Back to Africa

Well..I'm going to be spending my summer in Kenya!

Every year MTW sends a staff person to lead the group of interns that goes down to Nairobi to work with a church plant there in the slum of Kibera. Normally this staff person is Opal who has gone several times and has a lot of experience with leading groups. However, as this summer approached, it was clear that Opal's skills were needed on other mission fields. We brainstormed and found a great couple who were willing to consider it. About a week ago they emailed and said they couldn't do it either. Unbelievably, I was asked if I would consider it.

At first I thought the idea was ridiculous. Plus, I have to take summer school so I thought I would be so behind if I took the whole summer off. But the more I thought and prayed about it, the more I felt like God was saying "just be open". Last Tuesday I found myself telling Opal and Jack (my boss) that I would be open to doing it. They were so excited and encouraging. A few details were worked out, such as how my normal work would be covered, and the decision was made!

I will be leading a group that currently consists of 8 girls and 1 guy. We are really praying that at least 1 more guy will apply! Most of the team is college-aged and there is one girl who's the same age as me. I will be the liason between the group and the Kenyan pastor and his wife. I will be helping to facilitate things such as their bible study and day to day activities. Honestly, I am completely overwhelmed and scared to death! Well, I alternate between that and being really pumped. It will be a great opportunity to use my counseling skills amongst other things and be able to experience a culture for a longer period of time. Fortunately too I have plently of Old Testament examples of people that God used to do big things even though they were probably the least qualified! Because that's certainly how I feel at this point.

MTW will be doing some training with me so I will be more ready when the time comes. I will be going to the internship prefield training for all interns June 1-5, and then on the 5th I will leave with the group for Kenya and then arrive back in Atlanta on August 1.

I am sad that I will miss Simon and Eve's wedding, the birth of my fifth honorary nephew Harrison, Gina's birthday, potential showers for my future sister-in-law Shannon, all my friends, and the relationships that I will have to leave behind at work with my other missionaries and co-workers. I will have to trust God to comfort me and give me strength for this huge task! I really feel like this was His idea, and I know that it will be one learning experience that I will draw on for years to come.

I'm sure I will be keeping up with this blog and such and I hope folks will email me! Anyway, I'll post more info as I get it.

"Everything's Going to be Ok" says Therapy Buddy

If these things get popular.....I'm out of a job for sure.

A little piece of hell

Pilates.

But thank you, Gina, for this new LA Fitness experience. My "core" is quite sore!

A little piece of heaven

Last weekend I had a chance to participate in a silent (well..mostly) spiritual retreat that was actually a class I took through my school! I didn't realize it was silent until I got there, but I wasn't totally surprised based on the materials we had to read in preparation. Believe or not, I liked it very much. It was neat too just sitting in silence and thinking about a scripture verse and passage or really trying to sense what God was doing or showing me without clouding all of my time with Him with my requests. It was definitely hard sometimes, but something I want to keep trying. It was cool too because we would talk with the instructors about what to do if you get bored or you can't stop thinking about work or whatever else. It was very eye-opening. The class came at a much needed time as the past few months have been pretty stressful for me.

Here's one thing we talked about. You may have heard the verse before "Be still and know that I am God" from Psalm 46. Did you know that to be still in that passage means to "cease striving". That was refreshing to think about.

Learning tool of some sort

We were discussing substance abuse disorders the other week in one of my classes, and this was one of the slides that my professor had on his powerpoint. Let's just say he's way out of the box, which I love. So he always slips in crazy stuff to get us thinking and to make the class interesting. I thought this was pretty funny. But it also made an interesting point. Especially since in Georgia you can no longer buy cold medicine like on the shelf. You can only get it behind the counter at the pharmacist.

Update on my cousin Ed

Some of you have asked how my cousin Eddy is doing so I wanted to post an update. As you may have read from the previous blog, Eddy is 18 and was skiing with another cousin of mine when he fell off a jump of some kind. He is still not fully out of the coma and hasn't spoken yet, but he does follow people with his eyes and has some other movements. Eddy and his mom (my aunt Maria) flew back from Denver a week ago (where the accident happened) to Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul which is a rehibilitation hospital were Eddy will be. Below is an update emailed out by one of my other uncles. Eddy has a younger sister, Esther, who is 16 and his parents are David and Maria. David is one of my Dad's younger brothers. Thank you for praying.

From March 21:
I just spoke with David. He and Maria were at the hospital with Ed,
and appeared to be happy about the progress Ed is making.

Ed is progressively more active when he is awake. He moves his right
(broken) leg up and down about 4 or 5 times per minute. I asked
David why Ed does that. David said that when he had broken his own
leg many years ago, movement of the leg would help ease the
discomfort or pain. Perhaps Ed is reacting that same way.

Ed's lungs are clearing up, and they have reduced the supplemental
oxygen down to a 30% rate. Ed's vital signs are looking good.

They use a hoist to raise him up from the bed and sit him in a chair,
tilted back about 15 degrees, with his head supported. He may sit
there for about an hour. They do this to coax his body into doing
some work.

When Ed sleeps, he sleeps in a deep, peaceful sleep.

David and Maria are so very appreciative of all the prayers and
concern that people are showing toward Ed's recovery and their family.


Frank

Quotes in book for upcoming retreat/class

Periodically my degree program requires for students to take these classes that are more or less spiritual retreats. We do have books to read for them and usually there is some kind of minor paper to write when they are over. But the purpose of them is to be reflective and rejuvinating for the participants, which is a really good thing especially for people in the counseling field. Learning about and diving into how messed up people are can be very overwhelming.

Anyway, I have one of these such classes this weekend, and in preparation for it I was reading one of the required books today and came across these thought-provoking quotes:

"Genuine transformation requires vulnerability. It is not the fact of being loved unconditionally that is life-changing. It is the risky experience of allowing myself to loved unconditionally. Paradoxically, no one can change until they first accept themselves as they are. Self-deceptions and an absence of real vulnerability block any meaningful transformation. It is only when I accept who I am that I dare to show you that self in all its vulnerability and nakedness. Only then do I have the opportunity to receive your love in a manner that makes a genuine difference. This applies equally to God's love and the love of other people."

"The key to spiritual transformation is meeting God- in vulnerability. Our natural inclination is to bring the most presentable parts of our self to the encounter with God. But God wants us to bring our whole self to the divine encounter. He wants us to trust him enough to meet Perfect Love in the vulnerability of our shame, weakness, and sin."

Another random thing that came up at work today

So I was reading this girl's application today (I have to interview her Monday) and I'm reading along about what kind of ministry she likes to do, what kinds of team environments she prefers, etc..when I read this:

Question: Is there anything that limits your field possibilities?

Her Answer: Nervous system unable to tolerate loud metal drums for an extended period of time.

Unique things that come up when working with missionaries

Here was a new one for me......

Today in our weekly staff meeting, we were talking about budgets and financial stuff, when Daniel piped in that he had recently heard that "avian bird flu masks" were now reimbursable.

Georgians for Nebraska

Apparently last week my friends Gates and Melissa were driving around Atlanta and saw a car with a red license plate cover that said "Georgians for Nebraska." Of course, they told me about it and I thought it was hilarious. So then I was really excited when Melissa emailed me today with a link to their website! It seems as though "Georgians for Nebraska" is the Georgia alumni branch for people who've graduated from the University of Nebraska. But I'm going to see if they ever let outsiders in. They even have T-shirts! I've got to get me one of those.

Getting ready to move

This past weekend ended my very mundane but productive spring break week. I got to work all 40 hours this week like normal which was awesome because I had a ton of work to do. Then I started going through some old boxes that I had been left untouched in random closets around our house. I realized that when I moved to this house four years ago I had to pack in a hurry so I didn't go through most of the stuff I was keeping. So this time around I definitely found some random things, including the GRE scores I was looking for last spring and a gift certificate to Bath and Body Works that I apparently got in 1999. I also went through a lot of the boxes that had been sent down from Minnesota and had once been my mom's stuff. I was a little worried about those because I couldn't remember what was in them, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to really objectively sort through them. But my faithful friend Molly came over and helped me and we knocked that stuff out in no time! It felt good to have all that done and it really wasn't so bad.

Two closets down- one to go!!

Size 12!!

Ok, I hope you can allow me a vain moment here. Jamie and I just got back from the mall, and I bought some skirts in a size 12!! That's really small for me. I can't remember the last time I wore that size. It was really encouraging! I still have a ways to go in some respects, but it's going great so far. Weight Watchers rules!!

My cousin Ed

I wanted to ask for prayers for my cousin Eddy. He lives in Minnesota and is a very talented skier. He was out visiting my other cousin Erik who's been working at a ski resort in Colorado and last weekend he had an accident while taking a ski jump.

Eddy has suffered a head injury, a broken leg, a broken wrist, and I'm sure some other injuries. He's had surgery for his leg and various procedures to remove swelling from his brain. He's still in a hospital in Denver, unconscious. We are praying and trusting the Lord for a full recovery. Please pray for him and his family for healing, peace and comfort and wisdom to make the right decisions when necessary. Here's a picture of Ed as well.

Congrats to Dave and Ami!

My friends Dave and Ami who are currently living in Germany had a baby girl early this morning! Hadleigh Claire McNay was welcomed into the world on March 7 at about 4 am. She weighed in at 7lbs 3oz and was just over 21 inches. Isn't she beautiful! And no offense Dave but I think right now she looks more like Ami!

Thankful for my dad

One thing that was awesome was my dad being able to come last weekend and help me with things around the house. I had a great time hanging out with him, going to the gym, going to my church's missions conference, and doing some hard labor =). I think he had a great time too! Here's a picture from one of early morning workouts. I was so thankful for his help!!

Here are the things I now know how to do:
-use a stud finder and find a stud (I only knew how to find studs of the male kind before.... hahahaha)
-how to use a drill and change the drill bits
-how to fix my screen doors
-how to change locks
-how to get the Home Depot people to help you
-that outlets and outlet covers come in various colors like beige, white, almond and ivory

I'll be moving in officially on April 22!

Problems

Different life events over the past two weeks have markedly added some stress to my life. I don't think in general I cope with stress that well when it avalanches upon me. I am not very good about asking for help or talking to people about my problems. My tendancy is to suck it up and drive on forward. But eventually, I crash.

The crash came on Monday night after an extremely hectic and hard day at work. Because of circumstances out of my control I ended up being 45 minutes early to meeting my friends for dinner. So I decided to just sit in my car, listen to my ipod, and talk it out to God about what had been going on. I'm glad I had 45 minutes because I needed it. Really, all I could say though is "Lord, I believe. Please help my unbelief". I think that was enough.