Our Next Adventure - Part II

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ... But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." --Matthew 6:24-34

God is good, and He continues to provide! Throughout our journey of stepping out in faith, He has been abundantly gracious to us. When we initially took our first steps of obedience in resigning from Canyon Hills in preparation for moving back to the Bay Area, we were completely empty handed. Almost immediately after taking our step of faith, door after door began to open at churches. We continued to pray our simple prayers of unity, peace, and provision. We knew we wanted this next church family to be home for us, not just a job, but a place to lay roots.

Just as He's promised, God has been faithful to provide for our needs. With great joy & excitement, we are humbled to announce we will be joining a great community of believers at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley! Calvin will be joining staff as the Director of Youth & Family Ministry, working with the middle school & high school coordinators to minister to the youth and their families in Berkeley and the surrounding cities. First Pres Berkeley has a long, rich heritage in the city of Berkeley and we are honored to jump on board what God is already doing in and through them. We're packing up & moving August 1st, and our first day there will be August 4th -- we're gonna hit the ground running!

After getting the call, we felt so incredibly loved & known by God. His fingerprints are all over this process - from the initial job posting, conversations & interactions with the search committee, our times of prayer, and affirmation from others. He knows our needs, our passions, our personalities, our giftings and has aligned them well. When we were processing the decision with some close friends, we asked for their prayer as we discerned God's confirmation in the job offer. Our friend responded - "We will absolutely keep praying for you, but I think this offer is the answer, not the question." He summarized our hearts well. We are at peace & excited to stretch new muscles in an urban, diverse environment, exploring this journey one step at a time. 

More recently, Kenzie has accepted a job at William Hezmalhalch Architechs (WHA) as a Receptionist/Project Administrator in their San Ramon office. As has been with the rest of God's provision in our move, the WHA staff has been gracious, welcoming, and flexible with our timeline. Looks like we'll be keeping a close connection to Canyon Hills! (Bill Hezmahlach, the owner of WHA, is an elder at CHFC).

Please pray for this time of transition. Transitions are never easy, but transitioning well is so, so important for everyone involved moving forward. Pray God's blessing over all Canyon Hills' transitions, for all of the logistics of our move, for humility in joining this new church community, and for the First Pres team as they welcome Calvin. Please also pray for God's provision for housing - we are quickly being initiated into the highly priced and competitive housing market of the bay area. We're praying for an affordable, homey place in Berkeley/North Oakland where we can open up our home for others & bring the Kingdom life into our neighborhood...oh, and pet friendly! :) He has been faithful thus far, and we are confident he will continue to provide!

Thanks for your prayers & encouragements through this process.

Calvin & Kenzie

P.S. Here's the sweet announcement letter that First Pres sent out to their youth families this week:

Dear Youth Families,

We are delighted to share the news that Calvin Sodestrom will join the staff of First Pres as our new Director of Youth and Family Ministry. Calvin is currently the High School Director at Canyon Hills Friends Church in Yorba Linda, CA; prior to holding that position, he served as its Junior High Director. Calvin has a BA in Christian Education from Biola University and graduated in May with a Masters of Divinity from Azusa Pacific Graduate School of Theology. Calvin loves God and is excited to share the good news of Jesus with our youth.

We spent a great deal of time in the search process, including meeting with youth families at the very onset and taking that feedback to develop a set of questions and approach for each candidate. Each finalist was carefully reviewed. We conducted multiple interviews, checked numerous references, and we prayed. Calvin was our first choice, and we are very pleased that he has chosen to join us on staff at First Pres.

Calvin grew up in the Bay Area and attended Moraga Valley Presbyterian Church. He has been a counselor at Redwood Camp at Mount Hermon. Calvin is a gifted speaker and storyteller as well as being thoughtful, mature, fun, and energetic. He is married to Kenzie, who is also from the Bay Area. Kenzie has been involved in student ministry as well and has plans to pursue becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist. They are a wonderful couple, each with a great heart and passionate about ministry.

Calvin begins his ministry on Sunday, August 4, and he will be introduced to the congregation on Sunday, August 11, in worship. We hope you will plan to attend a Youth and Family lunch to meet Calvin and Kenzie after the 11:27 service on August 11.  More information will be forthcoming as we get closer to these dates.

Thank you for your prayers for the team and for Calvin and Kenzie as they relocate to the Bay Area. We feel met by God in our search process and are thrilled with the outcome.

Grace and Peace,

The Search Team for the Director of Youth and Family Ministry

Family History

My Mom's side had a Family Reunion this past week.  Unfortunately, Kenzie and I were unable to make it, but we were able to meet my parents on the I-5 as we returned to So Cal and they returned to the Bay. Truth be told, I was somewhat glad I didn't have to go (as I was required to when I lived under my parent's roof), since I end up being quite introverted in new situations. I was thankful to avoid some of the awkward small talk that comes with being around people you're supposed to know, because you're family, but who you actually know nothing about, because you didn't even know they existed, let alone that they were blood relatives, until you showed up at the reunion. Catch my drift?

But as Kenzie and I sat down at a pristinely clean Quizno's at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere, we listened as my parents recounted the legacy of faith that has characterized the McIntosh clan. My grandfather is the youngest of 10 siblings (maybe 12 - I would know if I went to the reunion), and most all of his brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, children and grandchildren, second and third cousins twice removed are walking, or walked, with the Lord. The Faithfulness of God (which was the theme for the reunion) was, and is evident in this mish-mash of people with whom I share genes. I didn't ask for them, didn't choose them, at times didn't even want them, but their history is my history.  And it is a history of faithfulness, primarily God's and their subsequent response.

Kenzie and I have both struggled through the books of 1-2 Kings and Chronicles.  We both felt bogged down by the tedious attention to insignificant details, lists and lists of names we couldn't remember or keep track of, exploits of one king or another that, over time, became white noise. We were reading Scripture, God's written word, and we couldn't wait to get it over with. It all seemed so pointless, so unnecessary. Couldn't we just move onto Jesus, onto the stuff that matters, onto the stories that really impact our faith?

And yet, as isolated and distant I feel from these obscure stories, I can't forget that they are part of my history.  The stories of the Old Testament, both good and bad, are stories of my mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters.  I've been grafted into a history that I didn't get to write, that I didn't oversee, that I didn't choose, that was part of the whole package sent to me when I said yes to Jesus. And as much as I don't like it at times, don't want to be a part of it, or try to envision myself as somehow outside the bounds of this grand story, I can't escape it.

Just as the genes that have determined my very being are woven into every part of my body and have placed me within a narrative bigger than myself, so too, the Spirit of God, who vivifies and invigorates my crippled soul, has swept me into a beautiful story of redemption. A story of a tattered, bruised, broken, and downtrodden group of people who have somehow come together through the magnificent love of a very good God. It's a reunion that I would definitely not want to miss.

A Tribute to Southern California

Our time in Orange County is quickly coming to a close. We just realized we only have about 5 weeks here, 5 weeks in our first home, 5 weeks with our friends, 5 weeks with our students, only 5 weeks... In any transition, there are a lot of emotions to process, but more often than not those emotions form some strange conglomeration that feels a lot like numbness. My first splash of mourning crept up on me Thursday when I started feeling sad about losing my go-to LA radio stations. I mean, I love me some Ryan Seacrest or Valentine to start my morning commute, but this was certainly a hint of deeper realities of my heart. It's easy to list things I won't miss - like inexplicable traffic on any day at any time, the trains that shake our apartment at all hours, the inability to see stars, having to filter our water, and everything about the 91 freeway - but I also want to record the things I've really come to love here. So, as I process my sadness in leaving this land that had become home over the past 6 years, I've written this tribute.

Dear Southern California, 

The land of unseasonably warm weather and unnatural palm trees, you are a truly beautiful place. I will miss your gorgeous beaches, your pier boardwalks, your Ruby's Diners, the way you make my hair salty and wavy, and the way I feel when I snag a good, free parking spot in Newport Beach. I'll miss the freedom to get a donut at any time of day or night in your many 24 hour donut shops, should I get a craving. I'll miss your cultural diversity and killer hole in the wall restaurants. Ill miss your delicious traveling food trucks. I'll miss Groundlings Improv shows and exploring LA. I'll miss Monday night girls nights with my best friends - who can beat that? I'll miss your morning radio stations. I'll miss your lingo, like how everyone talks about how much time they saved by which freeways and roads they took to get to their location (I'm writing this on the 5 south, not sure if we'll take the 210 to bypass traffic in LA yet). I'll miss prefacing all freeways with "the." I'll miss the phrase 'carmegeddon', honestly, where else is that a real thing? I'll miss living blocks from your cute Old Towne Orange, full of adorable antique shops and eateries. I'll miss the first place Calvin and I have ever called home together.  I'll miss seeing little red Biola parking stickers all over as I drive around. I'll miss hearing Disneyland's fireworks every night like clockwork, or catching the tail end of a show from the freeway. I'll miss recognizing normal places and landmarks as a film location for TV shows and movies. I'll miss hearing the familiar screams as our neighborhood kids play outside or hearing our neighbor greet his cats. I'll miss your warm sunshine that provides shorts weather yearlong. I'll miss the hopefulness of young aspiring somebodies in LA. And your, people, your picture perfect OC people -- once strangers to us, now family.

It's been a good run, So Cal. We hope to bring some if your sunshine and warmth to the city by the bay.

Sincerely yours,

Kenzie