Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Joel & Jenn Collins
First kiss! December 11, 2007
Last weekend I went to my cousin’s wedding. It was so beautiful! The most special part was that when they had their first kiss as man and wife, it was literally their “first” kiss! How special! Here’s some pics from the event.
My cousin Jon with my Aunt (on left) and Faith’s Mom (on right)
The beautiful Bride!
Their first kiss, not only as man and wife, but their first kiss ever!
My Mom, me, Emily and Carla
The whole Rizzo Family (minus one cousin who is away at college). What has Faith gotten herself into?! 
Our family…Joel, Me, Mom, Dad, Raychel, Scott
Church in a sex club December 10, 2007
That title may be shocking to some of you, but one of the locations of our church meets in a former sex club. Pretty crazy right? The church is in a pretty bleak part of town (or as one of my friends calls it, an “armpit”). The church is across the street from a well known “crack alley”. Prostitutes are known to walk the streets at night. It can be a very dark place. Whenever I get to visit that campus, I pray all the way from my car to the doors and then when I leave I pray from the doors to my car. I clutch my purse a little tighter. I double check that my car doors are locked. I walk a little faster.
I heard a disturbing story this week about an incident that happened at the church late at night. I don’t want to share too many details, but let’s just say there was some shady stuff going on! I heard the story Sunday morning and, after laughing for a little bit, I said out loud, “we need to get out of there” (meaning, that neighborhood).
It didn’t occur to me until today (Monday) that I shouldn’t have said that. THAT IS EXACTLY WHERE WE SHOULD BE! God has put us there. We’ve been there for 4 years now. Why should we leave? The area needs Jesus! I just realized how bad that must’ve sounded when I said it. Yes it is a bad neighborhood and possibly very dangerous but God has us there for a reason. These are the people Jesus hung out with and cared for. Thank God we are there!
Blog draught December 3, 2007
So it’s apparent that there’s been a bit of a blog draught here at ‘Life in the Real World’. To be honest, it’s a combination of not having any time and a lot of personal things going on in my world.
I can’t promise things will be back to normal soon, but I’m gonna do my best to keep posting despite my current circumstances.
