and I am still warm! My whole body is covered, but I can use my hands!  Whoever made this is a winner in my mind! Thank you! 

let the snow begin!

For awhile it has been really, really cold in DC without the beauty of snow!  Well, this morning it snowed on my walk to work and continued all day!  It is beautiful...the picture is just a shot of my street from my camera!  I just really love snow! While I don't miss driving in it, I find it absolutely beautiful and amazing! Every single flake is unique, what a wonderful God!  

I have the day off tomorrow and I plan on bundling up, staying inside, and enjoying the newly fallen snow on the ground!  Tonight it is supposed to turn into icy conditions.  I keep thinking "it's nothing like Rochester, NY", but I'm giving it a chance.  And to be honest, I'm ok with just a little snow fall...just enough to cover the trees and blanket the ground with white.

I feel like a child hoping for a snow day so that my other roommates will have the day off and we can do all the fun things that you are supposed to do on snow days such as play board games and drink hot chocolate!  My mom says to put a spoon underneath your pillow facing North and wear your pajamas inside out and backwards! It's worked before...it's worth a shot tonight!

Goodnight!

Here for a reason

Tonight I had a great time with my roommates! I am so blessed! I often wonder on my walks why God has called me to this place at this time and I'm just so struck by His perfect provision! We don't often know why, but we know who and that makes all the difference. I know that God has brought me to DC for a purpose and I know that God brought me to this wonderful house for a reason! There are wonderful women of God that I need to learn from and "do life with" day in and out! Tonight was such a reminder that there are not accidents.  Each of us are living in this house because God has ordered it to be so.  

Psalm 139:16 says, 

You saw me before I was born.

      Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

   Every moment was laid out

      before a single day had passed.

We may find ourselves surprised by the circumstances that we are in or totally in awe of how things work out perfectly, but God is not surprised.  He has been aware of the course of our life before we even took our first breath.  That is so amazing to me.  I know that if I know something about someone else I want to tell them so badly.  God knows EVERYTHING about what will happen to us and yet He allows it to happen in the time that it is meant to...He does not rush us and He does not force the situations.  Everything goes according to His plan.  I can just see God rejoicing in Heaven because as our days unfold we are constantly being surprised by things He's known about since the beginning of time.

He is worthy of all our praise! Only He can orchestrate the World in a way that brings beauty out of ashes and life from death.  He works all things out for good and has everything under control! I love being surprised by God and I love feeling like there's so much more I don't know yet, but that I'm figuring out in time!

was that a dream?

Yesterday I was walking to work and I realized that Monday and Tuesday seem like they were dreams because the district is back to "normal".  Monday and Tuesday the sidewalks and streets were crowded with people and yesterday it was the normal foot traffic as I walked to work! The days seem to be blur together and life is back to normal...everyone had to go back to work and the hype was over! There is still a strange feeling in the air here....everyone is excited and hopeful regardless of where their vote went.  For that I am happy, but praying for the new leadership as they begin to make decisions and changes!

What a place...what a day! Looking back it was a whirl wind and nothing will ever be like it again, but I am blessed to say I was here to witness it all!  Now, back to another normal day in DC.  

INAUGURATION 2009

I woke up this morning at 6am to the sound of people screaming, buses speeding, and sirens blaring! I got ready and began my normal walk to work.  I knew that it was going to be nothing close to normal, but I didn't expect what I saw! The sidewalks were packed, crowds spilling onto the streets and cops trying to control traffic! As I walked down the street I noticed people wearing Obama gear all over the place and as I looked down I saw a newspaper matted to the ground, opened to an article about Obama. It was like a movie...madness all over the place! I was almost brought to tears by the sheer overwhelming factor of it all!

Once I made it to work I knew that it was going to be an extremely busy day due to our location and the fact that so many places around us were closed! Once again, I didn't expect what I saw! There was a non-stop line out the door and I didn't even like to look up and see how many people were in it because it was too many to fathom. I just greeted each person as they came and we tried to create a system to best serve them all.  Obviously it was beyond what even our machines and supplies could handle and we decided to close at 3:30pm.  It was an amazing experience to see that many people come in and out, but truly it was exhausting! We went through so much milk and pounds upon pounds of hot chocolate!  Once thing I will say is that the entire crowd was SILENT for Obama's speech which was so crazy! The way they all cheered in unison and for a moment it was calm behind the bar. It was so awesome to look out and see the coffeehouse packed with people all visiting DC for the same reason! It made me feel so blessed to live here because so many people traveled miles just to visit and see what I see everyday!

Here are just a few pictures from where I spent Inauguration Day, behind the bar at Ebenezers Coffeehouse: 

For the record after we cleaned up after the crowds...we sat down in the chairs of Ebenezers for about an hour and could not move! We were so exhausted that walking home seemed like a marathon. One of my roommates ended up picking me up and it took us another 1 hour and half to get home because of all the traffic (it is a 15 minute walk from work to my house)! DC is crazy and I live to tell about one of the most historic days America will ever experience! 

DC is full of people

It's no secret that tomorrow a new President of the United States will be inaugurated! I knew before I moved to DC that I would be here during election time, but I never imagined that it would be quite like this! I walked to work this afternoon dodging the crowds of people standing in the street taking pictures of various buildings along the way! I do understand the excitement, in fact I still get excited when I walk past the Capitol on my way home from work, but I think it's just the magnitude of people all trying to capture every experience at the same time that causes the chaos that I felt.  I worked at Ebenezers until close.  We were making drinks non stop for about 4 hours straight while also trying to figure out what we would do if we ran out of milk and register tape! We went through about 30 gallons of milk, not including soy and apple cider! It was madness! Despite the few people who were rude and impatient, it was good craziness! Before I walked in the door I prayed a quick prayer that God would give me His heart for the people that I would encounter because it is so easy to get frustrated.  It was really neat to see so many people come in and out of Ebz...Tate Donovan even stopped in for some hot chocolate:

You might notice him from various movies or from when he dated Jennifer Anistan! Either way, it was really awesome to see a celebrity in the midst of Ebenezers! Me and the two other girls working were trying to figure out why he looked so familiar and famous.  One of them figured out his name and when he came to pick up his hot chocolate I nudged her and said "ask him, ask him" so she said "are you..." and he quickly replied, before she even said his name, "yes, I am!" Then he introduced his brother and cousin and told us that he was really glad to be there! He seemed like a very nice man and he was patient while he waited in line which was rare and refreshing!

I am off to bed to catch some sleep before I have to open Ebz in the morning, but I'm sure I'll have more stories to tell tomorrow! The stories will probably include the consequences of turning side streets into parking lots, the snow that is supposed to come, and the fact that it is the first year they have opened the National Mall to the public to witness the inauguration!

DC is crowded and it's sort of amazing that I live here! 

before I forget

It's late and I want to get to bed, but before I forget I need to write down my thoughts about Pastor Mark's sermon tonight!  We are currently in a series on Philippians entitled: "Prison".  Pastor Mark was speaking on the third chapter tonight and before he began he made a great point about the title of the series.  He said that to many people it might seem weird to have a sermon series entitled "Prison" to start off the new year especially when related to Philippians which is such an encouraging book, but understanding that Paul was in prison while writing this book makes it all the more powerful.  Joy is about our attitude in different circumstances, how we choose to respond.  While Paul was in prison he chose to love and encourage others, making the most out of his time there.  Do we spend more time complaining about our circumstances than we do actually trying to make the most out of them?  When it says to be joyful always it means that we are to find joy in every circumstance knowing that we are confident enough to say that we trust God no matter what state we're in.  It's difficult to do that, but it can make all the difference. In this new year you might feel trapped, you might feel imprisoned by yourself or others, or you might just feel like your circumstances aren't that great at the moment.  Whatever state you find yourself in remember that it is about our response.  Even in prison Paul praised God and reached out to others.  Maybe this year we need to realize that wherever we find ourselves God can use us if we stop complaining for a minute and allow Him to!

Ethiopia

I'm not sure how much I've blogged about this, but I am going on a mission trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in March! I am really excited about it especially because it is my first overseas mission trip!  My team and I will be working with Beza International Ministries to reach out to the HIV/AIDS community there.  Beza started an outreach program to reach those living with AIDS on Entoto Mountain where they stop taking their medicine in hopes that the Holy water will heal them.  Without their medicine they get more sick and are unable to treat it with their previous medicine.  The outreach creates jobs and community for these people, offering them hope and the chance to live again.  Many children become orphaned and there is a great population of children in need of education and support.  My team will be working a lot with the children and will hopefully be assisting Beza in getting another community center for this outreach off the ground!

I will update with more information as I get it!

Amen

I have such Godly roommates and I feel so blessed that we get the opportunity to live with one another and grow together as roommates and women of God!  Tonight we had a little reunion since we had all been gone for awhile for Christmas...it was quality time in all aspects of the term!  We started out just talking about house stuff and quickly moved to catching up on each other's lives.  There were major spiritual moments of honesty and trust and it was really beautiful! Just living in a community where it is comfortable enough to discuss tough issues of accountability and spiritual well being is an awesome place to be! I'm just so thankful to have roommates that are willing to sit up talking through relationships and job opportunities some of my roommates are considering with the new change and shift in DC.  It's such a place of freedom and I feel like at the end of the night I just need to say AMEN because I couldn't have asked for a better place to live in DC and God truly answered my prayers! 

 

I couldn't ask for better!

On a lighter note...DC is expecting 5 million people for inauguration in a couple of weeks! Being that we live extremely close to the Capitol building we are strongly considering selling bottles of water and hot cocoa outside our house! Just kidding...but I'm really interested to see how this all works out! It's going to be chaos and it's going to be historical and this is where I live! CRAZY!

just in case you wondered...

I love my job! Honestly this move to DC has been one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life! Over the past couple of days since being back I have realized that I am truly doing something that my heart has dreamed of and I was made for!  I have to admit that it was hard leaving Rochester this time because it was such a great two weeks with my family, but the moment I was back here I couldn't wait to go out walking and enjoy the beauty of DC!  It's going to sound weird, but it's really hard to explain...when I am at work I feel more alive!  Living here, working at the coffeehouse, learning the business, being a protege for the church is just, simply stated, what I'm supposed to be doing.  It is like I am finally myself since moving here...I just feel like I'm the Erin Holahan I was made to be and I feel so fulfilled! Not that I don't need to grow, but that is part of this whole experience...my job is something that I love and I'm learning so much about what I dream to one day accomplish and about myself as a person.  I am just so confident that God has called me here to do this exact thing and that fact is what wakes me up in the morning with a smile on my face ready for another day!  

I was out to dinner with friends tonight and it hit me that I am not scared living here.  Of course I have to be careful and safe, but I am known to be easily fearful of situations. I have been known to make up scenarios in my head of possible things that could happen and basically scare myself, especially when I was alone!  Not that I am being foolish or naive, but living in this city has brought out something in me that is freeing rather than paralyzing!  

All I can say is God is good!  

"You have the most beautiful brown eyes"

One thing's for sure, I have had the most interesting plane rides to and from Rochester, NY since moving to DC.  I always seem to sit next to someone who likes to chat.  I am a very social person so when I feel awkward that says something! This morning I felt awkward on my flight.  Maybe it had something to do with the first thing I heard out of the guy sitting next to me..."you have the most beautiful brown eyes".  Ok, let's back up a little bit.  The flight was scheduled for 6:35am, I woke up at 4:15am and did not by any means "get ready" for the day, I had a hat on that was basically covering my eyes and I don't even think I made direct eye contact with him.  After this statement he introduced himself and said "you seem pretty cool do you want to exchange numbers?".  This is when I started to feel a little awkward and politely declined the offer.  He was a very nice guy he was just very chatty and forcefully charming and at 6:35am I wasn't prepared!  I was also still shocked that I made it on my flight because the line for security was so long people were missing their flights left and right.  Anyway, my new friend and I talked about music and I found out that he is a DJ.  He started to ask my about my boyfriend, which 1. is non-existent and 2. I did not mention, and for the first time in my life I went along with it.  He told me about a good movie and suggested that my boyfriend pick it up on his way over to see me tonight...I did not lie I just told him that my boyfriend doesn't live in DC.  This is not completely untrue because I don't have a boyfriend, but regardless there wasn't much conversation after that.   

Aside from the guy sitting next to me, who I was glad continued his travels to Florida because I was afraid he would follow me home, I was astounded as I stared out the window for the millionth time.  It was somewhat foggy and early enough that the sun was rising in the distance (beautiful to see from in the air).  I thought to myself, wow...there is so much to see and none of it is clear to me! How cool that God not only sees it all clearly, but made it all with His own hands.  I love flying and being reminded that we serve a Mighty God who knows all and SEES all!