i can't begin to tell you how thankful i am for the people i have in my life who have offered me so much support and encouragement as i prepare for this trip. whether it was unexpected financial donations, intentional conversations, prayers or following this blog - it really brought things into perspective for me - that people believe in me and believe in my heart.
it seems funny to type, and it isn't that i don't believe in myself - but there is something special about people taking an extra step to show their support, in so many ways, that allow you to look past daily disappointments or unmet expectations and see how God is really moving in your life.
i am blessed with people who do want to know my heart and be a part of this experience with me, and i couldn't ask for more as i get ready to leave.
thank you.
people have been asking me if i am excited for the trip and if i am feeling "ready". i can't figure out how to even communicate how much i need this trip right now and how excited i am.
so for now, my typical response stays at "come hell or high water, this trip is happening. it wasn't by accident and i can't wait to leave!"
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
southpaw
that's me! though my left hand may have caused a lot of arguments in our house growing up (i.e., "i don't want to sit next to her, she will bump my elbow and mess me up!"), it is something that i really love and embrace about myself. it makes me special. i am one of 8-15% of the population, after all.
that being said, i have learned that in india the left hand is considered to be unclean as it's used to perform matters associated with going to the bathroom. so while i am there, i have to eat with my right hand. i also learned that people will not accept money from you if you offer it from your left had - so you must pass objects from your right hand only.
perhaps it was the indians who designated spiral notebooks, scissors, computer mice and can openers to be right-handed items.
doing some more research i then discovered, oddly enough, that the people of the andes mountains (where we went in november) believe that left-handers possess special spiritual abilities, including magic and healing!
who knew - one day i am magical, the next i am dirty. this could be a challenge.
*as i sidenote, i thought you would enjoy knowing that "scoochy", "scrammy-handed" and "left-kelly" are also nicknames for lefties.
that being said, i have learned that in india the left hand is considered to be unclean as it's used to perform matters associated with going to the bathroom. so while i am there, i have to eat with my right hand. i also learned that people will not accept money from you if you offer it from your left had - so you must pass objects from your right hand only.
perhaps it was the indians who designated spiral notebooks, scissors, computer mice and can openers to be right-handed items.
doing some more research i then discovered, oddly enough, that the people of the andes mountains (where we went in november) believe that left-handers possess special spiritual abilities, including magic and healing!
who knew - one day i am magical, the next i am dirty. this could be a challenge.
*as i sidenote, i thought you would enjoy knowing that "scoochy", "scrammy-handed" and "left-kelly" are also nicknames for lefties.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
prayer
today i am making a “to-do” list of remaining things to accomplish before we leave (which is in THREE weeks if you are counting down like me). things on the list include “get malaria pills, find long skirts/dresses, call doctor for ambien” and so on.
but as i start to check off items on the list, i am also trying to be intentional of what isn’t on my physical piece of papert but just as important to focus on daily as we get closer to leaving – prayer.
for me it is easy to get caught up in checking things off my list and “feeling” ready to leave, and i often forget that the best way to prepare for this trip, and for it to be that experience i am “expecting”, is to really fall back on the most powerful and impactful tool.
i told you i would keep you posted on ways to pray for our team, so here are a few quick ones if you have the time today:
for those of you checking in on the blog (whether you got sucked in a while ago with my newlywed tales or picked up the blog when I sent it to you about the trip) i am so thankful for your friendship and support. thank you for the role you play in my life and for challenging and loving me in so many ways.
but as i start to check off items on the list, i am also trying to be intentional of what isn’t on my physical piece of papert but just as important to focus on daily as we get closer to leaving – prayer.
for me it is easy to get caught up in checking things off my list and “feeling” ready to leave, and i often forget that the best way to prepare for this trip, and for it to be that experience i am “expecting”, is to really fall back on the most powerful and impactful tool.
i told you i would keep you posted on ways to pray for our team, so here are a few quick ones if you have the time today:
please pray for our team’s safety while we are there and for us to be prepared for everything we will experience - the culture shock, the poverty, the orphans, the death, the stress of travel and to fully experience and engage with the joyful little girls we will meet
jill and brad – karis, their sweet baby girl, is about four months old, and they will be leaving her for the first time for our trip.
carol – fundraising and support as the financial deadline approaches
sonna - she has six kiddos and is also a teacher. she has a lot to do in preparing to leave with lesson plans at school and leaving her hubby home along with them for 8 days
for those of you checking in on the blog (whether you got sucked in a while ago with my newlywed tales or picked up the blog when I sent it to you about the trip) i am so thankful for your friendship and support. thank you for the role you play in my life and for challenging and loving me in so many ways.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
links to learn more
i thought it would be good to provide a little background and some links to a few organizations so you can have more insight on what has encouraged this trip.
brad and jill, who founded the invisible girl project, met on a common ground mission trip a few years ago. soon after, jill moved to chennai to work for the international justice mission, and brad joined her a year later once they were married. it was during this time in chennai they first learned about female infanticide.
IJM has operations in 11 countries across the world, working to ensure justice for human rights (slavery, sexual oppression and other violent acts). while we are there, we will meet with some of jill's old co-workers to learn more about what IJM is doing around the world.
much of our time while in chennai will be spent learning. which relates back to my previous post about gaining a better vision.
however, while we are there, we will spend some time with the girls at home of love. i have [eagerly] volunteered to be the designated photographer for our group during our time in india and am excited to help document our time while at home of love. of the few things we have "planned to do", recording the stories of the girls here is one of them. our team will be talking with the girls to learn more about them - what they like to do, their favorite things. the hope is that in documenting them, home of love will soon be able to seek support opportunities, similar to other organizations offering child sponsorship.
hopefully this post and links give you a little more insight to what our vision is for this trip and a few ways you can beginning praying for our team.
brad and jill, who founded the invisible girl project, met on a common ground mission trip a few years ago. soon after, jill moved to chennai to work for the international justice mission, and brad joined her a year later once they were married. it was during this time in chennai they first learned about female infanticide.
IJM has operations in 11 countries across the world, working to ensure justice for human rights (slavery, sexual oppression and other violent acts). while we are there, we will meet with some of jill's old co-workers to learn more about what IJM is doing around the world.
much of our time while in chennai will be spent learning. which relates back to my previous post about gaining a better vision.
however, while we are there, we will spend some time with the girls at home of love. i have [eagerly] volunteered to be the designated photographer for our group during our time in india and am excited to help document our time while at home of love. of the few things we have "planned to do", recording the stories of the girls here is one of them. our team will be talking with the girls to learn more about them - what they like to do, their favorite things. the hope is that in documenting them, home of love will soon be able to seek support opportunities, similar to other organizations offering child sponsorship.
hopefully this post and links give you a little more insight to what our vision is for this trip and a few ways you can beginning praying for our team.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
great expectations
last night we had another team meeting in preparation for our trip. our tickets are purchased, we have an official packing list and our [flexible] itinerary is set. one month from tomorrow we will be setting out on an incredible journey to india!
i can't begin to tell you how excited i am for this trip. not only because i love to travel and am excited to get to know the people of india, but for the relationships that will form, the things i will learn and the things that will most likely break me and open my eyes up to something that could completely change my life.
as my husband so tenderly puts it, i am an "easily excitable person". i go from zero to sixty and am full speed ahead at most anything. i am a dreamer and find so many things fascinating it is hard to resist the draw to fully engage. however, in doing that, i also tend to put unrealistic expectations on a LOT of these things.
it would be a lie to say i don't have big expectations for this trip. however, we have a pretty big God that can fulfill them. and even though i have expectations - they are simply for an incredible journey. as for what happens when we are there or what i learn, see or do...i honestly can't even begin to imagine it all to even set an unrealistic expectation in the first place.
so here's to trusting God has something great in store and sitting back to enjoy this journey!
i can't begin to tell you how excited i am for this trip. not only because i love to travel and am excited to get to know the people of india, but for the relationships that will form, the things i will learn and the things that will most likely break me and open my eyes up to something that could completely change my life.
as my husband so tenderly puts it, i am an "easily excitable person". i go from zero to sixty and am full speed ahead at most anything. i am a dreamer and find so many things fascinating it is hard to resist the draw to fully engage. however, in doing that, i also tend to put unrealistic expectations on a LOT of these things.
it would be a lie to say i don't have big expectations for this trip. however, we have a pretty big God that can fulfill them. and even though i have expectations - they are simply for an incredible journey. as for what happens when we are there or what i learn, see or do...i honestly can't even begin to imagine it all to even set an unrealistic expectation in the first place.
so here's to trusting God has something great in store and sitting back to enjoy this journey!
Monday, February 7, 2011
snow, ice and everything nice
so during my blogging hiatus, it appears i also took a break in my photo taking. except for this one of milo enjoying the snow. ok, so maybe this was posed. and maybe he didn't enjoy it. though i should note he usually does demand to wear this hat before going outside. gotta keep the brain warm!
Friday, February 4, 2011
vision
in the back of my mind, i've always thought it would be an amazing experience to go on some type of "mission" trip...at some point in my life. the key point being "some point in my life". there have been a few times i have even considered a specific trip for a hot second but was soon swept back into my normal, everyday life. "maybe later" i would think. later was always a better time. and if i am being really honest, sometimes it even seemed a little too "churchy" to take the plunge.
well friends, later is now. in just a little over a month i will be heading to Chennai, India!
what i love about my church is that this isn't the typical mission trip. in fact, they call them "vision trips" instead. which to most may sound just as equally weird and churchy, but once you break it down, it really makes sense.
the purpose of this trip is to gain a better vision. a better vision of what is going on in the world. a better vision for how God is working in every place - even the most desolate areas. a better vision as to how our lives can play a role in this work. a better vision for how God is speaking to us and trying to work in our lives.
it has been quite a journey for this trip happen. stating the most obvious is my career in college athletics - march isn't really the best time to ask to be gone, let alone out of the country. it also came out of nowhere for me. but i was really prayerful about the decision making process and knew that if this was a door to be opened, God would do it. and He not only did this for me once, but twice, as potential issues arose with work and each time they were sorted out in a comforting way.
since i'm not one with much of an attention span, i'll space out some upcoming posts about what we will be doing in India, the "vision" for this trip, our preparation process and other details so you can follow (if you want of course)!
well friends, later is now. in just a little over a month i will be heading to Chennai, India!
what i love about my church is that this isn't the typical mission trip. in fact, they call them "vision trips" instead. which to most may sound just as equally weird and churchy, but once you break it down, it really makes sense.
the purpose of this trip is to gain a better vision. a better vision of what is going on in the world. a better vision for how God is working in every place - even the most desolate areas. a better vision as to how our lives can play a role in this work. a better vision for how God is speaking to us and trying to work in our lives.
it has been quite a journey for this trip happen. stating the most obvious is my career in college athletics - march isn't really the best time to ask to be gone, let alone out of the country. it also came out of nowhere for me. but i was really prayerful about the decision making process and knew that if this was a door to be opened, God would do it. and He not only did this for me once, but twice, as potential issues arose with work and each time they were sorted out in a comforting way.
since i'm not one with much of an attention span, i'll space out some upcoming posts about what we will be doing in India, the "vision" for this trip, our preparation process and other details so you can follow (if you want of course)!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
giving
for those of you who are interested, below is information re: financial contributions. thank you so much for your prayers, support and interest in my upcoming trip!
for tax donation purposes, please make checks out to "Common Ground Christian Church". to keep the donation tax deductible, please do not write anything in the memo line. donations should be mailed to my home address mentioned in my e-mail and will need to be received no later than thursday, february 24th (note - the envelope should be address to me but the check to CGCC).
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
life trip
so maybe it takes an ice storm to break my blogging hiatus. but here i am again, several months later, sharing what is going on in our lives as “semi-newlyweds”.
a lot has been going on since i last posted. one major update being that we took our first “life trip”!
this past thanksgiving, we ventured to peru, south america, to see one of the new seven wonders of the world - machu picchu. it is just like you see in the photos – but you are there in person to see the clouds rise to reveal the view and roll in again covering this lost empire as you stand in the ancient incan ruins. we had quite an adventure during our week long trip – we conquered the city of cuzco, made it through some language barriers, suffered a little deet poisoning, ate alpaca (a peru llama) and guinea pig (and no, we will not let our future children have them as a pet…ever), did some climbing and hiking and spent an evening in the mist at a natural hot springs at the base of mountains in the jungle enjoying some drinks (there were a lot of necessary prepositions for that sentence to even begin to describe that moment).
all in all, i can’t believe we were able to experience something so amazing! not only did we begin our journey of “life trips” together (which i am reminded are big trips to be spaced over our life time – key word being “life” as my husband says), but we were so lucky to see something so amazing and unique that God created on the other hemisphere of this world.
below are a few pictures from our trip!
a lot has been going on since i last posted. one major update being that we took our first “life trip”!
this past thanksgiving, we ventured to peru, south america, to see one of the new seven wonders of the world - machu picchu. it is just like you see in the photos – but you are there in person to see the clouds rise to reveal the view and roll in again covering this lost empire as you stand in the ancient incan ruins. we had quite an adventure during our week long trip – we conquered the city of cuzco, made it through some language barriers, suffered a little deet poisoning, ate alpaca (a peru llama) and guinea pig (and no, we will not let our future children have them as a pet…ever), did some climbing and hiking and spent an evening in the mist at a natural hot springs at the base of mountains in the jungle enjoying some drinks (there were a lot of necessary prepositions for that sentence to even begin to describe that moment).
all in all, i can’t believe we were able to experience something so amazing! not only did we begin our journey of “life trips” together (which i am reminded are big trips to be spaced over our life time – key word being “life” as my husband says), but we were so lucky to see something so amazing and unique that God created on the other hemisphere of this world.
below are a few pictures from our trip!
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