Geeze it's been ages!! It's been a busy month or so.

Last week, I had the joy of heading through the Ozark mountains of Arkansas to Booneville, a small town where YouthWorks is present. They are a mission organization that hosts and facilitates high school mission trips. They have 69 locations all over the country, as well as Canada and Puerto Rico. We happened to choose Booneville, AR and I'm glad we did : )

All the churches that came to work were mixed up and made into different crews. Then half the crews did work projects while the other half planned and did kids club. Halfway through the week, we switched. I was on crew 5 with kids from Fridley and from Richfield, Minnesota.

We started at Marjorie's house, scraping and repainting her carport. Marjorie is a severely arthritic old lady - I've actually never seen it so bad. Her hands were so shriveled, but she was still so capable. She was one of those people who are in pain, but you'd never know it because they refuse to complain. It was pretty clear that she decided to not let her pain dictate her life. She was joyful and so happy about life. Gosh, I was so inspired by her. Usually, I offer my help to someone in pain, but Marjorie was so capable of anything that I felt it would insult her abilities. Plus, she asked when she needed help.

The week was full of great things like that and people who inspired us to be better people.

I think I'm coming out with the realization that justice isn't all there is. Life lived for Christ has to be a balance between mercy, justice, and compassion. I think it would've been inappropriate to go to the source of why Marjorie can't paint her own carport, why arthritis exists, and what we can do about it. What she needed at that moment was not questions or inquiries, but people who cared enough to come make her house look better in ways she couldn't. I know arthritis should be studied and stopped from ever plaguing someone else, but not at the expense of some good, quality mercy.

The lovely Marjorie

On That Day...

Heard a really good sermon at my little white steeple church today.  Reverend Jim addressed the recent famous deaths we've had this week and what heaven may or may not be like.  We might see our family.  We might follow Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Mother Teresa around.  And then I thought - why would I do that?  LoL.  I think our reasoning for reading up on these people is because they've found what it means to live like Christ and to make Him everything they are.  We read up on them to learn more about Jesus.  To interpret together what we think He meant when He said this or that.  But why would we do that if we have Christ himself to give us complete understanding?  It reminded me to, yes, go to other believers for their views and beliefs on Jesus in order to refine my own, but to essentially go to the Maker Himself for all I need.  For all my wisdom.

This sermon also helped me bask in what heaven will be.  I think some people get scared when they think they may not see their loved ones in heaven.  But Reverend Jim said something along the lines of the idea that our satisfaction, our dependency, our need is Christ, and Christ alone.  He got some "amens" for that, and I understand why.  I'm so excited to just be with God.  To just be with God.

I typically disagree with something or another in any given sermon.  I find within myself a critical spirit and I haven't figured it good or bad yet.  But what I do know is that it's makes me discontent.  It makes feel alone in some of the things that I believe.  And feeling alone in that makes me feel wrong.  

But it was so refreshing to just be filled up by a sermon.  To love it.  And get excited by it.  And to not have my heart say, "Wait a minute..." once.  

LIONS and TIGERS and BEARS...

A few weekends ago, I visited the Great Cats of Indiana, a large cat sanctuary for neglected, abandoned, and unwanted felines of the, uhm, larger scale.  They have lions, tigers, cougars, pumas, a blank panther, bears, wolves... 

Uhm, where do I sign up?  

The sanctuary is a small piece of land out the back end of Indiana - Idaville.  Yeah, I had never heard of it before either.  They're always in need of donations and more food, and from the sound of it, sometimes have a hard time even feeding their cats.  

Yup.  Had to resist the urge to cuddle with this one : )

This is why he's the king of the jungle.  Oof.

Yup.  A pissed off lion running at me.  TG4 that fence!!

This cougar was declawed by its owner, making it impossible to groom.  See those dreds around its neck? Yeah, painful.

This is LSU's Tiger Mascot Mike's Mom.  Woah.

The playful one.  Playing games with the staff through the fence : )

Beauty.

Chucky.  HUGE lion.  Seriously - huge.

I wanna be a people person

Camp is officially planned!!  We as a staff have spent the last two weeks brainstorming, building, and organizing.  And let me tell ya - camp is going to ROCK and lives are going to be changed.  : )  I'm stoked.  We leave Sunday for our high school camp.

We have a devotion every day to start out right and on Thursday, we decided to try one of the quiet times that we had planned - "Java with Jesus."  Ha.  We went out to Caribou coffee (yum) and each split off to have some time just listening to the Lord.  The idea of this is to have a physical space where Jesus is sitting.  To make Him more real in your mind and to really focus on what He wants to say to you.  The handout includes different questions you can ask Jesus, my favorite being, "What do you think of me?"

So refreshing.  

At first, God just poured into me.  He's given me phrases in the past when I've needed encouragement.  Phrases that make me stop striving to be something when all I can be is myself.  

"Keep being you, for I made with hands of joy."

"Only the best deserves you."

Those things were just reiterated.  

I also felt how Christ was so utterly present with me.  If He had eyes (wait, does he?), they were on me the entire time.  But I could also feel myself getting distracted.  It happens easily and people intrigue me - I'm definitely a people watcher.  So I wasn't so present with Jesus.  It made me realize that I'm not as fully present with people as I'd like to be.  There are times I have a hard story just listening to people because I'm distracted by what's going on around us or by wondering who else is around.  Kinda sick, I know.  But if I'm passionate about something or someone, I have no problem just doing that thing or being with them.  Because I'm captivated.  

Basically - I want to change my own heart to be more passionate about people.  Even if I don't start a conversation or a chat very interested in someone, I believe that I can change my heart by really hearing what they're saying and taking an interest in that.  Ask questions.  Inquire.  Get excited.  Push myself to feel what they are feeling.  

After all, it's people that matter, right?

My big sigh of relief

So I've made a decision.  This fall I'll be going to University of Wisconsin Madison to study Zoology.  

Stoked.  

And it feels so good to have to definition!!  Things have been so up in the air these last few months.  My final three came down to UW-Madison, Ball State, and Colorado State.  It escalated until I had a stressful day in which I visited Ball State and my housing contract to Madison was to be postmarked.  Quick decision.  Let me tell you, it feels good to be on the other end.  

It feels like life is coming together.  Moving forward.  

Tennis

I have a good story.

There are a few of us in the Redeemer group who love tennis. We try to play whenever we can and now that Minnesota is finally getting warmer, we can actually make that happen. We played yesterday afternoon at a local park ... ahhh it was glorious. After a while, we noticed that we had an observer - six-year-old Jasmin. There were three of us with one extra racquet. Perfect? I think so. We invited her to play and she agreed right away.

Man, was she good! It was Jasmin's first time playing tennis and she was doing great! Without being told, she already has the cross court concept down. I was very impressed by her.

It seemed like the beginning of something great. This may be my own imagination and my tendency to dream big, but what if she makes it to Wimbledon? Seriously! The look on Jasmin's face as she hit the ball and the speed at which she was getting it? Maybe yesterday was a more momumental day than any of us thought. Even if she doesn't go pro, she already has the love of the game. So, maybe we'll just shoot for all-conference in high school :)

As we winded down, we decided to give her the extra racquet and a few balls so she could practice without us. I bent down to tell her that she could pick out 3 or 4 balls. "I can have four?" Her excitement was beyond words!

We hope to go to that park as many Sunday afternoons as we can in hopes of getting to play with Jasmin again.

Now moments like that are worth making.

The stuff my heart beats for

I love Wildlife. I LOVE exotic wildlife. I always have, but just recently started to believe that I can actually pursue work with wildlife. I'm realizing God's potential, and therefore my own. Who am I to think that I actually have to go at this alone? And who am I to not be great?

Needless to say, I'm excited for life. Scared. But excited.

Jas sent me a photo gallery of wildlife photos. Amazing. Check it out.

Nick Brandt Gallery