Counting Blessings

I am so blessed.  That is a thought I haven't been able to get out of my mind over the past couple of days.  I am blessed to have such a kind and loving Lord.

I think back to one year ago. I was just starting my Junior year at IU.  I had no real idea of what the next 12 months would bring.  I have definitely had some difficult times, but it is amazing to think back about the ways God has worked in my life.  I enjoyed an amazing fall semester at IU where I formed many new friendships and grew through some pretty difficult times.  I spent the spring in Germany where I got to live with an incredible family, experience the beginning of a new church plant, and read and have quiet time and really experience God's beauty.  I got to travel through 4 beautiful countries and got to understand God's love and kindness and beauty just a little better. I spent the summer in Louisville. I got to be close to my parents and work with such wise, caring people.  I learned through mistakes and was even humbled a bit (I still have a ways to go, though!) I am starting to see how tiny I am and how HUGE God is.

I am excited to see what God has in store for the next year.  I have already had some trying times and can start to see ways God is going to help me grow during my last year of school. He is also blessing me with great relationships and great peace.

I have been so blessed to be able to spend so much time with new students coming into town from all around the world! This is all part of God's great plan! He is blessing this campus greatly.  And He is letting me be part of it! I have been giggling with joy the past few days! Thinking about how God always calms my fears and anxieties. Thinking about how scripture is being fulfilled in front of my eyes.  This is a beautiful blessing.  I want to soak in each day.  I want to lose my pride and find humility and learn something new everyday.  I want to see lives changed.  I have so much hope, because I have such an awesome God!

What makes a girl a lady?

I've decided to start a new little project. I'm going to try to become more of a lady.

What does that mean, you ask? Great question. I pretty much have no idea. That's why I'm trying it out.  I'm going to do some experimenting, ask questions to women who seem to be very lady-like, and do a lot of praying.

I came up with this idea one day after I was complaining about men who are not gentlemen. I am always one of the first girls to complain when a guy is not acting like a gentleman. Would I love it if guys everywhere were opening doors for girls? Of course I would. I totally understand that isn't going to happen, though. And I'm not doing this to try to change guys; that's not my job. I'm doing this to practice what I preach and to learn.

I've been experimenting with things like make-up, curling irons, actual hair conditioner  for the first time in years this week. I honestly don't think approving physical appearance is what really makes a girl a lady.  But now is a great time for me to experiment. It's a great time to try to figure out my own opinions about these things.

What makes a girl a  real lady? That's something I want to uncover.  I'm going in to this blindly.  I don't know what God is going to show me through this, but I'm excited to see how it will go!

Also, I'm really excited to read through this blog:

http://rulesofagodlylady.tumblr.com/page/2

Lessons Learned

I am now 7 week into my 14-week internship with Team Expansion. It is crazy to think that I am already half-way through my time here. I have learned a lot over the past 7 weeks and have a lot more to learn.

My time here has been exciting, exhausting, humbling, and insightful.  Every week, I have spent 40 or more hours a week in the office.  At the end of may I had two very busy weeks.  One week I was in charge of feeding 25 trainees and facilitators breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for 5 days. One church was nice enough to donate a few of the meals, but I still had a lot of work to do that week. My incredible mom came the weekend before and helped me buy all of the food and we prepared some of it.  I spent a lot of time in the kitchen alone cooking and cleaning that week.  By Friday, I was tired but the Lord is good and kept me strong.  After that 65-hour work week I went straight into my Pathways internship training.  I pulled a 15-hour shift that Friday to clean up from cooking all week and to prepare for the 17 summer interns coming in the next morning.  It took hours to finalize the schedules and prepare the training books.  I was tired by the end of the night, but I still had a good amount of energy. I am blessed to be able to do the work I'm doing.  After enjoying a picnic and worship with the other interns and our parents, we went straight into training classes on Saturday night.  The whole next week was full of 15-hour days that included training and bonding time.  I learned so much that week. We are blessed with wonderful trainers here! Many of the classes were taught by people who have worked in missions 20+ years both stateside and overseas.  I got more excited about missions with each class.  I also had a great time bonding with the other interns. We shared our struggles and our doubts as well as our strengths and excitement. It was a really great week.

Since then, I've had more company in the office. We now have two new interns here for the next 7 weeks.  Over the last few weeks I've been working on preparing for a huge training event that we have in August.  The work feels really daunting some days, but the Lord is bringing me through it. I am learning so much through this job.

The Lord is teaching me a lot about my personal passions and strengths as well as my struggles and doubts.  I have had some days where I have felt exhausted, lonely, and hopeless but I've also had wonderful days.  This is hard work, but God is good and so much bigger than the enemy attacking us.

My time here has been blessed. I still meet with my great small group once a week.  It is great to be able to form friendships there.  And this past week I've gotten to meet new people from all around the world. Saturday evening I went to a peace feast a friend from my small group invited me to.  We went to the Baha'i center to learn about the Baha'i faith, to share Christian beliefs, to eat dinner together, and to create peace between Christians and Bahai's.  It was a very interesting night.  I am now more grounded in my faith than I have ever been before.  And tonight I get to go to a Turkish coffee hour with some of the same people. :)

This past Sunday night was incredible. I spent the evening in the city playing with refugee kids.  The friend from my small group who invited me to the peace feast also meets with a Burmese family and plays outside with refugee kids every Sunday evening.  I got to spend the night painting nails with a little girl from Russia, hold a sweet Burmese baby girl, toss a hula hoop with boys from Somalia, and play with so many other refugee kids. By the end of the night, about 25 refugee kids were playing with my friends and I. I had an incredible time and plan to go back every week this summer.

I have also enjoyed getting to know missionaries who are coming in and out of the office.  I am seeing ways that I can serve in the future and it is very exciting.  The Lord is currently opening doors for me to begin the process to go overseas as early as next summer.  I am excited for this opportunity. I'm sure I'll be writing more about it in the future.

And I'll Keep Going

I have now survived two full weeks of my internship.  Living in Elk Creek and working in Louisville (there Christi- I fixed it! I now understand that I'm NOT living in Louisville!) has been great so far.

I have been really blessed during my time here. My first week here I met Kelsey, she graduated from CCU a couple of years ago and has worked in the office for just about a month.  She invited me to go to a small group though Southeast Christian with her.  So on my second day in town I got to meet about 30 other men and women in their 20's.  It was great to meet so many people my age so quickly and it has been fun to get to know the people in the group and study scripture with them.  Tonight we are going to be volunteering as a group at a group home for adolescent girls. I'm excited for that :)

One of my biggest blessings here is my host family and the home I am staying in.  I met the Baunach family when they hosted two other girls and myself in January when we were here for a week for internship training.  They have a basement apartment that was once used by Christi's parents. They now use that space to host missionary interns like myself.  I have my own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living room. Tom and Christi and their three children- Rachel, Joshua, and Seth are generously letting me stay in their beautiful home out in the country.  They have a lot of land and a pond in the back yard. They also have a sweet, excited dog (named Abby) and two cats.  They are doing so much to help me feel welcome and I have really enjoyed getting to know them.  I have had many late night conversations with Christi, I got to go to Seth's school program last week, and I even got to go shopping and to the library with Rachel.  Tom has been so helpful (he had to clean up some water that seeped into my basement bedroom and even helped me out with my laundry!) And Joshua is my tech guy that helped me get my computer set up.  It has been great to spend time with all of them!

This week my friend Cynthia is at Team Expansion doing some training so she will be staying with me for a few days.  I met her last week when she was in town and her, another college student (Peter), and I did some missions training together.  I got to spend a lot of time with Cynthia and Peter last week and we had some great conversations.  I was excited that Cynthia decided to come back this week.  Last night we went grocery shopping, had sushi and rice for dinner, and chatted all night. This morning we got up early (luckily she is a morning person) and took a walk around the neighborhood before getting ready for work.  It's nice to be living with another girl my age who is also going into missions. We have a lot to talk about.

Although I do feel blessed by my time here and I am really enjoying my internship, I have had some rough times in the last few weeks.  Satan is attacking me and making me feel worthless, and sometimes I am really falling for it.  Starting a new job and thinking about opportunities for the future is so exciting! I really see how God is working in my life and Satan sees it too.  There have been days when it has really been distracting. One hour I'm totally on fire for God and am excited to see how he can use me and the next hour I am thinking there is no way I can possibly be used.  I have also had times of loneliness (although surrounded by people who love me) and feeling like no one is really supporting me and my desire to be a missionary.  But I am daily being reminded that God is so much bigger than all of this doubt and negativity. I hope to continue to overcome these feelings and have confidence in the plans that God has in my life and to be able to see how he is blessing me and helping me grow daily.

Jesus Said: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth" -Acts 1:8

I've Arrived

Copied from "Adventures in 2012". Written 5/6/2012-

I have now been living in Louisville for a week.  I came to Louisville for a summer internship with Team Expansion (www.teamexpansion.org).  I will be living in Louisville for the next 13 weeks and working as the event coordinator for the organization.

So, how did I get here? I first learned about Team Expansion last July.  I was actually at my grandfather's celebration of life ceremony when I met a man and woman (Dana and Chris) who work with Team Expansion.  I was talking with Dana at the lunch after the service.  He told me about Team Expansion and what they do.  I was excited to hear about this church planting agency because I have a big love for overseas missions.  I told him that I had been searching for an event planning internship and he said they had been praying for an event coordinator for a couple of years and told me to go online and fill out a profile on Team Expansion's website. So a couple of days later, I filled out a profile online.  I wasn't sure if anything would come from it or not, but a week later I was on the phone with Emily from Team Expansion doing a telephone interview.  A few weeks after that, I was filling out a full application and turning in references, etc.  At first I thought the whole process was going a bit too fast.  They wanted applications in by the end of November and training would be at the beginning of January if I were to be accepted.  That wouldn't even give me a real chance to apply for any other internships.  So I put it to prayer and trusted God to lead me to the right place.  At the beginning of January of this year, I arrived at Emerald Hills (Team Expansion's Louisville office) along with 10-15 other college students for summer internship training.  I was still a bit unsure how I felt about it when I arrived, but after 1 day I knew that I was in the right place. I fell in love with Team Expansion right away. We spent that week of training learning about what the Bible has to say about missions and God's love for his people and about Team Expansion's mission and vision.  I was surrounded by people who love the Lord and are woking for his kingdom.  I went home after that training excited how God would use the next few months to prepare me for the internship.

I have now completed one 40-hour work week with Team Expansion.  I arrived in Louisville Sunday night and was greeted by my amazing host family (I'll write more about them later).  My first day in the office was Monday. I arrived at the office early Monday morning.  I started the day with breakfast with the new Launch candidates (men and women who want to do missions full time came in for their first day of classes) then we started the work day with prayer (something everyone in the office does together every morning at 9:10!) After prayer, my supervisor Tara showed me to my cubicle and my work started.  I spent most of my first day with the IT guy, Greg.  He helped me set up my multiple accounts online and made me make up ridiculous passwords. Luckily, he's a very nice, very patient guy and has spent much of his time this week helping me log in to accounts and remember my passwords (I bet he just loves that my cubicle is right outside his office).  My whole first week was full of meeting new people, learning new things, and coming up with goals and projects for my 14-week internship.

Team Expansion currently does not have one person coordinating events so I am taking over most of the event coordination for the summer. My four main projects are planning a 2-week training in August (Jonathan Training), preparing for the pre-feild orientation for the summer interns coming later this month,  preparing materials and working at NACC in Orlando in July, and planning a 5k that will take place at Emerald Hills this fall.  At first Tara and I were a bit unsure if we would find enough projects for me this summer, but we quickly found that wouldn't be problem at all. I managed to keep busy all week and will continue to be busy with work this summer.  Many phone calls need to be made and many emails need to be sent.  I will have to shop for and prepare 10 meals for 20 new trainees coming in and just a couple weeks, I need to find housing for 20-30 people coming in August, I will need to attend planning meetings, etc. I am trying not to get overwhelmed and use this experience to learn and grow.

It has been great to be here so far.  I love Team Expansion and the people in the office. Everyone has been very friendly so far.  During my first week, many people in the office came up to me and offered to help with anything I may need this summer.  I feel happy and comfortable at work and am actually excited to go back tomorrow (I haven't had many jobs like that ;) ) I know there will be times when I am worn out and exhausted, but I am blessed to be working with such great people.  And it is so exciting to meet people who have lived and/or are going to live overseas and plant churches.  I have a great opportunity to learn about what is going on all around the world.  I am excited to see how God uses my time here. 

Saying Tschüß to Deutschland

Tonight is my last night in Germany. The girls are with their grandparents and Matthias and Janet are on vacation up north so I have the whole house to myself tonight. Ever since getting home, I have been trying to keep myself busy so that I don't miss Janet, Matthias and the girls too much.

We just spent a great Easter weekend up north with their family. We left Saturday morning and arrived at Janet's parents house late Saturday afternoon.  They welcomed us with cake, tea, and other yummy things and we spent the afternoon talking and relaxing. I got to tour Janet's little town of Apen with Leonie, Mareike and their cousins and met Janet's sisters, and grandmother.  Saturday night we went to the town's annual Easter fire.  Every town in Germany (at least in the north) has an Easter fire the night before Easter.  Most people in the town go and there was an easter bunny passing out candy and posing for pictures, and everyone was eating bratwurst and drinking beer (or cola..) around the huge fire.  It was so much fun to meet all of Janet's friends and family and see where she grew up.  After the fire I sat with Janet, Matthias, and Janet's parents by the fire and we talked and I tried traditional egg liquor (that I tried my best not to spit out instantly, so gross!)

On Sunday morning we slept in then had Easter breakfast with Janet's parents.  I didn't feel well in the morning so I slept for a few hours after breakfast then woke up just in time to watch the kids do an Easter egg hunt.  They had fun searching for the eggs in their grandparent's adorable garden then we went inside for cake and easter presents. Janet's parents are so sweet! Her dad made me my own wooden board/plate that is traditional to eat breakfast off of and also made two little easter bunnies out of wood.  Later, he also gave me lots of photos from their vacations and a wood container he made. He is a great craftsman and I am so excited to take home the things he gave me. I got yummy baked goods and chocolates (only in Germany do you get chocolate with liquor in it from a 90 year old grandma on Easter).  It was sweet. After cake, we all sat together and talked and played with the kids.  I had a lot of fun getting to know everyone (well, at least everyone who could speak English.) Later, we had pizza for dinner and most people went home shortly after that.  Somehow Janet's sister and nephews talked me into going to the disco with them that night.  I had never been to a club, and they said going to the disco is a really "German" thing to do so I had to do it.  So I went with Janet, her sister and brother-in-law, and the three oldest nieces and nephews to the disco (club) in the next town.  I hung out with the older adults (the oldest people in the club that night) and we had fun dancing and watching everyone.  After a couple of hours we headed back to Janet's sister's house and stayed up late talking.  It was a lot of fun.  I have now gotten to experience many different parts of average German life.

On Monday we visited Matthias' parents in Oldenburg (just about 30 minutes from Janet's parent's house). The girls did an easter egg hunt when we got there and after some tea we headed to the north sea.  It was cold and rainy so we spent most of the afternoon at a huge indoor playground. The girls had so much fun and we had fun watching them.  After the play place we walked along the coast a bit then headed back to Oldenburg. Once again we ordered pizza for dinner and I did crafts with the girls.  The girls decided to stay with their grandparents in Oldenburg that night so I ended up having to say goodbye to them a bit earlier than I had planned. That was really hard for me to do.  They are such sweet girls and I didn't want to let go when I was hugging them goodbye. Janet and I got in the car with tears in our eyes and Matthias drove us back to Apen to spend the night with Janet's parents.  Once again we sat by the fire and talked before heading to bed.

This morning I had another good breakfast with Matthias, Janet, and her parents.  Then we packed up the car and headed to the train station.  Telling Janet and Matthias goodbye was so, so hard.  Janet and I were in tears as we hugged goodbye and it looked like Matthias could have cried too.  They felt bad about leaving me alone tonight, but I totally understand that this is the way that it works best and I chose to do it this way.  I just didn't want to say goodbye to them at all.  They have been such a wonderful host family.

My time here has been so blessed.  God answered every prayer that I prayed before coming here and the prayers I prayed while I was here. I was blessed to have such a loving and welcoming host family, blessed to already know someone in this area, and blessed to meet wonderful people who are planting a church here.  Also blessed to have so much time alone to relax and really spend time with the Lord.  I can't believe how smoothly everything has gone (so far at least, I still have to get home!) So it is so hard for me to leave here. I have been so comfortable and have been learning so much.  I am trying to just be thankful for the time that I have and know that great things can and will happen when I get back home, too.  Knowing that I am going to see my parents and the rest of my family and friends in just a few hours makes going home much more exciting.  I cannot wait to meet my mom at the airport and give her a big hug! I will always remember my time here in Germany and am excited to see what will happen next in the journey of life.  Thanking God for how wonderful he is and for the way he has blessed me these last 3 months!!

Tschüß Deutschland! 

Pretty Paris

This post is quite late, but I have to do it for my mom, so here it goes!

Gare Du Nord - Main Train Station

Before heading back to the USA my sister Emily came to visit me here in Ober-Beerbach.  She stayed in the Frankfurt area for a few days and then, fortunately her plane was leaving from Paris so the two of us took a weekend trip to explore the city before she departed.

After searching the internet to find the cheapest way to get from Frankfurt to Paris, we bought bus tickets for an overnight bus ride to the City of Lights (or love or whatever you want to say).  We did not know what to expect before boarding the bus so we prepared ourselves for the worst.  We were fairly pleasantly surprised.  There were a few creepy guys who got on the bus but they didn't pay and the German police officers came and kicked them off. That was a relief.  I felt comfortable being trapped in a vehicle with everyone else we were traveling with.  We arrived in Paris about 8 hours later. It was 6:00am on a Saturday morning and the city was just waking up.

The Louvre

We eventually found our way from the bus station to the main train station, Gare du Nord.  We found a big map in the station then found the street our hotel was on and planned out a route.  After walking for about 10 minutes, we decided we probably were walking the opposite way than we should have gone. At least that was what we were hoping.  We were in a dirty, scary part of town.  The locals weren't too friendly and I'm sure Emily and I looked ridiculous. We were loaded down with luggage and obviously lost.  After about 30 minutes a nice woman came up and directed us to where we needed to go.  One over-priced cab ride later, we were at our hostel.  We stored our luggage, ate breakfast, relaxed for a bit then headed back into the city.

Eiffel Tower at Night

The night before while waiting in the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, we looked through travel books that we were too cheap to buy and wrote down the metro stops of all of the places that we wanted to see. So we got a metro map right away then headed to see the sights.  The first morning we headed to the main part of the city. When we reached the Seine river, we decided that we loved Paris. It was so beautiful and we could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We walked along the seine to the Louvre.  We spent the afternoon in the museum and had a good time.  The building itself was beautiful and so huge.  We got to see a lot of great art.

After the museum we headed back to the hostel so that we could check in, take a nap and shower because we were starting to get a bit grumpy.  After resting and freshening up, we headed out to get dinner and see the Eiffel Tower.  That evening it was raining a bit and the city was beautiful. We had a great dinner at a nice restaurant and then headed to the tower.  Before going, I thought the Eiffel Tower (and all of Paris for that matter) was probably overrated, but I was proven wrong. It was so pretty! It was nice to go up into the tower and because it was 10:00 at night and raining a bit there was almost no line to buy tickets.  Unfortunately we couldn't go all the way to the top of the tower because it was too cold, but it was still great.

Nice Sunday Morning 

The next morning we actually went back to the Eiffel Tower area because we wanted to see the tower and the area surrounding it during the day.  It was a nice Sunday morning.  We ate lunch at the same restaurant as the night before then headed back to our hostel. We explored the area around our hostel for a while. We stayed near Basilique du Sacré Coeu, which was pretty.

After resting and repacking for the next morning. we headed back out for the night. We stopped by the Arc de Triomphe (which was beautiful!!) before heading to Notre Dame.  I loved the district surrounding Notre Dame.  There were lots of people and cool restaurants and shops.  We walked along the river then made our way to the cathedral. It was absolutely gorgeous! I think it was the most beautiful church I have seen.  I loved it. After standing and gawking at the cathedral, we headed to a book shop we read about in a Lonely Planet book.  The name of the shop was Shakespeare and Company. It was such a neat book store! It was an old, tiny two-story building full of books written in English.  There were adorable reading nooks with cots and couches.  I could have spent hours in there, but unfortunately it was late and the shop was closing.  After the book store we went to get dinner. We found cheap gyros (5 euro dinner including a coke!!) and it was great.  After that Emily wanted a glass of wine but couldn't find one she could afford so settled with a yummy gelato-topped waffle for her last treat in Europe.  Then we headed back to the hostel to get some sleep before getting up early the next morning.

Notre Dame

We had to wake up at 4:30 in order to get to the train station in time to get a train to the airport.  When we finally got to the airport we weren't able to get through the gate between the train platform and airport for some reason and there were no airport staff anywhere around. The adventure started there. We got creative and eventually got through the gate.  After that we walked and walked and walked some more until we saw some check in desks and information desks.  We stopped at pretty much every information desk we saw looking for British airways. The airport was under construction and we had to walk through parking lots and go up and down elevators and stairs and after what felt like hours we found the check in desk just in time.  When I left Emily at security, she had only about 5 minutes to get to her plane. I didn't know for sure until hours later that she actually did get to board the plane.  After leaving the airport I made my way back to the train station.  Little did I know, there are two large train stations in Paris and of course I was at the wrong one. Luckily, I figured that out early and the second one was in walking distance.  I got on the train early and headed back to Germany. In order to get back to the house I used 3 trains and a bus, but that went really smoothly. I had a great weekend in Paris with my sister. I am so glad that we got to do that together. Now, I just need to go back with my parents.