So, day one in Penn is in the books. We had a group supper and then learned about what to expect tomorrow with job interviews. Apparently a lot of the schools that have English vacancies aren’t able to make it tomorrow, so not all of us got interviews. Fortunately, I have one job interview tomorrow, at 3:30 p.m.
I went to a church today called Spirit and Truth Fellowship. It’s located in North Philly, about 3 miles from where Shane Claiborne is. I read about it in the book, The New Conspirators, so I decided to check it out. It’s a really cool multi-racial congregation, and I really liked it. But, funny story:
According to the website, the church has two services, one at 8:30 and one at 11:30. Since I had to check out of my hotel room by 1:00 p.m., I decided to check out the 8:30 service. I woke up at 7:10, showered, packed, moved all my stuff to storage, checked out of my room, and hopped on a bus, all by 8:03 a.m. This for me is an accomplishment. I get to the church around 8:20 a.m., and all the doors are locked. I have no idea what is going on, until a man, named Jose, appears to unlock the church. It turns out that they switched to a summer service, and start at 10:00 a.m. He was getting their early to set up the church service. I showed up an hour and a half early for my first church service!
Lastly, I realized today how happy I am, just to be here right now. I know the next six weeks are going to be brutal, but I’m authentically happy to be in Philly, to do TFA, even to teach English. It’s good to be home.
You can run but you can’t hide! This is Ryan from Spirit and Truth. I was running the sound, looking for roommate, gave you my card, etc. I keep tabs on an RSS search feed for “Spirit and Truth Fellowship” and this got flagged today. Glad you enjoyed yourself, look forward to getting to know you better. Have a great week of TFA!