After taking a break from blog world, I suddenly feel a little bit more motivated to blog. So hopefully, I will be able to get a little bit more about El Salvador and other random things happening.
School is starting in two weeks and I'm filled with so many bitter-sweet feelings. I am not ready to study for the never ending string of tests, work, do homework and repeat over and over and over again. Life gets mundane and stressful as there is always one more thing on the long laundry list of things to do.
However, I'm filled with excitement for this next semester....After lots of prayer, I am going to spend this next year seriously serving and concentrating on loving the city of Akron. As Chris Tomlin says it best, "Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city."
Sarah and I were talking about what it looks likes for me to serve Akron...I love 707 and not being there tears my heart and to know that it is not where I will be serving hurts even more. In some ways I almost feel guilty about 'leaving,' even though I know I am not. Sarah put it into words that make much more sense for me....This year in sorts, I am out on loan. I am being commissioned to spread the gospel in Akron and disciple younger women so that in a later season of life I can come back to 707, and they can recieve the interest that I earned while on mission.
So this semester I look forward to being able to serve the freshmen as they wonder through campus without an idea as to why they are here or what they want to do with their lives. I look forward to being able to serve inner city children through Reach Akron. I am also looking forward to being able to walking through life with other women by discipling them and also by being discipled.
I think most importantly what I have been learning is that it is not so much where I serve that is important (also not saying that we can do what ever we want), but how you serve. God needs people to serve and be the light of Christ in Medina, Akron, Cleveland, Ohio, El Salvador. Not one of these places in necessarily better than another. I am not going to win more brownie points with God for serving one places than another....The bigger idea is that I serve where I am with everything that I am...
If I am at home in Medina--How am I serving my family, my neighborhood, my co-workers?
If I'm in Akron--How am I loving the other women in my life, my housemates, the homeless, college students?
If I'm in El Salvador--How am I loving the tias, the children, the neighbors, the community of Plantaneo?
So this semester I will be thinking about how, to the best of my ability, serve the community in which I live. My prayer is that this semester I may stand with arms wide and heart abandoned as I am open to what God has for me.
May we go and serve....bless others, endure, and answer kindly....
Grace and Peace
kristen
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Just a little from my favorite place on Earth....
'El Salvador. Beautiful. Hot. Love. Kindness. Grace. Hope.
Hope for the future. Kevincito is a 6 year old with some gastrointestinal problems, and because of it he only weighs 15 pounds. There is hope that in the next year Kevincito will be coming to Cleveland with his adoptive parents to get the medical help he needs.
Only by God's grace is Love and Hope able to have this beautiful baby at the home. Eliseo is about 1.5 (I think) and he is gorgeous. There are no words to describe him....As Alyssa says she describes him as somewhere between divine and perfection. I agree.
Absolute beauty....from the mountain behind the orphanage (looking at the San Salvador volcano) to every person I met.
Kindness and understanding towards each other. The kindness of Americans who spent an extra $15 on a couple shoe boxes for children all over the world. Kindness towards the 'gringos' who spoke slowly and couldn't keep their pronouns and conjugations the same.
Loving the least of these and the ophans who would normally be raised on the side of the street with nothing to eat. However because of Love are able to attend a Christian school and receive a top education.
Friday, July 24, 2009
months later.....
I've been been home for over 1.5 months and Im just now getting around to blogging...Sorry. I am here to say ITS COMING SOON!
kristen
kristen
Friday, June 5, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Here it goes.....
Im leaving Tuesday, May 19th at 6am (nice and early!) I should arrive in El Salvador by 1:11pm EST. Im very excited, but obviously a little bit nervous. Please be praying for me and the people of El Salvador that I come in contact with! Hopefully I'll be able to stop at an internet cafe and update you about whats going on!
Peace!
Kristen
Im leaving Tuesday, May 19th at 6am (nice and early!) I should arrive in El Salvador by 1:11pm EST. Im very excited, but obviously a little bit nervous. Please be praying for me and the people of El Salvador that I come in contact with! Hopefully I'll be able to stop at an internet cafe and update you about whats going on!
Peace!
Kristen
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Faithfulness
Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 105:1
It is hard to believe that in 9 short days I will be boarding a plane and heading off to Nejapa, El Salvador! I've been talking to anybody and everybody who has been to El Salvador (and probably stalking their pictures as well,) and I must admit that with every picture I see and every conversation I have I get more excited, because I can't believe this actually happening!
I say that because I truly believe that you can't understand where you are today with out looking to the past...So here it goes. A month and a half (march 27th) Amber and Sarah opened up their home to the lifegroup leaders for a little fiesta. While I was there, Dean found out that I wasnt going to El Salvador and decided to remind me, in that special Dean way, that I need to go to El Salvador and stop making excuses. I left somewhat excited that the door for me to go to El Salvador had been re-opened. However, I was a month and a half out with no passport, no money, no support letters, no idea about anything....Over the next month and a half I continuously worried about the trip--I doubted God everystep of the way. There were nights after lifegroup that I would fall apart and my lifegroup would graciously remind me to trust, but it was always easier said than done and I continued to worry...Yet, God is God and some how a trip that should have taken a lot longer to plan came together perfectly.
Although I fail pretty miserably, I'm slowly learning to trust God, give up control (that I dont really have in the first place), and realize just how faithful he is. Slowly Im learning to stand with arms wide and arms abandoned in awe of the one who gave it all....
It is hard to believe that in 9 short days I will be boarding a plane and heading off to Nejapa, El Salvador! I've been talking to anybody and everybody who has been to El Salvador (and probably stalking their pictures as well,) and I must admit that with every picture I see and every conversation I have I get more excited, because I can't believe this actually happening!
I say that because I truly believe that you can't understand where you are today with out looking to the past...So here it goes. A month and a half (march 27th) Amber and Sarah opened up their home to the lifegroup leaders for a little fiesta. While I was there, Dean found out that I wasnt going to El Salvador and decided to remind me, in that special Dean way, that I need to go to El Salvador and stop making excuses. I left somewhat excited that the door for me to go to El Salvador had been re-opened. However, I was a month and a half out with no passport, no money, no support letters, no idea about anything....Over the next month and a half I continuously worried about the trip--I doubted God everystep of the way. There were nights after lifegroup that I would fall apart and my lifegroup would graciously remind me to trust, but it was always easier said than done and I continued to worry...Yet, God is God and some how a trip that should have taken a lot longer to plan came together perfectly.
Although I fail pretty miserably, I'm slowly learning to trust God, give up control (that I dont really have in the first place), and realize just how faithful he is. Slowly Im learning to stand with arms wide and arms abandoned in awe of the one who gave it all....
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Its May!
In the next 18 days:
*I have 4 finals
*I will finish my sophomore year--3 more semesters to go!
*Pack up my life into boxes and move back home...I'm going to miss Exchange 346C (maybe not the fire alarms). Although, I am pretty excited about the house : )
*Work about 60 hours between EJ and SHC
*Spend a few days with a friend that I haven't seen in 5 years!!!
*Run a 10K (6.25 miles)
*Hopefully get my first passport before May 19th...They told me I could expect it in about 2 weeks, so I will be cutting it close!
*Pending on the previous statement, leave the country for the first time in my life : )
*I have 4 finals
*I will finish my sophomore year--3 more semesters to go!
*Pack up my life into boxes and move back home...I'm going to miss Exchange 346C (maybe not the fire alarms). Although, I am pretty excited about the house : )
*Work about 60 hours between EJ and SHC
*Spend a few days with a friend that I haven't seen in 5 years!!!
*Run a 10K (6.25 miles)
*Hopefully get my first passport before May 19th...They told me I could expect it in about 2 weeks, so I will be cutting it close!
*Pending on the previous statement, leave the country for the first time in my life : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
