Turning a Page

Three months, six new best friends, gained knowledge, renewed spirit, mended heart, and a brand new adventure ahead.

The last three months have flown by! From groups staying over night, to random tours through out the day, meeting international community leaders, learning new skills, cooking group dinners, playing music and gathering around a wood burning stove, I could not have asked for a better place to grow during this time of seeking in my life.

God has used SIFAT (Servants in Faith and Technology) to grow me, teach me, and refuel me to head out into the world and love people with a new vision. A vision of connecting people together on a much deeper level then just lending a helping hand. God has opened my eyes to see that poverty is not a lack of something physical, its a broken relationship that has not been mended, and that what the world is in desperate need of are people desiring to connect with one another with the mind set that we are all struggling in this world and that God has placed us all together to figure out the best way to bring love to this earth.

As I wrapped up my time at SIFAT some other staff members surprised me and my fellow intern with a trip to the Island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. We partnered with an amazing organization called Bahamas Methodist Habitat, who work on the islands doing home repair and community development. It was a great way to end my time at SIFAT and spend some great time with people I love with all my heart!

Thank you Addison, Mary, Laura, Dave, Becca and Nate. Also thank you Cameron, Steve, Abe, and John who made our time down there so special!

On this trip we learned so much about how to love people with simply a ministry of presence. So many times we go on short term mission trips with the expectation to do something for others. On this trip God allowed us to meet people, see beauty in his creation, and learn that its not just about doing something for others, but going into a new culture and letting them teach us. I am so thankful for the time of bonding for good friends, for vacation, and for building new relationships with awesome ministry partners.

I am looking forward to seeing where God is going to lead me next, maybe it will be back to the Islands! For now Im back at home resting, spending time with my family and friends, and trying to figure out what adventure Im going to pursue next! Its scary to not know whats coming up but Im hopeful because I know that what ever I do, where ever I go, I can serve God.

Thank you God for SIFAT, for what you taught me and for what I will take and use in my future!

To see more awesome pictures from out trip to the Bahamas check out Laura Paulk's blog here:

http://livinggratitude.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-bahamas.html

on the trampoline

If as a kid you never spent the entire day on the trampoline with your friends let me apologize for two things. First Im sorry you never got this amazing childhood experience, second Im sorry that this post might not resinate as deep as those of us who have scars from trampoline burns still to this day.

When I was a kid my best friend down the road had a trampoline and we literally spent every day on it during the summer. Not only did we have fun but our friendship grew stronger and I would like to give that credit to our old pal the trampoline.

Never in a million years did I think that at age 21a trampoline would teach me how to grow friendships again, but again my old pal came to my rescue and showed me just how easy it is to bond with some one so different.

Above is a picture of some our new friends. Every Thursday we spend our afternoons playing on this trampoline with all of these beautiful kids. We laugh and joke, make monster noises, and do flips, and on crazy days there are even a few tears. These boys and girls have a fire for life that keeps things exciting. Each week is different in the since that you can never be to prepared to go out and play that Thursday, you never know what kind of mood kids will be in or even who is going to be home that day. Some afternoons we go on adventures, play soccer, or just sit in color. But it never fails that we will some how find our way to this trusty trampoline. I sometimes wonder how many little feet have bounced on the black service of this giant toy, or how many different voices its ears have heard. The two holes in its surface provide an accurate representation of just how much this worn out trampoline means to the ones who enjoy jumping on it daily. And just like the trampoline each child is special, each is different, and each has a story to tell.

Below is a video of a family that is near and dear to place we play each Thursday. They are a family of five children who through many trials and obstacles still maintain joy and innocence. At first glance you would notice that the place they live doesn't look like most of ours. If you talk to some of the other kids you would hear that their dad is out of the picture and that there are problems at home. Yet it never fails the mother of these five children donates an old bag of clothes, or a bag of toys and books, to our ministry each week.

This small act of giving reminds me of the story in the bible where the widow gives all the money she has even though she knows she will not have enough for the week. I love the trailer park because each week God is faithful in showing me the beauty of one of his children, young or old, in a way that I would never get to see anywhere else.

I am so thankful for this place, for the joy that is found in coloring, for the refueling that is found in the laughter of an 8 year old boy, and for the friendship that is found on a trampoline.

Gratitude

I know there is poor and hideous suffering, and I've seen the hungry and the guns that go to war. I have lived pain, and my life can tell: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks.

To give thanks for early light dappled through leaves, and the heavy perfume of the changing seasons, for the melody of rain falling on a tin roof, and for the rivers that run, and the stars that rise, and the rain that falls, and all the good things that a good God gives. Why would the world need more anger more outrage.

How does it save the world to reject unabashed joy, when it is joy that saves us? Rejecting solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering...the converse does.

The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest light to all the world.

When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows.

How can this not be the best thing for the world? For us? The clouds open when we mouth gratitude.

Motion

Motion. One word that can describe all action. All action can encompass a tremendous amount of things. Virtually everything you do can be explained as motion, not many subjects that contain millions of parts can all be counter used with one word. It makes me question if there is any other subject that can be interchangeable by the use of only one word?

In the current season motion has exposed itself in a very literal way, through continues going. I work at a non profit called SIFAT (servants in faith and technology). A place that trains international students on technology that can save lives, and a place that also trains American students of all ages on what its like to live in the "rest" of the world. In my position there is very little down time. Its exciting, fast paced, and something new each day.

For example last week we had a group in from Sunday to Wednesday, packed for a wedding and left on Friday, got home form the wedding Sunday that was 5 hours away, and then turned around and drove 8 hours Monday to Kentucky for a missions conference that will end Thursday, that puts us home just in time for a new group to arrive Friday! Going going going.

So as I sit and write from a strange bed in Wilmore Kentucky I cant help but stop to think of how Jesus felt, again and again traveling from new place to new place. Did he ever miss his own bed, or did he live by the understanding that no bed was his own, that each place he rested his head in the night was home.

That home may not be a place where your things are (because if you live like Jesus "things" is foreign idea) home may not be a place that you return to time and time and again. Maybe home is a place where refuge is found, where rest is sought after, where you feel loved. Maybe this concept of home is up for interpretation to where ever it is in this world you find these three things that every human on the earth desires and seeks after. Yes, you may have these desires met at the place your family lives, or maybe your a traveling soul like Jesus and his friends, either way your desires are getting fulfilled somewhere. And if they are not its time to walk the path, and lay your head on a new pillow.

For me SIFAT has become home. The Lord lead me to the place in a time of heart ache, in a time of confusion. He opened the door and hurried me in. He provided a place for me to serve, be loved on, and be renewed. No matter how tiring the day, how busy the week, I over and over again am embraced by this sprit of being made whole again. I could not embrace it very well until a good friend reminded me that our God gives us times of refuge when we need them, and to not question but to allow myself to be engulfed this moment. For that reminder I owe a lot.

Im learning about redemption and in that I am learning so much more, trust being a bold word Jesus continues to reuse. Reteaching me what true trust is, not trust of a man, not trust of a friend, trust of a redeemer, trust in the most pure form. Trust is safety, it is a place to feel refuge, a place to gain rest, and a place to experience love. Trust and home...maybe two words that can now be used interchangeably in my life.

This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him. Psalm 91:2

A long Time Coming

If I could take the time to count out how many things I have been "meaning to do" it would be nuts. If I could then count out how many times I have wanted to start writing a blog, it would again take forever as well as be nuts.

I think that I have put off starting this process of "blogging" for two main reasons. The first being there are a lot of really good writers out there, and then to make it more intimidating there are good writers who have great blogs. Not only are their blogs well written but they look nice too.

Secondly I never know how to begin something like this. You know the first page of something like a journal, or when I was little my diary. If you flip through some of my old diaries...yes I kept a diary...you will find the first page of each new diary begins with me explaining who I am to myself, as if I the reader and writer, don't remember who I am, or how many brothers and sisters and pets I have.

I highly suggest if you kept any sort of journal or diary when you were younger that you go back and re-read especially on a bad day, I can almost guarantee, you'll get a good laugh. I also did not want to be that blogger who rambled on about pointless childhood memories...looks like Im off to a good start.

Anyway, I feel like the first post on any blog should be grabbing, kind of like a hook in a rap song, something to make readers continue reading and maybe even laugh a little. So with that in mind, I didn't even know where to begin the first post.

All I know is that on my life journey, I have been blessed enough to have discovered the gift of redemption, and I have been inspired to tell the world (or my only follower mom) about how this word has made itself a lifestyle in me. Ready, Set, Go!