On Friday night I had the privilege of spending the night at the Walter Hoving Home, formerly the Mira Monte Hotel, in Pasadena as part of an assignment for my Urban Poverty class. The WH Home is a non-profit Christian faith-based recovery and rehabilitation center that serves women who are 18 years of age or older who have struggled with alcoholism, drug addiction, and prostitution. The focus of the program is a new way of living physically and also spiritually through faith in Christ.

I left work and walked over to the home shortly after 4PM on a rainy Friday afternoon, and met Lu Lu, one of the directors for the center. She introduced me to a few of the girls and then said that she would be leaving and would return on Saturday for the volunteer luncheon at 1PM, for which I could stay and volunteer. Lu Lu left and I went up to meet my new roommates for the evening, Maria and Rachel. Maria was half hiding under her bed reading the Bible and doing her assigned Bible homework. She introduced her self, showed me where I would be sleeping, and made me feel right at home in her room. Marie began to share her story of how she had just arrived at the home a few days earlier and had been arrested in January while high for possession of drugs. She has been in and out of county jails, arrested multiple times for drug and possession of illegal weapons and has been shot and shot at numerous times. Maria is in a gang and she was very open about all of this information as she showed me her paper work for the multiple arrests and bail bonds. Maria is also amazed that she is still alive as many of the gang members of been shot or killed throughout the years and multiple attempts have been taken on her life. She believes that if she has lived this long, it is for a reason and she wants to give life another chance.

After dinner at 5PM, we watched an old Cary Grant movie (my grandmother would have loved to have been there!) together in the main event room. After the movie was over, we had a time of devotions at 8:45PM, which included a time for silent prayer and then reading through the Psalms and beginning with Genesis. After devotional time, we went up to our rooms to get ready for bed, pray together as roommates, and hit the lights at 10PM sharp.

I noticed how regimented the schedule was for every thing but I see how much these girls need a schedule and need to adapt new habits and have a routine. At 10PM, we got together and prayed as roommates and it was neat to share this moment together as Maria had not spent much time ever praying in the past. They both wanted me to pray first so they would feel more comfortable praying. After, Maria and I talked about her nightmares and sleep troubles and how they had gotten worse since she arrived at the home. I shared from Ephesians 6 about the spiritual armor she will need because the enemy is definitely losing ground as Maria begins to make right choices and she will experience more attacks. Maria was really excited about these verses and broke out her highlighter and covered the passage so as to recall it.

I had a pretty hard time getting much sleep last night at the home. I crawled into bed around 10:45PM but laid awake until 1:30AM. I imagine it was due to the fact that place was different and Maria was on the bunk below and was tossing and turning and I didn’t want to move much so as to disturb her. I finally fell asleep but awoke at 5AM as Rachel was getting ready for the day and again at 6AM as maria. was up and moving around.

As I reflect back on my time at the Home last night and today, I have truly been impacted by this experience. I shared with Brian that I realize why Jesus has such a heart for the poor and downtrodden and speaks of it throughout the Gospels. Those who find themselves at the bottom are ready to look up to something higher and that is the very thing I found evident at the Walter Hoving Home- women who have hit rock bottom ready to look to a Savior who is calling their names and loves them dearly. I have tears as I write this because I saw the hurt and pain on their faces and yet the tears of joy that fell as they read the scriptures and prayed. I believe that I drew closer to the Lord because of my time at the Walter Hoving Home over the last 24 hours. I came away praising and worshipping the Lord because of the work that He is doing. He makes all things new again. Amen.

Brian treated me to a $16 meal at 101 Noodles (a cute hole-in-the wall authentic Chinese grade B restaurant in San Gabriel) where for the second time, we were asked how we heard of this place and if we come here often because we were the only non-Chinese couple in the restaurant! At least this time we couldn't be called laowei or weigouren because we aren't! :) This little place has almost everything written in Chinese and for the most part, everyone around us is speaking Chinese! I love that in Los Angeles, we live 15 minutes away from China!

After dinner, we went to BCT Foot and Body Spa were we were greeted to the song "Hotel California"... oh nothing has changed even here in LA!! For those of you who have lived in China, you know that Hotel California is played in almost every restaurant and hotel as well as the song Country Roads by John Denver- songs we never listen to in the U.S. but yet according to the Chinese, are quintessentially American. We were indulged in an hour long "foot" massage for $15 in large lazy boy chairs lined up across the room. I know this is expensive in China but here in the U.S., an hour massage is usually $60! We were able to practice our Chinese with two lovely gentlemen from the NE of China while watching Chinese soap operas on the flat screen tvs and sipping green tea in small cups.

Thank you Brian for a wonderful date night... my heart is rekindled for China and her people.

So those of us who live in sunny Southern California have become accustomed to sunshine... everyday. When it rains, we kind of freak out. This past week it rained for five days straight... and by rain I mean inches upon inches of downpour and hail. The final product? Snow capped mountains on Saturday morning! This is the view we have from our lovely home in Pasadena.

what better a way to spend the long weekend than to skip on over to Surprise, Arizona and hang out with my grandparents, dad, cousins, aunts and uncles... all in honor of my sweet grandfather turning the big 8-0! We ate cake, played golf, went to see Sherlock Holmes, browsed at Cabelas, and went to Barrett Jackson's Auto Show. A splendid time was had by all but we surely missed the other half of my family- mom, brittany, and ryan.


grandpa and dad

grandpa and my uncles

grandma and grandpa with the cake

oh dad!

I made grandpa wear this lips shaped pin all day that blinked red and said "kiss me, it's my birthday!" I don't think he was too fond of it because it somehow disappeared halfway through the party but I recovered it to pin it back on him for the last hour!

Urbana recap... by the way, this place holds a special place in our hearts- the Edward Jones Dome here in St. Louis is where the Tarheels won the national championship our senior year back in 2005!

17,000 people worshiping together in English, Arabic, Spanish, Swahili and more!


madness... this is everyone exiting the building...


our Fuller exhibit display! We talked to so many students and IV staff... we were tired of hearing ourselves talk by the end of each day!


We gave away 920 water bottles!!


my best buddy kristin and I at the gateway to the west... it's snowing!

me and my hubsy

that's all folks!

Merry Christmas from the McPhails!

Check us out on the following clip!

Fuller recently received a grant for research for psychology and religion in China from the Templeton Foundation for over $300,000. I have posted the article link here... hopefully more exciting news to come in the near future on that front!

"This two-year project will help develop well-trained psychologists of religion in China. The project also aims to create a formal Chinese Association of Psychologists of Religion in China, to share new ideas in the area of psychology of religion and to build on existing partnerships between select universities in China and Fuller’s School of Psychology. 


Dr. Mouw pointed out that the grant “helps address a need that has been expressed many times to Fuller Seminary by our Chinese friends.” Fuller has been involved for several years in mutual learning visits, conversations, and exchanges with Chinese leaders from churches, seminaries, universities, and government-related agencies. These leaders have communicated an urgency to address growing psychological needs in China, both in church congregations and the larger society. Such needs include the increasing divorce rate in China; the high suicide rate among young people and others overwhelmed by stress and pressures; financial problems caused by the rapidly changing economic system; and dramatic changes in elder care, intergenerational communication, and family structures. "