To start off, here are some excerpts from my journal the first month I was here:

8/15/08
"I feel so at home! The apartment is great - all painted. And there's a balcony! Sitting out there just now is when I felt the at homeness."

8/17/08
"I know, Lord, you are at work here. One life at a time you are changing people forever. Those stories of redemption are so beautiful to me.
"But I also know I could be in hard, gritty, heartbreaking ministry all year without witnessing healing like that. There is a lot of despair [here] and I'm not even sure what hope looks like. The second coming? One life, one family at a time? What about the city? I suppose Fresno has seen change. But we will always have the poor, oppression, sin.
"I suppose why I'm here is to discover hope through much pain. And compassion. It's what I've asked for and I'm not taking it back.
"My Redeemer lives."