I shook the Mayor's hand yesterday....

Yes, it's true. I met the Mayor of Dallas yesterday. He's really nice and has been a champion for progress with the "less than" in Dallas since being elected last year. CDM was having an open house/media get-together to start off the construction phase of a new project in downtown Dallas. It is called "CityWalk at Akard". It is a new housing project being built in a converted high-rise in the middle of downtown. Again the paper wrote an article if you would like to read it. If you're interested, read the comments from people about the project. This one has certainly stirred the pot!!

My new job.

I still work for Central Dallas Ministries but I've recently taken a new position as Case Manager for Destination Home, CDM's newest program. We provide permanent supportive housing for individuals with a history of homelessness and also a disability. Most of our clients are chronically homeless meaning that they have been homeless for at least a consecutive year (most longer) and/or have had 4 episodes of homelessness in the past 3 years. Disabilities range from physical disabilities, to chronic illnesses, to substance and chemical dependence, to mental health issues.

The Dallas Morning News recently did an article on us, you can read it here if you would like. I really enjoy this job. I love the relationships built with my clients and getting to hear their inspiring stories of life on the streets. It was definitely a God thing because this job was offered to me shortly after reading a great book entitled "Same Kind of Different As Me" by Ron Hall. It really instilled a desire to work with this population again (a return to kind of work I wanted to do in Portland!). If you have time, READ IT!

I Hate myself...

So I decided to celebrate my return to blogging by accidentally erasing all of my links old and new (I had added 15-20 today). I'm so frustrated that I'm not going to rebuild until tomorrow.

I suck.

I'm BACK!!

Ok, I've decided to give this another try (for like the 5th or 6th time). I'm feeling cut off from my friends in the blog world lately, so I'm back to get caught up and catch all y'all up (if anyone still reads this blog). I would've given up on me too, it's okay.

Short update: I'm married now (to the beautiful love of my life, Rachel), I'm finally graduating in December, we live in Irving now, I don't work for TRAC anymore, I still work for Central Dallas Ministries but with a program called Destination Home (more on that later), we go to Highland Oaks CoC (for now), and I'm still fat.

I've changed the layout of my blog in the hopes that if anyone happens to stumble by again, they will notice it has changed and actually start reading again. I promise to do better. I have a lot more updating to do with links and info and such, so be patient and the blog shall return to its former glory! YAY for blogs!

P.S. My wife has a blog now too, you should read it. (I'll put the link up later.)