Monday, April 26, 2010
A lot of ... Lasts
Geneva College, a place where I found who I was alongside some of the most beautiful people in the whole world. A place where the community comes together when there is hurt to support each other. A place that comes together to celebrate and worship the Lord. I have learned to live differently. Geneva is such a unique place and it has changed me forever. I cant believe that this chapter in my life is almost over. I'm not sad but Im conflicted because it is a sad thing but only half is ending for me this time. See, I have a semester left. Although I wont be on campus for that semester, I have one more chance to associate myself with being a Geneva College student. The sad part, all of the people I came in with, are leaving. This is it for them. This week is a start of many lasts for C3. As we go through our last- undergrad classes, Chapel, on campus jobs, tests, brig meals, education lab printing sprees, tiger pauses, grilled stickies, C3 visits, and picnics outside the student center. I just want you to know that I love each one of you and I am so thankful for Geneva and here's the reason- I'm changed, I have found my mission and passion here, but most importantly I have met the most beautiful people that life has to offer in a little town called Beaver Falls. I couldn't be more thankful for you girls, I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do with your lives, and I am excited to be apart of each of them! Enjoy our lasts
Saturday, April 17, 2010
I will follow you..
a song for ya (:
Leeland<3
You lived among the least of these
The weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.
All my needs you have supplied.
When i was dead you gave me life.
How could i not give it away so freely?
And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.
Follow you into the world.
Use my hands use my feet
To make your kingdom come
Through the corners of the earth
Until your work is done
`cause faith without works is dead
And on the cross your blood was shed
So how could i not give it away so freely?
And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.
Follow you into the world.
I give all myself.
I give all myself
I give all myself.to you.
And i give all myself.
Yes i give all myself.
And i give all myself.to you.
And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.
Follow you into the world.
Leeland<3
You lived among the least of these
The weary and the weak
And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.
All my needs you have supplied.
When i was dead you gave me life.
How could i not give it away so freely?
And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.
Follow you into the world.
Use my hands use my feet
To make your kingdom come
Through the corners of the earth
Until your work is done
`cause faith without works is dead
And on the cross your blood was shed
So how could i not give it away so freely?
And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.
Follow you into the world.
I give all myself.
I give all myself
I give all myself.to you.
And i give all myself.
Yes i give all myself.
And i give all myself.to you.
And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken
Follow you into the world.
Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.
Follow you into the world.
Watch out for that signal-- when life as you know it ends.
I would have to say,, that life as I knew it has changed about twenty times in the past month or two.
Mexico has changed life as I once knew it forever and I love it. Here are some pictures of this past trip as promised.
The balcony view of Oasis where the team stays, my favorite view in the whole world
Risa, I, and our boys, Mario and Fernando at the taco stand for dinner one night. This is a really fun night, we take all the boys and staff that work at the boys home for tacos one night while we are in Mexico. They are so grateful for this opportunity. Its a great bonding time for us too. (:
RUTH.. isnt she precious? This is the first day we were in Mexico. Ruth remembered me and I scooped her up. (:
MY BOYS! I am convinced that they are my brothers and definitely meant to be in my life. Mario is in the white and Fernando is in the dark shirt. They are brothers who have been at the boys home since I started visiting Mexico. We have had a connection and continue to stay in touch. This year by far has been the hardest to be away from them, they are growing into men and maturing. I am proud to be part of their lives and know that God is going to do something great with their lives. I am learning how to support someone when all I have to offer is my love. It is always a challenge for me, especially when my love language is gifts. but the gift of love is the best gift of all.
Mexico has changed life as I once knew it forever and I love it. Here are some pictures of this past trip as promised.
The balcony view of Oasis where the team stays, my favorite view in the whole world
Risa, I, and our boys, Mario and Fernando at the taco stand for dinner one night. This is a really fun night, we take all the boys and staff that work at the boys home for tacos one night while we are in Mexico. They are so grateful for this opportunity. Its a great bonding time for us too. (:
RUTH.. isnt she precious? This is the first day we were in Mexico. Ruth remembered me and I scooped her up. (:
MY BOYS! I am convinced that they are my brothers and definitely meant to be in my life. Mario is in the white and Fernando is in the dark shirt. They are brothers who have been at the boys home since I started visiting Mexico. We have had a connection and continue to stay in touch. This year by far has been the hardest to be away from them, they are growing into men and maturing. I am proud to be part of their lives and know that God is going to do something great with their lives. I am learning how to support someone when all I have to offer is my love. It is always a challenge for me, especially when my love language is gifts. but the gift of love is the best gift of all.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
10 states, 2 countries, in 1 month.
Woo hoo! I just finished a marathon of traveling. I am so sorry it has been another long time since I left an update but life has been a whirlwind. I love it though. This blog is going to be a brief overview of what the last month has looked like for me and then hopefully sometime this week when I have time to breath I can go in depth on more of my adventures with pictures and such. Here it goes.
On Mach 6th, I left for another amazing trip to San Luis Mexico with a beautiful team of 12 Geneva College Students. I was the leader and loved every minute of it. I have made some life long friends from that trip for sure.
We left early in the morning for Phoenix ARIZONA. We arrived on time to beautiful weather. We then drove four hours to the border of SONORA(the state that i was in) MEXICO where we grocery shopped. We crossed the border around 8pm that night. We arrived at Oasis boys home shortly after. My heart immediately was overwhelmed with joy, I was in the place where my heart feels most complete once again. In a few words the week was-- refreshing, amazing, challenging, emotional, and well it just feels like home to me. I will share many stories and pictures in a later blog. I am still having a really hard time transitioning back into the estados unidos and it is a month later.
March 11th was probably one of the very hardest days that I have experienced in a very long time. I had to leave the boys and the family that I love so much. They are a huge impact of my life. To give you a very miniscule visual of what goodbye looked like-- I was sitting in the passenger seat of a 12 passenger van with two mexican boys asking me to stay one more week. They were wearing my clothes that I left behind telling me that it smelled like the United States, they say thats a good thing. With my arms reached the whole way out the window we started to pull away. We were driving away from a family that took us in with open arms, just for us to leave them at the end of the week, They stood at the gates until we couldnt see them anymore and I could still hear them shouting "Adios!" As we drove down the sand road I started to cry because I didnt know when I was going to ever feel like I do when I am in Mexico. Not only in Mexico, but with 14 boys who have been abandoned and two families that have raised them and loved them as their own children. They are complete and they are a family. I was honored to be considered part of their beautiful family.
We waited two hours to cross back over the border of the US. We were still so close to the boys' home but too far away to see them again. I started to become broken. We stayed in a hotel in Tempe, ARIZONA for the night to debrief and prepare our selves for the real world that was going to hit us hard.
The next day, I still was crying non-stop because I was still close, I was still within driving distance to the place I love the most. Then we boarded a plan headed to Las Vegas, NEVADA. The further we got, the sadder I became. The flight was short and Risa and stuck together in the airport. We jokingly planned that if they offered for people to stay back, that we would do it together. Sure enough, they offered for two people to stay back and we agreed! We spent the night in Las Vegas for free! We prolonged the real life for two more days.
The next day, we went sight seeing and then boarded a plan to Chicago, ILLINOIS. We were there for a short stay. So we spent it laying on the floor of the airport over the night hours. We talked about Mexico and sang D.C RETO -Vida (of course)
March 15th- most of you know what day this is. My birthday!! We boarded a plane to Pittsburgh PENNSYLVANIA . I was drained and ready to sleep for 24 hours. I spent most of my birthday in bed sleeping and missing Mexico. My land lord bought me a cake and my sweet room mates came home later in the day to celebrate with some gift giving.
I took my room mates all home with me for a little birthday celebration the following weekend and then celebrated the beautiful Alexandras birthday the following weekend in the City. (O:
School was back in swing for a week then it was Easter break. I hopped back in the car and drove to Warren, CONNECTICUT to visit Diana ( my other room mate's home) We made sure to drive through NEW YORK too. We celebrated the resurrection in MASSACHUSETTS with Diana's extended family and enjoyed the beautiful weather of New England. It was a great little trip.
This past weekend, was the last big trip for me this month. I went to a overseas teaching conference in Hartford, INDIANA. It was also incredible and I learned so much. I met a lot of really cool people who inspire me to dream big and travel to change to world. Can't wait to see what is in store for me! I had to go to this conference because of my teaching placement in Hawaii in the fall. It made me so excited and prepared me in ways that I didnt even know I needed to be prepared for! ( Oh and I bet you are thinking, she doesnt know how to count that it only 9-- psst.. we drove through the WHOLE STATE of OHIO to get to INDIANA (0;
So welcome to my crazy life.. I am trying to catch my breath before I get in the mood to cram in more travel (:
Love you all.. ill put pictures up soon and some journal excerpts too! EVEN through all of this choas in this month, I managed to finish a whole journal!!
On Mach 6th, I left for another amazing trip to San Luis Mexico with a beautiful team of 12 Geneva College Students. I was the leader and loved every minute of it. I have made some life long friends from that trip for sure.
We left early in the morning for Phoenix ARIZONA. We arrived on time to beautiful weather. We then drove four hours to the border of SONORA(the state that i was in) MEXICO where we grocery shopped. We crossed the border around 8pm that night. We arrived at Oasis boys home shortly after. My heart immediately was overwhelmed with joy, I was in the place where my heart feels most complete once again. In a few words the week was-- refreshing, amazing, challenging, emotional, and well it just feels like home to me. I will share many stories and pictures in a later blog. I am still having a really hard time transitioning back into the estados unidos and it is a month later.
March 11th was probably one of the very hardest days that I have experienced in a very long time. I had to leave the boys and the family that I love so much. They are a huge impact of my life. To give you a very miniscule visual of what goodbye looked like-- I was sitting in the passenger seat of a 12 passenger van with two mexican boys asking me to stay one more week. They were wearing my clothes that I left behind telling me that it smelled like the United States, they say thats a good thing. With my arms reached the whole way out the window we started to pull away. We were driving away from a family that took us in with open arms, just for us to leave them at the end of the week, They stood at the gates until we couldnt see them anymore and I could still hear them shouting "Adios!" As we drove down the sand road I started to cry because I didnt know when I was going to ever feel like I do when I am in Mexico. Not only in Mexico, but with 14 boys who have been abandoned and two families that have raised them and loved them as their own children. They are complete and they are a family. I was honored to be considered part of their beautiful family.
We waited two hours to cross back over the border of the US. We were still so close to the boys' home but too far away to see them again. I started to become broken. We stayed in a hotel in Tempe, ARIZONA for the night to debrief and prepare our selves for the real world that was going to hit us hard.
The next day, I still was crying non-stop because I was still close, I was still within driving distance to the place I love the most. Then we boarded a plan headed to Las Vegas, NEVADA. The further we got, the sadder I became. The flight was short and Risa and stuck together in the airport. We jokingly planned that if they offered for people to stay back, that we would do it together. Sure enough, they offered for two people to stay back and we agreed! We spent the night in Las Vegas for free! We prolonged the real life for two more days.
The next day, we went sight seeing and then boarded a plan to Chicago, ILLINOIS. We were there for a short stay. So we spent it laying on the floor of the airport over the night hours. We talked about Mexico and sang D.C RETO -Vida (of course)
March 15th- most of you know what day this is. My birthday!! We boarded a plane to Pittsburgh PENNSYLVANIA . I was drained and ready to sleep for 24 hours. I spent most of my birthday in bed sleeping and missing Mexico. My land lord bought me a cake and my sweet room mates came home later in the day to celebrate with some gift giving.
I took my room mates all home with me for a little birthday celebration the following weekend and then celebrated the beautiful Alexandras birthday the following weekend in the City. (O:
School was back in swing for a week then it was Easter break. I hopped back in the car and drove to Warren, CONNECTICUT to visit Diana ( my other room mate's home) We made sure to drive through NEW YORK too. We celebrated the resurrection in MASSACHUSETTS with Diana's extended family and enjoyed the beautiful weather of New England. It was a great little trip.
This past weekend, was the last big trip for me this month. I went to a overseas teaching conference in Hartford, INDIANA. It was also incredible and I learned so much. I met a lot of really cool people who inspire me to dream big and travel to change to world. Can't wait to see what is in store for me! I had to go to this conference because of my teaching placement in Hawaii in the fall. It made me so excited and prepared me in ways that I didnt even know I needed to be prepared for! ( Oh and I bet you are thinking, she doesnt know how to count that it only 9-- psst.. we drove through the WHOLE STATE of OHIO to get to INDIANA (0;
So welcome to my crazy life.. I am trying to catch my breath before I get in the mood to cram in more travel (:
Love you all.. ill put pictures up soon and some journal excerpts too! EVEN through all of this choas in this month, I managed to finish a whole journal!!
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