Snowflakes that Stay on My Nose and Eyelashes

If there's anything I absolutely LOVE, it is the snow. And this morning I woke up to an inch or so of it covering the world outside my window! I took full advantage of a Saturday snow day and started the day out with a quick trip into town (clad in pink pajama pants and snow boots nonetheless) on the not-yet-plowed roads to drop off some library books. 

Even my p.j. pants have snowflakes on them!

Next it was on to breakfast, which included a long-savored cup of coffee, half a grapefruit, and toast with jam and cheese (if you've never tried the jam and cheese combo, you are missing out). 

 

Later in the day, after some dutiful studying of course, my roommate and I took a drive to check out the scenery. We forded a river, saw some huge and beautiful icicles on rock cliffs, and enjoyed the white-laden Wilmore area in general. 

 

 

When we got home we commenced with lunch, a movie, and then an afternoon dessert of homemade crepes!!! A while later, we decided we needed to enjoy the snow more first-hand, so we set out on foot through the neighborhood. The snow flurries were falling, and it WAS staying on our noses and eyelashes as it fell, which equals awesome. I now understand why it was one of Maria's favorite things. 

This is (obviously) not my photo. Let's avoid copyright issues :)

As we were nearing our house I noticed that all the neighborhood kids had suddenly appeared outside, making snowmen. I recognize that this is generally not a strange phenomenon: it snows, kids go out and play in the snow. Duh. But all day long I had not seen a single child out playing until 5pm when it was nearing dusk! Why weren't they out playing earlier?! Weird. Anyway, when we got home we decided that we, too, needed to make a snowman--snow woman, rather--of our own. This is when I discovered what the sudden explosion of kids outside was about. The snow was the most miraculously packable snow I have ever encountered in my life. I could have easily rolled a snowball the size of a small cow had I taken the time. 

Meet Blizzy our snow woman!

The day ended with a mishmash, yet delicious homemade dinner of cornbread, and pasta with sauteed mushrooms. Random meals are my specialty. 

Overall, it was a great day of rest, fellowship, and enjoying the slow-pace and beauty that a fresh winter snowfall brings. In my book today was a little gift from God, reminding me to reclaim the wonder of childhood, to embrace moments of stillness, and to slow down and just enjoy life. 

P.S. The best part: the forecast shows another snow day tomorrow!

The Long-Abandoned Blog!!!

It's that time of year again when the cooler weather causes me to hunker down and, consequentially, to update my long-abandoned blog!!!

Let's start with Kentucky. In many ways it is exactly what I thought it would be--there are rolling hills and horse farms just a stone's throw from my back door. People are friendly. There is at least one radio station devoted solely to bluegrass music. And it snows in the Winter!!! (Yay!!)

The beautiful country road I take to work in Wilmore

Stone bridge and fall colors in Wilmore, KY

My neighbor, the horse

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In other ways Kentucky surprised me with it's up and coming urban charm in North Lexington. There are some funky cafes that fit the Portland or San Francisco mold, and a real grassroots community feel there.

Check out North Lime Coffee & Donuts facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/northlimelex

This image is taken from http://www.lanereport.com/17011/2012/12/north-lime-coffee-and-donuts/

Mural at Third Street Stuff and Coffee. Their facebook page is at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Third-Street-Stuff/160449913970762

I am doing my practicum in this part of the city this year at a community development program where I get to work with an amazing and diverse group of kids from Kindergarten through 12th grade. In short, my studies and practical work experiences through Asbury's MSW program have been really great and I am getting more and more anxious to graduate this Spring and to put my skills to work in the professional realm.

As I look toward graduation I am excited (and, to be honest, a bit overwhelmed/anxious) by all of the career/vocation possibilities. Ever since I attended a year of Torchbearers Bible school in 2007/2008 my heart has been inclined toward international missions work (I can't say it enough--Torchbearers is awesome; it changed my life!! Check out all their cool opportunities here: http://www.torchbearers.org/). My studies in social work have only continued to ignite my passion for diverse populations. At this juncture, it is my hope that I can gain a few years of social work experience while praying about taking some of those skills abroad as a missionary in the future. I don't fully understand this sense of missional calling in my life, but I am willing to seriously consider the reality of long-term missions over the next few months and years. I hope that those of you who are reading this blog will join me in praying about my vocational call to social work and missions.

Thanks for tuning in! I will try to update this thing more regularly in the future!

Bluegrass, Here I Come! (And We're Not Talking Music)

That's right. Kentucky. The land of horse farms and rolling green hills. The land of fried chicken (haha). This place will be my home for the next two years as I pursue my Master's degree in Social Work. Go figure I'd choose the school that is farthest from home. In fact, when people ask me for life updates after not seeing me for a while their first question is always, "so where are you going next?" And considering my track record this is a very valid substitute for your usual, "hey, how's it goin'?"

Overall I am excited about this next chapter in life. Just like anything good and exciting I have seen God at work in my decision to go to Kentucky. But on the flip-side I know that I will miss home, the trees, the people. Which leaves me at the place where I always seem to find myself before going on a new adventure--expectant and confident that God is at work and yet anxious and curious about what exactly He is planning to do through this crazy, globetrotting life of mine (speaking of yet another adventure, who knew 3 years ago how telling the name of this blog would be...).

To keep things interesting, here are some fun facts about Kentucky:

State Musical Instrument: Appalachian Dulcimer
State Drink: Milk
State Dance: Clogging
State Song: My Old Kentucky Home, featured below for your amusement


Basically, in future updates you should expect to see pictures of me chugging milk while clogging to the sweet sounds (wink, wink) of the Appalachian dulcimer.

Forgetting What My Life Has Cost

from Worlds Apart by Jars of Clay:

"I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
wipe away the crimson stains
dull the nails that still remain
more and more I need you now
I owe you more each passing hour
battles between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
so steal my heart; take the pain
wash my feet and cleanse my pride
take the selfish take the weak
and all the things I cannot hide
take my beauty take my tears
this sin soaked heart make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now take it now
serve the ones I despise
speak the words I can't deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and blow away
i look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
take my beauty take my tears
this sin soaked heart make it yours
and all the things I cannot hide
take my beauty take my tears
take my world apart
take my world apart
I pray I pray I pray
take my world apart"

I hope these lyrics get at your heart the way they've been getting to mine...

Next Steps

I was re-reading my prior blog entry and was reminded that while I was working at Tauernhof I was praying about the next step in my life. Let's be honest, I've been wondering about the next step pretty much continuously since I graduated from college. Well, it turns out I somehow failed to notice the next step until I was thousands of miles away from home, at a Bible school in the Austrian mountains (ah, timing).

As many of you know I am passionate about orphans and adoption. I am fairly convinced that I will adopt a child at some point in life. Occasionally I look up photolistings of children waiting to be adopted and pray for them by name. I even had the opportunity earlier this year to spend 3 amazing months at Grace Children's Home, an orphanage in Mexico. Not getting it yet? (I can't blame you... after all, it took me almost 5 years to figure it out). I'll spare you the brain strain and give it to you straight.

The

next

step

is.....

........

........

Graduate school!

I am hoping to go to graduate school this Fall for a Master's degree in social work (MSW)--the goal being a career in child welfare, adoptions, foster care, etc.

That said, I am in the process of applying to 6 different programs in 6 different states in the US (I looked to see if there were any programs abroad but had no luck... I guess it's time for me to stay Domestic for a while).

Where am I applying you ask? The schools in the running are:
San Jose State University (California)
Portland State University (Oregon)
University of Kansas (Kansas, duh)
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois)
Asbury University (Kentucky)
Boston College (Massachusetts)

I am excited to pursue this long-awaited next step and appreciate prayers for the application process.

Update Long Overdue!

I'm going to try to make this short...

My post a few months back about being in the Spring of life and just beginning to discover things about life has been blooming. This last month I:

*Have made friends with the Summer Program students who are amazing, loving, and encouraging--a great change from Spring school where I felt pretty lonely a lot of the time.

*Have been learning the difference between trying to love people well on my own versus loving Jesus and allowing Him to love others through me. When I try I fail... miserably. When I focus on just loving God it seems like there is more love and joy than I can contain. That has been really cool to see in the developing friendships I have here.

*Have been pondering the possibility of going back to school for a Masters of Social Work Masters Degree so that I can work in International adoptions and foster care

*Have had the opportunity to go summit 3 mountains and spend 6 days on the trail where I have experienced more community with the students and some great times enjoying God's creation here in the Alps (one of the mountains was 3,000 meters high! About 9000 ft!)

However, even while things are crazy in bloom in my life there are still struggles along the way. At this point in my time here at Bible school, I feel a bit restless. I have discovered aspects about missions that I like and aspects I don't like and in a lot of ways I feel ready to leave this place and start taking some new steps into the directions God is laying out for me. That said, I would appreciate prayers for contentment and endurance for my remaining time here. And also prayers for continued direction for whatever the "next steps" may be for me. One interesting message from one of the lectures that I attended here... the lecturer said that in life it will often be the mundane moments that are the most difficult to get through, not the crises or the huge disappointments, but the everyday. I think that is so true for my life. In the really hard times I can't deny God's presence, but in the routine of life it is easy to forget about His faithfulness. My prayer for me and whoever is reading this is that we can experience the fulness of life and joy in Christ even when we are cleaning the bathroom, cooking dinner, brushing our teeth, etc. etc.

There is so much more that I would love to tell, but I think I've reached my quota for the day. I'll try more frequent and shorter posts again in the future :) Thanks for all your support as I learn how to live with Christ and serve with Him here in Austria!

Some Things I'm Learning

Alright, alright, I admit it. After all my traveling to different countries and being away at University, etc. I am finally, maybe for the first time, experiencing...

homesickness

I honestly never thought it would happen to me. I mean, when I am away from home I usually realize some things that I really appreciate about where I come from. But apart from that I have always been too busy with where I am away from home to be too homesick.

But, as always, God has come and met me in the midst of my very first bout of homesickness--just like He always does, and like I never quite expect Him to (if I'm honest). For instance, as I have been missing home, God has been confronting me with questions about my life and about my idea of "home."

I led a devotion for the staff here about a week ago, and the topic that I felt like I should share came out of one of my biggest "fears" in life: settling down and living in one place for "the rest of my life." Recently, God's prompting to me has come out of Nehemiah's story in the Bible. How his city was in destruction. People were broken. The city wall was broken. And Nehemiah's first response to all this news of brokenness was to sit down and to weep before God. As I thought about my fear of staying an undetermined amount of time in one place I thought that maybe a deeper fear I have is that then I would see the broken places. See beyond the surface of the drug scene in Santa Cruz. Begin to see the individual lives that are falling apart. See a city that I love without my rose tinted lenses of being a continent away and longing to be home. There's a lot more in Nehemiah's story that is speaking to me right now (if you want to hear more email me for the sake of this already really long blog). And through it all, God is asking me if I am willing to go somewhere (home or not) and stay put for a while. He is asking me if I, like Nehemiah, am willing to see the broken places and to mourn over them--with Him. And, like Nehemiah, if I am willing to take my sorrows over that place and move to action in an effort to restore that place.

Part of me says, "yes! I would love to move back home and to really get connected there, lay down some roots and see how God will use me. I am willing!" While another part says, "I love Santa Cruz, but my heart is beating more for the poor areas of the world." Still another part says, "I would love to move back home--as long as I can still wear the rose colored glasses and not get too close to the brokenness." So, God is speaking to me about home. And, I think He will continue to reveal things to me while I am here in Austria. And, to be honest, it has been hard being here. Nothing like what I did in Mexico. I loved the ministry there, and feel disconnected from the ministry here. But even in that God is revealing things to me. Like, what types of ministry I don't want to do long term. While I am thankful for the direction, I have also been asking Him why He has me here so long though when I seem to know already that this ministry is not the one for me... I guess we'll see!

One more cool way God has worked recently: the other day I was feeling a bit down and just asked God if He would send me a friend. I was on the campus here and thought that maybe I'd see a student sitting outside or a staff member to chat with. But nobody was really around. So I came in to my computer and got on facebook. Then, not a minute after I was on facebook, one of my really close lifelong friends got on and sent me a message. I was excited to hear from him, but didn't think anything of it until the end of our conversation when I remembered my prayer and told him that I had prayed for a friend and God had given me him. Then, this friend of mine told me that about 5 minutes before we talked he had prayed the same prayer! I think this is so incredible and awesome how God works in such small, but significant ways. And I was only thinking of myself when I prayed for a friend. But God used the situation to show that He is caring very specifically for me and for this friend of mine. To me it was a real blessing too, because God could have given me a conversation with a student here who I don't know that well. We could have talked about the weather. Or about a recent lecture. Which would have been good and an answer to prayer still the same. But God always chooses something better than I can think. He gave me a friend that knows me well. A friend that knows where I come from (healing the homesickness).

Cliff notes version of this blog entry and of my status in Austria:

God is good and so much bigger than I can begin to understand.