The Hollander, The Scotts, and The Asian describe my companions on the next 2 legs of my flight! From Atlanta to Amsterdam I'm going to have to admit that I was like that little kid on the Disney commercial, "But I'm tooo excited to sleep!"
The 2 Scottish girls were on their way home from "A Holiday" in the states and they were perfectly pleasant, the one right next to me chose to watch Avatar and any time something jumped out she nearly jumped out of her chair and gasped and even held my hand a few times! She definitely reminded me of my Danish foreign exchange student so it was okay, she liked to hold my hand too!
The Hollander, or what ever you call ladies from Holland, she was one of those missionary types (I know right?! Could you change my seat please? I think she was grateful when she began to witness to me and I said, "no evangelism needed (especially not for the next 8 hours!) Me and Jesus are tight!" However I have to tell you that she had personal space issues, or rather, I have personal space issues and she violated them excessively! She also was a public nose blower (this is never okay, but especially not when you're going to run out of places to put your used tissues and decide to us my seat back!) However, I have to give her props for at the end of the flight when I asked her how long it would take her to get to Holland from Amsterdam, she was very gracious as she informed that Amsterdam is, in fact, IN Holland!
In case you're wondering I viewed Toy Story 3, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which was super funny, and the kid in it reminded me of a young Logan Ellis! I love you Logan and you've turned into a handsome strong marine from that cute little jr. higher who scraped his face on the bottom of the pool trying to impress the ladies!) :) Oh, and I watched a laugh out loud funny episode of Modern Family. Manny is my favorite!
The last flight well, it was not so entertaining as I was soooo sleepy! I, likely being the last passenger booked, was in the middle of the middle row, up against the wall, seated between 2 very large men (don't you wish everybody used dial?) who claimed both arm rests and some of my seat actually immediately, however, there was an aisle seat EMPTY in my eye sight, I yelled across the plane to ask the stewardess if I could stake claim to it, I couldn't chance waiting on her to respond to those people who had pushed their call button, certain that they all had their eyes on my empty aisle seat treasure! Suckers, I sat by the tiny Asian girl on the aisle and slept like a baby! Because she was Asian I assumed she did not speak English because only white folk speak English, right?! So, when I was using my sign language to speak foreign to ask to borrow her pen to fill out one of those form thingys, she looked at me and in nothing but a New York accent politely asked me if I needed to borrow her pen! Oops! What?! I'm always culturally appropriate with my stereotypes!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Seat 21 C
The journey to Kenya begins: Nashville to Atlanta (1 whopping hour!)
Atlanta to Amsterdam (8hrs)
Amsterdam to Nairobi (8hrs)
The adventure began on the first flight, Seat 21 C - Aisle 21 is what I'd probably call an "afterthought." I imagine it went like this: Some Delta stewardess wanted to make a little extra money and on a plane with 20 aisles she created Aisle 21... basically she sat a couple of children's folding chairs behind row 20 right beside her little pop out seat - you know the one- directly up against the wall where people lean their buttocks while they await the restroom! Sound terrible? Nooo, it has its perks, it has a special back massager .... your chair vibrates every time someone flushes the toilet! We hung out on the Nashville tarmac for about an hour just for fun I think.... but don't worry the stewardess in my lap made sure I kept my tray table in the locked and upright position! (There were no worries about my seatback as the wall made sure of that!) Oh and evidently you had to pay extra for A/C! (Oh and NO mom I did not meet a man on this flight, the grown man seated beside me was reading Harry Potter!) It may sound like I'm complaining....I'm soooo NOT, I'm smiling ear to ear, just happy to be on the plane on my way to Kenya (well, Atlanta first!) Currently reading Midnight in the City by Hal Donaldson I'll submit a book report later!
The GULP Heard Round the World
Lesson #1 with Convoy of Hope was to be learned near .... IMMEDIATELY! It's the Biblical principle of being ready in season and out of season! At a moment's notice! Friday, October 8th was to be my last day with Centerstone and while I was enjoying a final lunch with co-workers, my telephone rang:
Matt Wilkie: "Do you wanna go to Africa this week?"
Me: "Sure, when?!" (thinking to myself, today is Friday, we're probably talking heading out NEXT Friday...no sweat! )
Matt Wilkie: Monday!
Me: GULP!
Only my co workers could officially tell you what my face looked like, but my missionary friend in Argentina assures me she heard me GULP! Here's my re-inactment photo!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The List
Rather than express my feelings in the written word this evening, I'm going to allow Jaron to speak for me! (Ahhhh...sigh, Jaron...) :) It'd probably be inappropriate to publish my prayer list here, but just know you've made The List! xoxoxoxox!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika
This post was triggered by my recent viewing of Invictus (which is not at all about Rugby by the way!) But it was inspired and made possible by the passionate Dr. Johan Mostert and the beautiful people of South Africa.
Some things came full circle for me today. Some that won't show up in the post, but will be seen I hope.
I'm a southern girl and proud of it. Born and raised in Columbia, Tennessee. The radio set to Nashville's 97.9 today a song about how everybody has a "hillbilly bone" made me smile and say AMEN as I drove into the country to a friend's house to be greeted by a pot bellied big, some chickens, and kiddos on the back of a gator eating watermelon slices as big as they were!
I LOVE where I come from!
In 1995, I was graduating from Columbia Central High School, beginning my first year of "freedom" which would start with that rite of passage unchaperoned trip to Panama City Beach, which is insignificant to this post, but it was one heck of a trip class of 95ers was it not? the only significance that it carries is to let you know where my mind was in 1995! :)
In 1995, a world away, Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa were experiencing a new "freedom" as well, one that my 18 year old mind bound for PCB didn't know about and quite frankly wouldn't have cared about. Apartheid "separateness" had "ended." And just like we graduates found that our "freedom" came with many new battles to be fought, Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa were "free" to begin to battle as well! As I walked through the Apartheid museum in 2007 and saw the barbed wire and armoured cars and videos playing of dates not like those in my history books of the Civil War and battles no one living had endured, but the 1980s and 1990s news clips played. This was in MY lifetime!
My "tour guide" was Dr. Johan Mostert, a professor from my graduate school, a white South African man by skin color only it seems. With passion and through tears he walked us through, recounting his memories and his love for his nation and their story which tightly interwove into his own story. Have you ever had one of those teachers who taught you things you didn't know you were learning until much later in life? A teacher, who stayed far enough away from the text book to teach you what you really needed to know to be changed, to understand, and to succeed? Dr. Mostert was THAT teacher and so much more! To say I am grateful would be an understatement.
I should probably confess now that I was so frustrated with him on this trip. It was in my head to be a "mission's trip," which to ME meant work, work, work, work, work to have the largest impact possible in a short time. Dr. Mostert was far more concerned with the impact this trip would have on our lives and our hearts than he was in what we could accomplish in 3 weeks time. And I'll have to admit, your methods although completely unorthodox:) will impact my life and your nation and mine far more than anything we could have hoped to accomplish in 3 weeks.
We went from the finest neighborhoods in Pretoria to the townships, this was not a days drive, it was a couple blocks away. I was appalled by the contrast of the make shift scrap tin homes from the bricks and landscaping I had just left. How can this be? I was shocked... as were the people in the townships, that this white woman was entering. I kept thinking, "are you kidding me? What on earth is wrong with South Africa?"
..... I love where I'm from, but I must be honest.... I see color....
I would have sworn to you that day that "apartheid" was dead and gone in MY great nation!
The contrast of the Leave it To Beaver Neighborhood next to the pieced together homes in the townships was just not right. To walk into the home of my hosts and sit down and have tea and watch South African Idol and then to travel minutes away and walk into a mud hut with no electricity, (with no NOTHING) to find a woman dying alone of AIDS in the dark no one had tended to her for days. Seriously? This is outrageous!
Several years later in my home town, I turned off West 6th Street, my grandmother lived there most of my life, when the Fuzzy Duck was a Dairy Queen ya know? Two blocks in, I visited a home where the tv was positioned on the floor, and everyone sat on the floor although there was seating and furniture to put the tv on, boards lined the windows making it so dark. A teenager entered the room and stated what's the white woman doing here? 2 blocks away....
I'm not sure what I'm getting at, we have a long way to go in the areas of equality and justice that's for sure. I'm pretty confident that our remedy is not going to come from our government. But politics and color are not what this post is about. It's about. Although I hope to spend my lifetime practicing missions, helping those who can't help themselves, going into places of great need being Jesus with skin on making sure bellies and hearts are full all around the world! I don't think that's God's calling or expectation for EVERYONE, to pack up go into the nations! He's gifted each of us uniquely and placed us strategically in our homes and jobs and churches and teams and schools and positions and has laid specific areas of need on our individual hearts! So this is not a post about foreign missions although if you'd like to donate to MY endeavors, my AGWM acct # is 294171-4! :)
So if this post is not about rugby, my senior trip, racism, politics, or foreign missions, what's it about? It is about those in need.... two blocks away.
Some things came full circle for me today. Some that won't show up in the post, but will be seen I hope.
I'm a southern girl and proud of it. Born and raised in Columbia, Tennessee. The radio set to Nashville's 97.9 today a song about how everybody has a "hillbilly bone" made me smile and say AMEN as I drove into the country to a friend's house to be greeted by a pot bellied big, some chickens, and kiddos on the back of a gator eating watermelon slices as big as they were!
I LOVE where I come from!
In 1995, I was graduating from Columbia Central High School, beginning my first year of "freedom" which would start with that rite of passage unchaperoned trip to Panama City Beach, which is insignificant to this post, but it was one heck of a trip class of 95ers was it not? the only significance that it carries is to let you know where my mind was in 1995! :)
In 1995, a world away, Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa were experiencing a new "freedom" as well, one that my 18 year old mind bound for PCB didn't know about and quite frankly wouldn't have cared about. Apartheid "separateness" had "ended." And just like we graduates found that our "freedom" came with many new battles to be fought, Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa were "free" to begin to battle as well! As I walked through the Apartheid museum in 2007 and saw the barbed wire and armoured cars and videos playing of dates not like those in my history books of the Civil War and battles no one living had endured, but the 1980s and 1990s news clips played. This was in MY lifetime!
My "tour guide" was Dr. Johan Mostert, a professor from my graduate school, a white South African man by skin color only it seems. With passion and through tears he walked us through, recounting his memories and his love for his nation and their story which tightly interwove into his own story. Have you ever had one of those teachers who taught you things you didn't know you were learning until much later in life? A teacher, who stayed far enough away from the text book to teach you what you really needed to know to be changed, to understand, and to succeed? Dr. Mostert was THAT teacher and so much more! To say I am grateful would be an understatement.
I should probably confess now that I was so frustrated with him on this trip. It was in my head to be a "mission's trip," which to ME meant work, work, work, work, work to have the largest impact possible in a short time. Dr. Mostert was far more concerned with the impact this trip would have on our lives and our hearts than he was in what we could accomplish in 3 weeks time. And I'll have to admit, your methods although completely unorthodox:) will impact my life and your nation and mine far more than anything we could have hoped to accomplish in 3 weeks.
We went from the finest neighborhoods in Pretoria to the townships, this was not a days drive, it was a couple blocks away. I was appalled by the contrast of the make shift scrap tin homes from the bricks and landscaping I had just left. How can this be? I was shocked... as were the people in the townships, that this white woman was entering. I kept thinking, "are you kidding me? What on earth is wrong with South Africa?"
..... I love where I'm from, but I must be honest.... I see color....
I would have sworn to you that day that "apartheid" was dead and gone in MY great nation!
The contrast of the Leave it To Beaver Neighborhood next to the pieced together homes in the townships was just not right. To walk into the home of my hosts and sit down and have tea and watch South African Idol and then to travel minutes away and walk into a mud hut with no electricity, (with no NOTHING) to find a woman dying alone of AIDS in the dark no one had tended to her for days. Seriously? This is outrageous!
Several years later in my home town, I turned off West 6th Street, my grandmother lived there most of my life, when the Fuzzy Duck was a Dairy Queen ya know? Two blocks in, I visited a home where the tv was positioned on the floor, and everyone sat on the floor although there was seating and furniture to put the tv on, boards lined the windows making it so dark. A teenager entered the room and stated what's the white woman doing here? 2 blocks away....
I'm not sure what I'm getting at, we have a long way to go in the areas of equality and justice that's for sure. I'm pretty confident that our remedy is not going to come from our government. But politics and color are not what this post is about. It's about. Although I hope to spend my lifetime practicing missions, helping those who can't help themselves, going into places of great need being Jesus with skin on making sure bellies and hearts are full all around the world! I don't think that's God's calling or expectation for EVERYONE, to pack up go into the nations! He's gifted each of us uniquely and placed us strategically in our homes and jobs and churches and teams and schools and positions and has laid specific areas of need on our individual hearts! So this is not a post about foreign missions although if you'd like to donate to MY endeavors, my AGWM acct # is 294171-4! :)
So if this post is not about rugby, my senior trip, racism, politics, or foreign missions, what's it about? It is about those in need.... two blocks away.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
AVATAR!
I'm loosely committing to being a more faithful blogger! I'm starting to realize the best blogs are about everyday life, however, I'm missing the essential ingredients... the cute kids & their poop stories, the romantic husband (& his poop stories),a pet of any kind (& their poop stories) or an office job where people freeze staplers in jello & say ridiculously inappropriate things, etc. etc. (The ridiculously inappropriate things said at my job are all unfortunately CONFIDENTIAL!)
SO tonight, I will blog about my everyday life my RedBox weekend pick: AVATAR
(Please, please don't be jealous of the excitement that is my life!)
I was totally boycotting it... SciFi (ewww) Blue Aliens (eww) a 3hr movie (eww, eww) however, a 6th grade boy spent his entire therapy session telling me about it and making me promise to watch it (I'm an excellent therapist, as you can tell I had complete control of this session! AND who went home with the homework!) I promised and I'm a girl of my word! So I watched and here are my thoughts:
The aliens could have been better looking... I had no warm and fuzzy feelings towards them! Speilberg had me fall in love with ET who I HAD to have a doll of that I snuggled with and I kissed my ET lamp every night before I went to bed! (His heart stayed on as a night light!) Big fail on making me fall in love with the AVATAR or making me crave Reese's Pieces for that matter! However, the guy who turned into the AVATAR... that's an entirely different case... He can call me any time! Speaking of which, if any of you happen to know Roberto from The Bachelorette this season... my phone number is 931-374-1799.
Avatar is definitely a boy movie... I asked my little brother if he'd seen it, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "3 times!" It was near the reaction I got when I told him I'd never seen The Matrix!
My former youth group students will roll their eyes at this part (who am I kidding? they're not reading this!) But I, of course, "ruined" the movie with my spiritual thoughts afterward, as it reminded me of how we SHOULD be deeply and constantly connected to our Creator, how He DOES desire to talk to us and remind us of His greatness through His creation, and oh how He loves us!
On a much less spiritual note: it also made me think of what life would be like if my MIND controlled my actions... I just leave it at that!
Overall, thumbs up on the AVATAR!
SO tonight, I will blog about my everyday life my RedBox weekend pick: AVATAR
(Please, please don't be jealous of the excitement that is my life!)
I was totally boycotting it... SciFi (ewww) Blue Aliens (eww) a 3hr movie (eww, eww) however, a 6th grade boy spent his entire therapy session telling me about it and making me promise to watch it (I'm an excellent therapist, as you can tell I had complete control of this session! AND who went home with the homework!) I promised and I'm a girl of my word! So I watched and here are my thoughts:
The aliens could have been better looking... I had no warm and fuzzy feelings towards them! Speilberg had me fall in love with ET who I HAD to have a doll of that I snuggled with and I kissed my ET lamp every night before I went to bed! (His heart stayed on as a night light!) Big fail on making me fall in love with the AVATAR or making me crave Reese's Pieces for that matter! However, the guy who turned into the AVATAR... that's an entirely different case... He can call me any time! Speaking of which, if any of you happen to know Roberto from The Bachelorette this season... my phone number is 931-374-1799.
Avatar is definitely a boy movie... I asked my little brother if he'd seen it, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "3 times!" It was near the reaction I got when I told him I'd never seen The Matrix!
My former youth group students will roll their eyes at this part (who am I kidding? they're not reading this!) But I, of course, "ruined" the movie with my spiritual thoughts afterward, as it reminded me of how we SHOULD be deeply and constantly connected to our Creator, how He DOES desire to talk to us and remind us of His greatness through His creation, and oh how He loves us!
On a much less spiritual note: it also made me think of what life would be like if my MIND controlled my actions... I just leave it at that!
Overall, thumbs up on the AVATAR!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Pit Stops!
Is it just me or is this year FLYING by already!? It's mid February already! So far so good on my goals for my new year! How bout you?
I have another blog topic waiting in the wings, but tonight I'm "compelled" to write this one! Obviously this happens RARELY with my four entries total, but nonetheless it's happened tonight!
I'm in the midst of reading "To Live is Christ" by Beth Moore. It's about the apostle Paul and his journeys. It's actually a devotional so I'm doing the question part of it via email with one of my former students from KC and I think we both like it, not sure she would tell me if she didn't! :)
Our next devotional is going to be Beth Moore's newest one about insecurity so if any of the 2 of you that may read this blog want to join me via email I'd love it!
Anyway... one of the questions tonight was : What blessings has God brought into your life during "unscheduled stops" along the way?
The answers just kept coming and coming...
My entire 6 years at Englewood was "unscheduled" for me, I went to CBC to go to the missionfield, Englewood was a pit stop... I cannot and would not want to imagine my life without those kids! We'll call this pit stop "the brick building" or "tentacles" (Sometimes God takes us places we didn't ask to be and keeps us there to make us something we never thought we could be and uses us to do things we never thought we could do!)
Oh no, I definitely shouldn't leave out "the blue house" pit stop... it's really part of the above pit stop so maybe we should just call this one, "the Danish" a foriegn exchange student at our school was very unhappy with her host home and in tears at the stinking altar asked if she could stay at my home for a couple of weeks. what pastor can say no to the agnostic / borderline atheist exchange student at the altar? So in she moved... I should have known it was for more than 2 weeks when the moving truck showed up at the house! So I forever have a foriegn daughter in Denmark, who forever has Jesus in heart too as a result of an "unscheduled event" (Sometimes when you're running a youth ministry of 200 plus, working in a school full time, have to load the coke machine, drive the van, and hire a police officer... God sends a kid to live with you... he's not changing your life with more to do, he's giving your heart more to love!)
Then Springfield and AGTS oddly enough were "unscheduled" again at least by ME they were "unscheduled" but they were evidently on God's prewritten plan!
oh wait I'd be amiss not to mention that during the "unscheduled pit stop" between KC and Springfield is where I met the girl who will be my sister in law in a few short weeks. I'm sure my brother is more grateful for that pit stop than I am! ha! We'll call that stop, "the crack of the bed" (God will use ANY situation to get you and the ones you love where you need to be!)
SPTC was definitely a pit stop... a 3 year pit stop! But I wouldn't know a thing about transcriptions, how to spell plantar faciitis, or be able to write a mean SOAP progress note without the help of the PT for a physical therapist procedure that I know nothing about :) Nor would I have acquired Annie, Jen, Connie, Amy, or Amy! We'll just call this "Where's Brad?"
(Stuck in an $8 an hour job? No way you can pay the bills? Somehow I made it through grad school, never missed a meal, and came out with lifelong friends, I'd do the $8 an hour job again for all that! His plan is bigger and where God guides He provides, even if it seems IMPOSSIBLE and RIDICULOUS!)
this one time at band camp... I mean at panera... I met friends of a friend of a friend.... (strangers) because I was in dire of need of rent payers, I mean roommates, those 2 strangers moved in a few weeks later and well, they became so much more than rent payers! I love those girls! We'll call this "the package deal" (no worries if your roommates bail on you while you're working an $8 an hour job and leave you with a three bedroom apt and all it's obligations... God has a plan... one that does more than change your financial situation, but one to change your LIFE!)
believe it or not AGTS was a "pitstop" I was lured in with a semester scholarship and a much needed answer for "what are you going to do next with your life?" "I'm getting my masters" sounds much better than "IDK!!!"
There I acquired Dr. Mostert and James and a newfound passion for social justice and oh .... a master's degree! However, I can't decide if I should call this era "crutches or can't standya!" (Sometimes you might make a huge decision on a WHIM and then realize God is the author of such "WHIMS!")
Oh and I'd be really amiss to not mention this short and sweet pit stop... one time I booked a ticket to San Jose Costa Rica... well, I thought it was to San Jose COSTA RICA it was to San Jose California, I realized it on a layover in Denver! (Should I not have noticed you don't go thru denver to get to costa rica?) Well, I flew back to Springfield, found a fellow grad student going to take the same class in CR and booked a PRICEY ticket on her flight.. which left from Chicago (well, the part of Chicago that is really Ecuador!) The trip went great we flew back ... that morning there was a police chase in her neighborhood and her parked car was hit, undriveable! We were stuck there for a week while her car was getting fixed then drove the 9 hours back to Springfield in the snow! One of the best weeks of my life! :) She called today and left me the longest message almost as long as this entry! :) I smiled and thought, I got one of my favorite friends over a $1000 mistake and a wrecked car! We'll definitely call this "rackempina!"
And the current pit stop? 29 and living at home with the parents! Definitely scheduled to be a short visit! We're at nearly 2 years now. I've acquired old friends and their beautiful children... a few of which who have allowed me the privilege of seeing the change in my life and let me share in their's. I get to see my family A LOT :) I get to call Dave Ramsey and scream, "I'm debt free!" I get to work at the middle school of my youth with some pretty precious kids, all while raising my money to become the missionary I graduated from college 10 years ago thinking I was going to be!
God is in the pit stops, even when they are the result of dire financial straits, failures, a decision made on a whim, wrecked cars, illnesses, whatever, there were too many to list! I'd venture to say... there are NO UNscheduled events... they may not have appeared on our calendar or our to do list, but while we were still in the womb they were there!
I have another blog topic waiting in the wings, but tonight I'm "compelled" to write this one! Obviously this happens RARELY with my four entries total, but nonetheless it's happened tonight!
I'm in the midst of reading "To Live is Christ" by Beth Moore. It's about the apostle Paul and his journeys. It's actually a devotional so I'm doing the question part of it via email with one of my former students from KC and I think we both like it, not sure she would tell me if she didn't! :)
Our next devotional is going to be Beth Moore's newest one about insecurity so if any of the 2 of you that may read this blog want to join me via email I'd love it!
Anyway... one of the questions tonight was : What blessings has God brought into your life during "unscheduled stops" along the way?
The answers just kept coming and coming...
My entire 6 years at Englewood was "unscheduled" for me, I went to CBC to go to the missionfield, Englewood was a pit stop... I cannot and would not want to imagine my life without those kids! We'll call this pit stop "the brick building" or "tentacles" (Sometimes God takes us places we didn't ask to be and keeps us there to make us something we never thought we could be and uses us to do things we never thought we could do!)
Oh no, I definitely shouldn't leave out "the blue house" pit stop... it's really part of the above pit stop so maybe we should just call this one, "the Danish" a foriegn exchange student at our school was very unhappy with her host home and in tears at the stinking altar asked if she could stay at my home for a couple of weeks. what pastor can say no to the agnostic / borderline atheist exchange student at the altar? So in she moved... I should have known it was for more than 2 weeks when the moving truck showed up at the house! So I forever have a foriegn daughter in Denmark, who forever has Jesus in heart too as a result of an "unscheduled event" (Sometimes when you're running a youth ministry of 200 plus, working in a school full time, have to load the coke machine, drive the van, and hire a police officer... God sends a kid to live with you... he's not changing your life with more to do, he's giving your heart more to love!)
Then Springfield and AGTS oddly enough were "unscheduled" again at least by ME they were "unscheduled" but they were evidently on God's prewritten plan!
oh wait I'd be amiss not to mention that during the "unscheduled pit stop" between KC and Springfield is where I met the girl who will be my sister in law in a few short weeks. I'm sure my brother is more grateful for that pit stop than I am! ha! We'll call that stop, "the crack of the bed" (God will use ANY situation to get you and the ones you love where you need to be!)
SPTC was definitely a pit stop... a 3 year pit stop! But I wouldn't know a thing about transcriptions, how to spell plantar faciitis, or be able to write a mean SOAP progress note without the help of the PT for a physical therapist procedure that I know nothing about :) Nor would I have acquired Annie, Jen, Connie, Amy, or Amy! We'll just call this "Where's Brad?"
(Stuck in an $8 an hour job? No way you can pay the bills? Somehow I made it through grad school, never missed a meal, and came out with lifelong friends, I'd do the $8 an hour job again for all that! His plan is bigger and where God guides He provides, even if it seems IMPOSSIBLE and RIDICULOUS!)
this one time at band camp... I mean at panera... I met friends of a friend of a friend.... (strangers) because I was in dire of need of rent payers, I mean roommates, those 2 strangers moved in a few weeks later and well, they became so much more than rent payers! I love those girls! We'll call this "the package deal" (no worries if your roommates bail on you while you're working an $8 an hour job and leave you with a three bedroom apt and all it's obligations... God has a plan... one that does more than change your financial situation, but one to change your LIFE!)
believe it or not AGTS was a "pitstop" I was lured in with a semester scholarship and a much needed answer for "what are you going to do next with your life?" "I'm getting my masters" sounds much better than "IDK!!!"
There I acquired Dr. Mostert and James and a newfound passion for social justice and oh .... a master's degree! However, I can't decide if I should call this era "crutches or can't standya!" (Sometimes you might make a huge decision on a WHIM and then realize God is the author of such "WHIMS!")
Oh and I'd be really amiss to not mention this short and sweet pit stop... one time I booked a ticket to San Jose Costa Rica... well, I thought it was to San Jose COSTA RICA it was to San Jose California, I realized it on a layover in Denver! (Should I not have noticed you don't go thru denver to get to costa rica?) Well, I flew back to Springfield, found a fellow grad student going to take the same class in CR and booked a PRICEY ticket on her flight.. which left from Chicago (well, the part of Chicago that is really Ecuador!) The trip went great we flew back ... that morning there was a police chase in her neighborhood and her parked car was hit, undriveable! We were stuck there for a week while her car was getting fixed then drove the 9 hours back to Springfield in the snow! One of the best weeks of my life! :) She called today and left me the longest message almost as long as this entry! :) I smiled and thought, I got one of my favorite friends over a $1000 mistake and a wrecked car! We'll definitely call this "rackempina!"
And the current pit stop? 29 and living at home with the parents! Definitely scheduled to be a short visit! We're at nearly 2 years now. I've acquired old friends and their beautiful children... a few of which who have allowed me the privilege of seeing the change in my life and let me share in their's. I get to see my family A LOT :) I get to call Dave Ramsey and scream, "I'm debt free!" I get to work at the middle school of my youth with some pretty precious kids, all while raising my money to become the missionary I graduated from college 10 years ago thinking I was going to be!
God is in the pit stops, even when they are the result of dire financial straits, failures, a decision made on a whim, wrecked cars, illnesses, whatever, there were too many to list! I'd venture to say... there are NO UNscheduled events... they may not have appeared on our calendar or our to do list, but while we were still in the womb they were there!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Ten for '10!
Ten goals for my 2010!
1. To please God. (If I accomplish this then I will accomplish everything else on my list!)
2. Stay connected.
To Christ. To my family. To my friends near and far.
3. 4. 5. To get healthy.
Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Exercise daily, lose weight, pay more attention to what I'm putting into my body, mind, and spirit. This will involve de-cluttering, putting an end to my all time favorite activity of procrastination, getting organized, discipline, consistency, i.e. getting my ducks in a row! ;)
6. Enter the presence of God daily.
This is more than a devotion, or praying, or reading my Bible although it will likely involve all of those.
7. Become debt free.
8. Take others with me.
As I become healthier, closer to the Lord, more disciplined, more connected, etc. etc. I shouldn't go at it alone.
9. Be diligent and purposeful.
In my job. In my relationships. With my speech. With my time. With my actions. With a purpose of glorifying God.
10. Bloom where ever I am planted.
I'm always waiting on or working towards what's next. So I'm here until God moves me onward so here I will root and bloom and flourish!
1. To please God. (If I accomplish this then I will accomplish everything else on my list!)
2. Stay connected.
To Christ. To my family. To my friends near and far.
3. 4. 5. To get healthy.
Mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Exercise daily, lose weight, pay more attention to what I'm putting into my body, mind, and spirit. This will involve de-cluttering, putting an end to my all time favorite activity of procrastination, getting organized, discipline, consistency, i.e. getting my ducks in a row! ;)
6. Enter the presence of God daily.
This is more than a devotion, or praying, or reading my Bible although it will likely involve all of those.
7. Become debt free.
8. Take others with me.
As I become healthier, closer to the Lord, more disciplined, more connected, etc. etc. I shouldn't go at it alone.
9. Be diligent and purposeful.
In my job. In my relationships. With my speech. With my time. With my actions. With a purpose of glorifying God.
10. Bloom where ever I am planted.
I'm always waiting on or working towards what's next. So I'm here until God moves me onward so here I will root and bloom and flourish!
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