Monterey Market

Wow! I have met my grocery store love this morning. . .just had to blog about it because it was so amazingly fun! So, there's a locally owned grocery store called Monterey Market not far from my apartment (walking distance, depending on how much I buy I suppose!). Leslie and I check it out this morning because I heard about it for the first time from a couple people at the church BBQ last night. Well, I have never seen such a variety of fresh and well-priced fruits and vegetables in my life! It makes me want to try all of these new things but for today here's what I bought:

bananas
apples
nectarines
raspberries
tomatoes
an avocado
yams
spaghetti squash
lettuce
cucumber
asparagus

And now guess how much I spent?! Only $11.44!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A steal of a deal, I can still hardly believe it! Next time I go I want to be more adventurous with what I buy - but for now this is a good start. When you come visit I'll definitely take you here - it's a sight to see! Happy eating!

Highlights

It's Friday and that's hard to believe - so much has happened in such a short amount of time. Some highlights:
- follow-up in the dorms is a daunting (so many to follow up on and not a whole lot of man power, feeling weak so good thing God is strong!) but very exciting task, it's fun getting to explore the dorms and meet students in many different places spiritually
- Kally, a student I got to share the Gospel with. . .she really knew nothing but was very interested, didn't make a decision on the spot which is fine - I love leaving the results up to God!
- sunshine and LOTS of it. . .the weather has been phenomenal!!! Many students have a view of San Fran and the Golden Gate from their room, pretty amazing!
- first Oasis (the name of our large group gathering) meeting on Wednesday (though normally Thursdays), about 40 students showed up - very fun multi-ethnic group with lots of room for growth, exciting! Jennifer showed up because she was doing yoga on her dorm room floor and found a flier on the ground that someone had slipped under her door - so cool!
- walking. . .doing LOTS of it, I realized today that I haven't driven my car since a week ago, pretty cool! I'm loving getting to know the neighborhoods and I'm enjoying the time to pray and process all that I'm experiencing - but some blisters aren't as fun.
- Deb, the staff woman here. . .learning lots from her and she's super fun to be around as well (baby Kate started crawling on Tuesday, so fun!). We went into the dorms to try to meet up with some students together (great conversation with Alice, straight from China!) and as we walked away she whispered "I just love my job!" - I agree, getting to talk with students about spiritual things is a huge blessing!
- finding a church home the first Sunday here. . .went to a BBQ tonight and met some more people, will join their G3 (not sure yet why it's called this) post-college ministry. . .super excited about this!
- went for a swim today, yay! I had really been missing this and I know I won't be able to go often so I'll really "soak" :) it in when I can!!
- my last highlight is that it's the weekend. . .I'm pretty tired and ready to relax a bit. I foresee grocery shopping, hanging with a friend who's been in Germany for 2 years, a bike ride, church, a chocolate factory tour with a friend's group of friends, and whatever else comes my way. Ah, city life - so much to take in!

please pray:
- for the Spirit to be moving as we step out in faith and continue to follow up with students in the coming week; for eternal perspective, the Lord's strength, and that our motive would simply be to see Christ magnified at Cal!
- Leslie and my internet connection; I'm having a hard time getting it set up and having to make lots of long phone calls to people that are hard to understand is frustrating. . .yay for great neighbors that are letting us use their connection but it's time for us to get our connection going soon!
- continued rest in the Lord as I continually acknowledge that my home is with Him as I establish a temporary home in this city

thanks! have a great weekend friends! love you!

WOW!

Just a quickie - wanted to let you know how surveying freshmen and handing out Freshmen survival kits went yesterday and today because I know that many of you have been praying. Well, God blasted our expectations out of the water - we gave away all 800 FSKs YESTERDAY!! And we received 909 completed surveys from mostly freshmen - WOW is right!! We thought our faith goal of 1,000 surveys in two days was a lofty one, but now we know we can dream even bigger for His glory here at Cal! Today we did some more surveying and handed out free water bottles - haven't counted the surveys yet but we definitely have more then 91 surveys and have surpassed the goal. Well, a student's coming over to help me bake cookies and then we're going to have a sorting party and begin following up on students who marked that they're interested in knowing more about Jesus and/or getting involved with CalJourney. Exciting! Thanks for praying, keep it up!

More pictures

Be sure to read the post below this one as well, it has pictures also!

Starting with the bedroom that I share with Leslie. This is bedding that my mom and I made last year, I still love it and it matches the wall color perfectly! Bought some cheap Ikea frames for pictures of SLO and a childhood poster of Holland.

Leslie's side of the room.

Bookshelf. . .without a lot of books because of a built-in bookshelf in the living room. The mirrors look crooked in this picture but I promise they're straight (Ikea, again) - funky fun!
My beloved desk and favorite Ikea purchase thus far. I also bought a bedside table that's white as well but it never made it in a picture. Using my colorful chair as a desk chair - it pops off of the while, love it!
And here it is opened up - it's a secretary desk. . .conserves space and hides the mess when it's all closed up - perfect!

Built the kitchen table and chairs yesterday - oh, Ikea! We also got great new blinds all over the apartment, makes things look nice and crisp.
Someone before us liked color on the walls, it doesn't bother me!
Built in bookshelf - fun feature!
One corner of the kitchen. The other corner. Old oven with the fan on the side wall - funny! Plumber came and our sinks don't clog and fill with yucky water anymore. Yay!
Little bathroom with a window in the shower - interesting!

Some have asked for a picture of my new (used) car - here it is parked in our garage! So cute and great for city driving. AND I just drove myself and 4 college boys (and all of our stuff for an overnighter) to Oakland and we all fit, tightly, but still - I thought it was impressive!
Front of the apartment - I'm on the bottom story.
Herb garden in the front, can't wait to use it!
My first fun Ikea purchase, this coat rack - love it, makes me think of my childhood because we always had one!
My roommate Leslie brought the chair and I bought this painting at Ikea - my first "real" piece of artwork - so pretty!

Ok, off to read a couple friends' blogs (Sunday is my blog reading day. . .if you need me to know something before then just call! :)) and then to check out the evening service at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. I'll let you know how it goes! Don't forget to keep reading below! :)

Pictures!

What a lovely day! I'm munching on my favorite chips (tortilla chips with a hint of lime), sipping my favorite drink (sun-tea), listening to my favorite musician (Shawn McDonald), and sitting at my new favorite desk! :) Church this morning was AWESOME! It took about 30 minutes to walk there (I saw a fight on the way, kinda scary but I was too far away to know what the reason was) - the residential streets here are great, there are so many cool houses to take in. Some random thoughts about New Church of Berkeley. Very welcoming, but not in an annoying way. The pastor's wife was writing name tags and she was the first person I met. Then she and the pastor happened to sit behind me and some of my CalJourney friends. . .even though we sat toward the middle of the church. Cool! Also, the church building is great - wooden pews, stained glass windows, a balcony. Mostly college students, post-college people, and young families. Teaching through the book of Acts, good sermon on Acts 8. Pastor Allen has a very grandfatherly approach, in a good way that makes you want to listen, if that makes any sense. I spoke to some of the people involved with the young adult group (post-college people like me!) and they seem awesome. So, I'm really excited about this church and don't see any reason why I wouldn't end up here again next week. I am going to check out a First Presbyterian Church tonight - it's the big and popular church. . .I'll go with an open mind but I am excited about the thought of small for a change (oh and I saw a Cal Poly student at New Church who was visiting her sister, so fun!). After church some of the students and I went to the DC (dinning commons for some of the dorms in the middle of town) for lunch because they were serving free food all day. Lots of students and parents there as all the 5,000 freshmen are moving in this weekend. Then we walked down Telegraph for a bit and went our separate ways. I walked through campus and then to the grocery store to pick up candy to give away to students during Welcome Week. LOTS of walking and my feet hurt! But, it's a beautiful way and I am just loving soaking all the sights and sounds in. And now for some pictures, finally!

An "edible arrangement" from Marlene. . .delivered to the door while my mom and I were moving in. So fun and yummy!

Marlene and I had a great dinner at Thai House and reminisced over the letters we wrote each other as young girls. How fun to live so close again!

Putting FSKs together down in the garage. These students are awesome!

750 FSKs ready to to handed out - so exciting!

Here I am on campus - where we'll be surveying students starting tomorrow - what a beautiful place that needs to hear about Jesus!

Yep, here I am again! Two days of posting has been rare on this blog but I couldn't resist. It has been a productive, fun, and exciting day. This morning I ran various errands. . .as I walked to the post office I came across the Farmers Market - so fun! I bought some bread from VitaVitals, a company that I used to trade cheese with when I did the Pleasanton market in high school. Good memories and I can't wait to begin buying some fruits and veggies there on Saturdays in the future! This afternoon about 10 students came over to help put together 800 Freshmen Survival Kits (Bible, evangelistic book, water bottle, highlighter, CD, DVD, etc) and it only took an hour and a half because they worked so hard. I baked some cookies for their reward. :) I'm already learning that Cal students are true to their commitments, on time, and hard workers. What's fun is that they take a lot of ownership in the movement. This was always a challenge at Cal Poly, because there were so many students it was easy for them to think that someone else would do whatever needed to be done. . .which meant that at times we didn't have the manpower that you would expect with a group so large. Here, so far at least, everyone is very invested in the movement and willing to help whenever something comes up. Awesome! Now pray that all 800 FSKs will be given away Monday and Tuesday - it's a big task but it's so motivating to think that potentially 800 students will have the Bible as their first text book in college. Also, please pray that the Lord would provide a classroom on campus for us to have our first weekly meeting on Wednesday (it will normally be Thursday nights and it's called Oasis) - we may be experiencing a bit of spiritual attack in this area because so far the process has not been fruitful. . .yet it is critical that we have a location for our meeting so that we can begin advertising for it ASAP - Satan knows this, but so does the Lord. . .and now you do too. Thanks for your prayers - the Lord certainly hears them and responds! Well, tomorrow the church hunt begins. . .I'm meeting some of the students at a church called New Church, seems really solid according to the website - I'll let you know how it goes!

Hello!

Well, my first week has flown by so fast so I thought I would try to take a breather and give you an update on what's going on. Things are going really well! After the weekend in Santa Cruz I had the day off on Monday. Made a trip to Target and Costco, still can't believe how close by everything is! Also did a lot of organizing - and still have a lot to do. On Tuesday morning I purchased a desk and bedside table from Ikea - so fun. . .but today I realized how much work it is to try to put that stuff together, especially when your brothers aren't there to help! :) I've also been working on cleaning out the garage underneath our apartment and taking inventory of all the resources (100s of Bibles, books, CDs, and other free give-away stuff) we have to put into Freshmen Survival Kits. . .we're praying big with the hopes of giving away 750 FSK's on Monday and Tuesday! Wednesday and Thursday were spent in East Oakland at Operation Jumpstart, a leadership retreat that the movement team and staff organized for the students of CalJourney. Not as many students were able to make it as we had hoped (about 20 people all together) but I found the 2 days to be a huge blessing because it wasn't overwhelming and I feel like I'm getting to know the students well. These students are SO COOL and really fun for me to connect with. They are very different from SLO students in several ways. For one, hardly anyone wears flip flops day in and day out here. So different then in SLO! Also, these students enjoy talking about their classes and have a pretty large vocabulary - they're not trying to show off. . .they're just a different breed then Poly peeps. :) And another difference is the diversity of students involved with CalJourney (which really just says a lot about the diversity at Cal in comparison to Poly) - what a sweet mini-picture of what it will look like to worship with people of every tribe, nation, and tongue in heaven. I just feel so incredibly blessed to labor alongside such awesome students! Tomorrow they're coming over to put FSKs together. . .which means I'm off to bake some cookies for them. Oh, and it's still a goal of mine to get some pictures on this blog - patience, my friends! :)

A new look, a new season!

Hi friends! Just thought I'd freshen up the look of this blog. Though I won't be seeing green rolling hills and beautiful clear skies often in Berkeley I consider it completely worth it and I know that I am no fool to give these things up as I seek to see God's name lifted high in the place He has called me to. And wow, what a place this is! Honestly, I am really enjoying the city thus far. There's so much at my fingertips - such as more than 400 restaurants in Berkeley alone, crazy! I am also enjoying taking walks in my neighborhood and going on bike-rides out to the bay (had some great time with the Lord on a bench facing the Golden Gate Bridge this morning) and elsewhere. Of course there is still so much more to discover - good thing I'm going to be here for a while!

Friday's all-day staff meeting was awesome! Though it was long it was very energizing for me to participate in discussions about our vision for reaching Cal and then hash out the logistics to see this come about. We also certainly spent time in the Word and in prayer, as well as simply connecting with each other and having a good time together. Staff meetings are held down the sidewalk from my apartment - so great!

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Santa Cruz with the Movement Team, the head student leadership team of Campus Crusade at Cal. What an awesome time - my words will not do justice to what the Lord did in and through us as we got to know each other, sought the Lord's direction in our lives and at Cal together, discussed small groups and discipleship, and as we planned the Week of Welcome Outreach and the Operation Jumpstart overnighter for CalJourney (what they call Campus Crusade here) students this Wednesday and Thursday. Phew, our two days together flew by but were also very energizing for me. It was so neat to start getting to know the students I will be working very closely with this year. It was also so cool to see how much they love the Lord, love Berkeley, and want to proclaim Christ on their campus.

All in all I am SO THANKFUL that I am here and could not imagine myself anywhere else right now. I'm still working on settling in and getting organized in my little apartment. My roommate Leslie is fun and I'm enjoying getting to know her. We don't have good plumbing (the tub and sinks don't drain very quickly) and our wall colors could use some help BUT we are so thankful for this place that the Lord has provided! Okay, so much more I could write as usual but I'm going to leave it here for now - thanks for reading!

I have arrived!

Just a little update to catch you up to speed on some big things. . .

- I moved to Berkeley today! With the help of my mom the move went very smoothly - now I just need to remember that I'm not leaving in a week or two, this is where I'll be living this year, crazy! The bedroom walls are green, I like that. :) Oh, and I am really enjoying getting to know my roommate Leslie!
- I received an amazing "edible arrangement" from my best friend Marlene today - it's a bouquet of fresh fruit that was delivered to my door, so special!
- I saw the Lord bring me to 100% financial support while at the grocery store this afternoon! A message was left on my phone while I was shopping. . .and now I'm done! So cool, I had been praying that I would finish today and now I know that this truly was God's plan for me!

So, I know this is terribly short but there are things to unpack and Olympics to watch. :) Tomorrow I'm headed to Ikea for the first time ever (looking for a desk) with a friend and then Marlene's coming in on the Bart for dinner. I also want to begin exploring the area. . .and continue unpacking and organizing. First staff meeting on Friday - yay!

And. . .

A quick update on support so that we can praise Jesus together! As of right now I am at 78%. Wow! Everything is coming together in the Lord's perfect timing. My faith goal at this point is to be done this Friday so that I have a couple of days to relax (and pack!) before moving to Berkeley August 13th. Pray with me please! Once again, if the Lord leads you to contribute in any way for the coming year just shoot me an email (arijaan.bulk@uscm.org) or click on the "give online!" link on the right side of this page. And THANK YOU to the many who read this who have already begun supporting, whether through prayer, finances, or both. I thank God for each of you and joyfully anticipate what He has in store for us, and ultimately for His glory, at Cal. I'll keep you posted as the days go on!

Time for an update!

Hope you had a good start to the week. . .here are a couple of the things I did today:
- went on a nice walk with my mom while it was still cool (aka early morning!), how I am going to miss the countryside
- hung out with Stephanie at Starbucks. . .my local God-send (Steph, not Starbucks :)) who is also raising support (she's Stint-ing to East Asia!) and she just graduated from UC Berkeley. She is such an encouragement to me and it has been a huge blessing to work together at the same task! We wrote thank you notes and made phone calls, although we each have our own "to-do list" it is such a joy to be in each others company while doing it!
- went for a swim at the community pool. . .where I was informed by the 4 lifeguards sitting around that the pool would only be open for lap swimming 3 more days - oh, Oakdale! Also, none of the lane-lines were put out on the water so I was swimming in a very choppy body of water that felt like an ocean - once again. . .oh, Oakdale!
- helped package "curds" with my mom and brother at my family's cheese factory (do all my readers know this? Yep, my family makes Gouda - it's so yummy and you should go to www.oakdalecheese.com and order some today. . .too bad I've been terribly lactose intolerant for the past year and a half).
- downloaded a free trial of adobe photoshop. . .which I am going to use to make my picture prayer cards for all of my supporters. If you would like to receive my newsletter just shoot me an email (arijaan.bulk@uscm.org) and I'll make sure you get one of these cards to put on your desk or fridge!

Well, those were a couple exciting happenings in my life today. I also just am so pleased with my car and promise to put some pictures up soon. My former roommate Jaclyn is coming to spend the night tomorrow, I'm so excited! Have a blessed Tuesday!

Being an adult is. . .

HARD! Of course it's not only hard - but still! Searching for a car, choosing the best fit at the best price, and dealing with my sky-rocketing insurance costs is all very challenging. I will not lie, I did shed some tears of frustration in this process and I had a really difficult time with all the highs and lows of the past couple of weeks. I asked the Lord for wisdom, as His Word calls us to do, but nothing seemed to come in a clear-cut answer. All this to say that I DID purchase a car yesterday, on my own as an adult should do. I signed all the paperwork, set up the loan, figured out insurance costs, and a slew of other things. . .so now I am the official owner of a very cute 2005 2-door, 4 cyl., power everything, Chevy Cavalier. It's silver, it perfect condition, and quite sporty looking. . .and surprisingly more spacious inside then you (and I!) might think. It has a little over 82,000 miles on it which is rather low - and I'm so excited for the great miles per gallon I'm going to get from now on! So - that's the update. . .and now I've got lots of lovely monthly payments for the car and for insurance but I trust that the Lord will provide. On that note, please be praying about my financial support - I have less then 2 weeks til I report (moving to Berkeley Aug 13th!) and I just crunched the numbers and found out that I'm currently at 60%. I am confident that that Lord has called me to serve Him in this capacity for the coming year and therefore I must also be confident that He will meet all of my needs - spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and physically. Let's trust Him together for this, and really ALL things, today!