danger zone

people tell me to be cautious in north philly coz crime rate averages are higher.

so far the most pelligroso things that have happened:

-i tripped on the stairs at the subway.
-i got pooped on by a bird in front of the office.

coupla cute scenes from the train:

6 or 7 year old girl telling mom about school: "i'm not sure if i should play with josie. she told me if i don't play with her tomorrow, then she won't play with me for the next three days."
mom: "that's called blackmail, [matter-of-factly] sweetie, when she gives you an ultimatum so that she can get what she wants and feel like she has power over you."

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old couple (maybe late 60s) hops on. we're still above ground at this point and are travelling alongside one of the main highways.
wife goes: "haha! i was right. look at the traffic, honey! i TOLD YOU we should take the train!"
husband: [slaps the wife on the arm] "volkswagen! i got you good."

love my new church even though i sometimes miss my old church.
sat next to a mom and daughter (prolly a teenager) today. they started coming out because they got a flyer as we were preparing to move into the new building. mom is an artist and had multi-coloured hair w/ nose ring.
wondered how differently i would have turned out if my mommy were a funky hipster artist.

maria g (among a million maria's) shared her testimony during friday's staff devotional. in a nutshell - father was an alcoholic, uncle was praying for family, father was drunk at a bar, heard a voice to leave, got freaked out, finally left, ran to uncle's house where a church prayer meeting was going on, father felt power of the Spirit, fell on his knees, mother saw that father fell on knees and followed just to stand by her man, family starts going to church, someone prophecies that father will go through difficult trial in life, at age 7 three of maria's brothers and mother are killed in a house fire.

maria wanted to share that she could have grown bitter and shaken after seeing 4 family members wheeled away in d.o.a. bags at the hospital. but she wanted to testify that by losing every thing, she gained more of Christ.

so after the entire room stopped crying, she praised the Lord for His faithfulness and purposes, we prayed for one another and the day, and then we went to work.

coming from behind me on the septa, i suddenly hear tupac's rhymes and beats, only to be interrupted by a "hi, mama!" by the 35+ year old man in the baggy jeans and phillies' baseball cap. wonder what everyone else hears when their momma calls.

today had the cutest 7 year old, from very very very very very difficult circumstances, but has a committed mother to raise her boys with the utmost propriety, like a ben carson story but with more difficult life circumstance. i asked him a series of questions and he replied with a series of uh-huh's. his mama gently corrected him by saying, 'honey, please use real words'. then he switched to a series of yes's. two minutes later i caught myself saying 'mm-hmm' and felt sheepish. heh.
eh.
wah.

today's devotion on peter's interaction with jesus. he denies him after following him from afar. we can't follow from afar.