MY 2ND BEST DAY EVER

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

LET ME JUST SUMMARIZE MY MOST EXCELLENT DAY FOR YOU. Ok. So I've been helping out with VBS this week. Today's devotional theme was: GO TELL! Totally utilized my booklet from the 'Share Your Faith' workshop at Mclean. My kids really liked this illustration: imagine a giant-monster-truck barreling down the road towards your friend who is both blind and deaf. You could either stand there and watch him get totally owned or you could take the risk and tackle him to the side of the road (...where he will magically regain both his eyesight and hearing). We've all heard the story of Jesus' resurrection and we've probably heard it a billion times. But I think after a while we forget how awesome the good news is: that Jesus died to cover our sins so that we might enter a right relationship with God, have a purpose for this life now, and have a future home in heaven. How much do you have to hate someone to not share this news with them? A lots. "Go out on a limb, because that's where the fruit is".

My kids totally amaze me. There's this boy named William in my smallgroup who is like 12 years old and is so totally passionate about reading the Bible and going over discussion questions. Then there's the 2 twin girls (Nicole and Stacy). On the first day of VBS, I had mistaken them for mutes. So hearing them increase the volume of their voices to an audible level and seeing them contribute to discussion today was honestly a miracle of the Lord. Before this week, I didn't think it was possible for a middle schooler to fully comprehend Jesus' sacrifice or to actually KNOW God. But after spending a few days with these kids, I no longer doubt that. Driving home today, I thought I was going to die from pure joy and I told God that I wouldn't be able to handle feeling that awesome all the time because I would probably explode.

Went to REI and bought mosquito repellent (100% DEET!!) and a nifty hand-sanitizer spray pen. There just so happened to be a Ritz Camera next door and I just so happened to need a replacement lens cap (things I have left atop my car, forgot about, drove away, and lost: lens cap, 2 watches, sandal, sneaker, tbc...). Drove to Toys'r'us for purchasement of 'articles of warfare' for impending battle of the sexes at tomorrow's car wash. Drove to Giant to pick up more Nicaragua necessities ie baby wipes. Drove home, HIT A YOUNG ADOLESCENT SQUIRREL ON TUCKERMAN, mourned squirrel, ate smoothie in his remembrance. Jogged with Moosie (ve are training for ze orimpicks). Dog ran 3.5 miles without stopping at a single mailbox. SO PROUD OF HIM. Delirious from exaustion no doubt.

Went to women's group for snacks and sharing time. I'm so super blessed to have been placed with such an awesome group of ladies. We plan to have a giant icecream party next week. I plan to fast in preparation for such festivities...

Talked to Crystal for the first time in 2 years. This definitely topped my list of awesome occurences today. It's something that's been seriously weighing on my heart for a very long time and I'm so freaking thankful we had a chance to break the silence and catch up before she moves to the outback. Goodness gracious. Thank you, Lord.

Little Lights BBQ/Talent Show

Friday, June 12, 2009

Thursday - went down to DC to watch little lights kids rehearse for their end of the year talent show. Hadn't been back since 1st semester, so it was awesome to see a bunch of familiar faces. I wasn't expecting any of the kids to remember who I was, but I was pleasantly surprised when 2 little girls recognized me and came up to say they had forgotten my name. Samara - the cutest little buck-toofed, cross-eyed, math genius in all of SE DC and Bryanna - miss independent with an overflow of sass and tude. Went back down to DC at noon today to help out with the pre-talent show bbq. It's funny how travel plans to DC worked out. I was originally planning to leave much later in the day because of an 11am football game...but I just so happened to get ridiculously lost on my way to the field, pulled over onto some residential street, screamed at my gps for bringing me to the wrong location, and drove back home all defeated and stressed out. However, due to this navigation fail, I got to metro down with Eden (who I haven't hung out with in quite some time) and Carolyn (who I've never really hung out with before, but uh she's a flipping awesome chica).


Spent the first 20 minutes at Potomac Gardens helping to clean up, pick up trash and chatting with a few other volunteers. Eventually, I found my way over to the face painting table where a little girl named Shandra immediately requested to paint my left arm. She had a stunning palette of magenta, turquoise, and white Crayola facepaints laid out already, so I conceded and told her she could paint whatever she wanted to. After that, it's all really just a blur... Somehow she found a way to convince me that arm-painting was restraining the flow of her creative juices and that my face made for a much better canvas. A few adults started getting concerned/started questioning my sanity as another little girl named April (with a rainbow painted on her left cheek and a star on her right) was commissioned to paint my right arm. Anyhow, their end result was a walking masterpiece made of upside down letters, spongebob squarepants, a tennis racquet, a bunch of grapes, and a caterpillar (walking across my face).

United we stand, something something we fall

Monday, June 8, 2009

I feel like I did so much this past weekend.

Friday - CBC/REM Joint Teen's Group. "Fellowship on a whole 'notha level" is how C.Wu might describe it. Rom is a genius for putting together such a super fun scavenger hunt for the kids. I was manned at the 'Snack Attack' station where each team of 9-10 kids had to consume 20 twinkies + 2 gallons of water. (Please refer to twinkie nutrition facts on the left) As I was screaming and shoving twinkies down throats, 2 things dawned on me. First I thought to myself, "wow, someone is most likely going to die tonight as a result of my fierce peer-pressuring skills". And then I thought, "wow...I really love these kids. This is where I want to be. This is where God wants me serving". Last semester, I'd go down to dc every monday to help out with little lights hw club. It was a frustrating and tiring experience to say the least. And I wonder how different it would've been for me and the kids I worked with had I known a thing or two about humility at the time. I won't deny that my intentions to work with littles lights was solely for the self gratification from 'doing something good'. The problem with serving others to serve yourself is that there is nothing to fuel your fire and you're doomed to eventually burn out. Self-gratification is not fuel. When the 7 year old you've been working with for the past month still can't read the word 'CAT' and would rather sit in time-out and stare at a wall for 1 hour than do homework...you get discouraged (and possibly want to punch the kid). You want to give up and move on to some other child who has an attention span of at least 10 seconds. But that's where the whole 'WWJD' thing comes in. To me, this struggling kid is straight up sassy and disrespectful. Does he even know the kind of traffic I drive through to get here? The billions of times I've gotten lost in dc? THE PRICE OF GAS? But to Jesus, this 7-year-old illiterate kid from the hood is a king. This kid deserves MY respect and my love. It's no longer about serving others to serve myself, it's about serving others to serve God.

Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:25-28 NLT)

Saturday - I already documented my baking escapades. Overall, a colorful/vibrant failure. Celebrated Asaph's 19th Birthday. It's strange and awesome that a lot of my close friends are people I've only been friends with for like a year...and also happen to be freshman (hah). I think we may have bonded over a common ACL injury...doomed to stationary exercise on a bicycle. Your efforts to teach me a flip-turn have not gone to waste. I will nail it one day. Just watch. Breakfast (sometimes...or 20 minutes past the scheduled time) on Tues/Thurs at co-op, chik-fil-a, or mickeyD's before 11am in Tydings. Walk over to Japanese Pragmatics, try to look as attentive as possible and pray we wouldn't get called on (at least that was my strategy). I know I can't throw a football but it's one of my favoritest things to do on a sunny day. Too bad you had to teach me a lesson and jam my left index finger, which still won't bend all the way.

Sunday - woke up bright and early to run my very first race ever with my team buddy and Patti Look. 5k in 28.20 minutes. Honestly, running as a form of exercise does not excite me. But within the context of a race, running is awesome. It's about pushing yourself to the limit. It's about going FASTER, STRONGER, BETTER than you've ever run before. At least that's how I think it feels for people who are in shape.....*sob* I feel so lost without a gym membership :( It was a nice start to my day nonetheless. Afterwards, last team meeting before we fly out to Nicaragua. Hung out with the gals at Jason's deli (the quality of their all-you-can-eat soft-serve icecream still astounds me). Celebrated my parent's 24th anniversary at their favorite little restaurant. Yes, I'm sure it was incredibly romantic for them with me and Matt there.

nikon d40

Saturday, June 6, 2009

New camera :) Bought it off some photography student in dc through craigslist, of course. I haven't the slightest idea how to use this curious contraption, but this is me playing around with buttons I don't understand and recipes I've never tried.




Unfortunately, I haven't the time to write about the excellence that was Friday night REM/CBC joint teen's group. I will come back to that after I'm done wreaking havoc in the kitchen. So far today, I've baked an upside down pear cake (fail, and therefore no pictures to be shared), cakespy's genius cookie-cake-pie invention in conjunction with omnomicon's rainbow cake (potential fail), and cookies/cupcakes from leftover dough/batter. At least the cupcakes are prettiful.

fresh starts

Thursday, June 4, 2009

This blog marks a new chapter in my life. A new, awkward, post-grad, slightly depressing, transitional chapter where upon being asked "how does it feel?" I reply "i don't know". Ask me that dreaded question, "what do you plan to do now?" and I will be inclined to respond with one of the following: baker, farmer, or fireman. Sounds like the career plans of a 5 year old visionary. Clearly, I am awesome. And if I had my way, I would be all three. My good friend, Paul Bloomer, shared with me his life plan to have a different job for all the different seasons so as to not be stuck doing the same thing all year long. So if I had things my way, I would want to bake in the winter, farm in the spring and fall, and fire-fight in the summer. Or you could look at it this way: a healthy balance of creating, cultivating, and saving lives. I'm sure this would all be so much more cool and inspiring if I was being 100% serious. But who knows? Perhaps one of these days I'll become the world's first professional baker-farmer-firefighter (BFF), unless there already exists such an incredible human being in this world...

Nicaragua in 1 month. I watched this video that was made 3 years ago by a previous team that went on a short-term missions to the same location. Not sure what to tell people when they ask "what are you going to be doing down there?" because we honestly don't really know. But what we do know is that there is nothing to be worried/anxious about because God has some awesome plans laid out for us down there already. No pre-conceptions, no expectations. (But just between me and you Lord, I'd rather not get malaria <3). Another thing we know is that we'll be working with the 40-some street children being cared for at the orphanage/feeding center that was established in 2006. The common circumstances behind most of the world's orphans are twofold: either their parents have abandoned them altogether or their parents are unable to support/raise them, so they bring them to an orphanage or the government in hopes of giving their child a better life. Our mission: to be servants to these kids and to share with them the supernatural love of Christ. To love no matter what unexpected things may arise. To love despite the fact that multiple children have urinated on you in the course of a single day in addition to the fact you've contracted some sort of stomach virus, garnering you the nickname 'Pukes of Hazard' (all of this was experienced by my team leader, Jessica, during her missions trip to Ethiopia last year. Woman is a trooper). I want to love like that.