the bowden family blog

wow! so much has been going on lately, I don’t know where to begin!! i’ll try to keep it brief, so here it goes: since I started following Jesus about 10 years ago, I’ve wanted to offer my life back up as a sacrifice to Him wholeheartedly. in the early days, the only way i knew how to do this was through either becoming a pastor or a missionary. again, to be brief, let’s just say God has brought me a long way in my understanding of following Him. He is continuing to teach me the ways of His kingdom, and how Jesus has broken down the barriers between all of humanity and Himself, and is now calling each of us back to Himself, and in turn to be ministers in every context He has placed us in.

After wrestling with the question of what VOCATION God has called me to for a while now, I am moving ahead back into full time design! i loved studying design at louisiana tech, and have enjoyed the freelance projects over the last two years, and after much prayer, thought, and wise advice, I’m finally at peace with this direction. just as you might imagine, God is blowing me away right now with His faithfulness and the way that He provides when I obey.

more details to come soon…

well, some days just start off great!  brittany and I slept in till a good 9 something o’clock, showered, and rode our bikes down to a great local coffee shop named peet’s, where I enjoyed my first cup of coffee all week, and a sweet cinnamon raisin bagel with Brittany.

then we strolled back home and got to see william as he’s in town for a two week class here at fuller.  we were going to hit up the classic pasadena eatery ‘pie and burger’, but william threw out the great suggestion ‘roscoe’s chicken and waffles’.

wow!  what an experience.  felt like i was back in west monroe, good home cooking, great familiar company, small town flavor, but what a food combination on one plate:  some of the best fried chicken i’ve ever had, and some great waffles, topped off by just the right flavored maple syrup.  oh yeah, and a lot of butter….so good, you need to try it sometime!

and now, off to apple in a few hours.  this is a great day!

camping out with the homeless, the rose parade, great friends, and darth vader, and the grambling state marching band. can it get any better?

here are some pics for your enjoyment —->

well I work during the day and Jonathan works at night.
Work has been good. I think I finally started to get into a groove… Jonathan came with me yesterday and it was so good to have company for the drive and for lunch.

So last night Rob Bell came to Fuller. It was called “A Conversation with Rob” It was my first time to see him in person. I really think God is communicating truth in a fresh way through him.

I guess I am pretty slow to praise well known Christians. I did like the nooma videos, and I love his way of teaching from his mp3s online… but I didn’t know about him… the person.

We were PACKED into this small auditorium that holds about 100 people. There were people along all the walls, sitting in the isles, people in the foyer, and people who had to be turned away due to fire codes… of course we arrived an hour and a half early and are able to snag ourselves a chair. While we waited, Jonathan thought it would be fun to do the wave…. I thought that the whole seating thing was so tense that someone may slip in my seat if I attempted the wave. So after a time of waiting and growing anticipation, I thought.. what will we do… will the lights go down, we stand and scream as he enters with the spotlight.. haha

So he finally walks in … Im looking around and my brain registers that face that I have seem before. So he’s a little aukward… he begins his talk with jokes but quickly moves into old testiment history. A little over my head, but we are at a seminary. he uses cards to explain each time period he is talking about… (helps me out) He tells about Egypt and how they cried and were led out … about Siani and how God spoke giving the people a mission.. then about jeruselam and how slowly it became another Egypt. Babylon took over and burned the temple… so the people were again completely opressed… The people began to recognize what had gone wrong, why this whole mission and identity that they were told about on Siani was not working out. they then again, as they did in egypt, began to cry out for another chance to do it better..

Now the thing that he hung on was the whole building of the temple for personal gain… using resources to better you and lesson someone else…

Then application would be what resources we use up compared to the number of americans there are to the number of people in the world. I am not Rob, so my summary is not as mind blowing…

After this there was time for Q&A .. jonathan asked a ?… I was proud and very nervous… but he was smart as usual.

well Im feeling sleepy… I will write my profound revelations on this Rob thing tomorrow!

nite nite

Well the search is over.  A job has been found.  I am working for a christian design firm www.plainjoestudios.com.  I really love the people there and whole environment.  The timing was great in that my last day at First West was monday, and my first day at Plain Joe was tuesday.

There is a bit of a mountain I have ahead of me… I am having to relearn how to use a PC as well as learn Corel… Who knew???  I am a mac/illustrator girl to the core, so its challenging to change my ways.  Im still trying to get into the vibe… the juices are not yet flowing, which is frustrating.  I am starting out as an intern, but I hope to be an official full-time employee in 6 months.

Well thats all for today.  Goodnight

We took a trip to Malibu on saturday. It was beautiul. one of my favorite spots here in Cali so far. the waves were bigger than anything I have seen in the south east. I have a new respect for the water. we tried to boogie board with my old born from Florida, but it didnt take long for the waves to tear it up. We went with two couples that we have been hanging out with lately… they are keepers!