Obedience

Lately I have been facing the challenge of wondering what the heck I am doing and why I am doing it? I mean there are days when I get an absolute rush out of doing what I get to do but there are many days when I ask the question-what in the world am I doing? I mean why me? why here? why alone? It’s so easy to look at other people in other places who have teams, spouses, roomates . . . and question what is God doing in, with and through me. Why am I going at this seemingly alone when that is the LAST way I want to go after anything.

What I have been learning is that God is calling me to obedience. He is calling me to be faithful in what He has set before me to do. Though there are days and even weeks when all i want to do is run “home” to the States, or to some other place where life seems easier-I know that God has called me to Brussels to live here and love people here. Every day that is a challenge for me. Every day that involves choosing to do things that go against everything in my flesh.

I was at the gym yesterday (on the stair stepper-oh yeah!) and I was listening to a message. The guy asked the question- if you could choose would you choose to A) have an easy year- one where everything seemed to go your way. You and everyone you loved stayed healthy, you met the man of your dreams and got married, you loved your job, etc. But at the end of that year you were the same person. You hadn’t grown at all in your relationship with Christ. or B) have a year with a lot of challenges, where things didn’t go your way, where you struggled with being alone, with having days where you hate your job but at the end of that year you were closer to God and knew Him in ways you had never thought about-- WHICH would you choose?

In that moment-i chose A. I mean -Haven’t I had enough challenges? Don’t I deserve to be able to come up for a breath without feeling like I just went for a long dive? Isn’t it best for me to be part of a team? I could really use all of that right now. BUT then the reality of that choice set in with me-IS THAT really best for me? or does God have different plans for me. Does He want to use those challenges to CHANGE me and make me more like HIM. Sometimes i am sick of changing. Tired of change-it’s exhausting. I just want some constant in my life. I deserve some constant in my life.

And then I am reminded-God is my constant. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is just as powerful, just as loving, just as present as He has ever been. And he is calling me to be obedient to HIM. Obedient even when that’s the last thing I want to do. When I can’t even fathom what is going on.

And God promises so much in return

John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

LIFE-that’s what he promises! LIFE! Life beyond what I can imagine or fathom. REAL life-not the “perfect” life I imagine but the life that God gives. The life that comes from knowing him and serving him. Life that is ETERNAL.

WOW-I still have so much to learn but I am grateful that God continues to speak to me and still loves me when i am not so obedient and continues to pursue me with an undying and unconditional LOVE when I turn my back on Him.

Fall fun

Thanksgiving is always a little different overseas. For one thing-no one has off on the Thursday or Friday so it is hard to do a meal on the Thursday. SO this year we went with Friday night-that way we did not have to rush or gorging on food! One nice thing about Brussels is that I was able to get everything I needed for a traditional Thanksgiving feast. One problem is that apartment fills us at about 6 and we were planning on 12 AND i do not have a real oven-just a toaster oven so that would make it impossible to cook a turkey! So we had the feast at my friend's Fiona and Rasmus. They have an amazing flat with lots of space and a huge table.

I went over about 12:30 and began the preparations. Fiona had already begun the decorations and they were gorgeous. We spent the afternoon, baking, cooking, chatting, looking at wedding photos! It was a fun afternoon. Then around 6:45 the guests started arriving. It was an interesting mix-of the 12 only 3 were america, and only 1 other had ever had thanksgiving. So it was fun to introduce them to the feast!! By the end everyone could barely move and had begun to sink into their turkey induced comas! here we are at the gorgeous table.

One of my favorite things about europe and Brussels are the Chrsitmas markets. Every year on the first week of advent the markets open up all over. Brussels has a really fun market with an ice skating rink and ferris wheel. So for part of church on Sunday our group decided to go ice skating. Here I am on the crowded rink. They do not have zambonies(not sure how to spell that) so the ice gets REALLY bad which makes it a fun challenge to stay on your feet:)

Here is a picture of the rink with the wheel in the back- and the market stalls are all around the rink. Again- anybody wanna come for a visit?:)

family comes to visita

Yes!! Mom, Dad, Wanda and Tori came for a 10 day visit this month!! Here they are as I found them when I got to the airport. Do you think they brought enough bags? most of them were for me!!:) I made the limo sign but they were already out when I got there.

We did a lot of traveling while they were here-on Sunday we went to Amsterdam to see Anne Frank's house, the canals and I think their favorite thing was the grocery store where they bought lots of stroop wafels and black licorice!

On Tuesday we went to a little town in Germany called Monschau. The joke the whole time we were there was that we were in Disney World. Euro's even began to be called Disney Dollars:) here we are in a cute little tea place where dad had the best Apple Streudel and we sang a few lines from Sound of Music:)

Friday we went to Paris overnight. The first thing we did upon arriving was to find the most amazing Fallafel place ever!! it was SO good we tried to go back the next day(saturday) but since it was in the Jewish Quarter it was closed. Glad we got it when we did-yummy!

Saturday we walked from the Louvre to the Arch de Triomphe-which has become a kind of tradition for when we go to Paris(isn't it nice to have traditions in Paris!!) Here are Mom and I on top of the Arch with the Eiffel tower in the back.

We also found this amazing cafe- thanks to the rick steeves book that Emi had given us- thanks Emi! We sat there for a while and enjoyed everything from our Croque monsieur's to our amazing ice cream desserts!

We finished off the trip with a day into brussels to get those last minute treats-waffles, frites, chocolates-yummy! here I am outside my apartment.

And now they have all left and my apartment is too quite so it is waiting for the next visitors-any takers??!!

Hen party in de Haan

So I have lived in Belgium for almost 2 years now but have never been to the coast.  I had heard wonderful things about "boardwalks, bikes, shops, sand" but had never experienced it for myself.  Well since my dear friend Fiona is getting married in 4 weeks time some of us decided to throw her a "hen party"- what is a hen party?  good question- it is the British version of a bachelorette party.  Usually you see them walking around town, wearing pink shirts with the soon to be brides picture on it, making her do crazy things.  Our hen party was a little more subdued.  Fiona had a meeting on Saturday morning so we didn't leave until about 1:30-when we headed to the coast.   That Fiona and I in the front and sarah and Christie in the back!

 We got there around 3, found a place to park and then hunted down the sand-it didn't take long to find- it was like 1 1/2 blocks away:)  we had packed a picnic lunch and so we laid our blankets on the sand and proceeded to dig in.  The only problem was that it was a bit windy but that did not stop us from enjoying the gorgeous sunshine! 

After we ate we went down to the water and stuck our feet in the water expecting it to be freezing cold- we were pleasantly surprised to find it actually warm!  

When our hair was sufficiently wind blown we headed off the beach in search of restrooms and a cafe for a hot drink.  We sat in a cafe and Fiona shared the stories of her past relationships(her frogs before the prince).  Then we walked a bit more down the boardwalk(not so much "board"walk as cement walk)  A kind random Flemish person took out picture.

Sarah- "walk in slow motion so I can get your pciture"

Us- "ok"

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Christie, me and Sarah

before we headed back to my place where we had a wonderful spread of baked goods, cheeses, hummus, chips and drinks!  We watched Father of the Bride(very appropriate), opened gifts, and tried to keep Christie awake:)  This was probably one of my favorite days in Belgium so far!

Grace and Wyldlife camp

As I ran/walked this morning in the forest near my flat I felt the worries, excitement, and details of the coming semester wash over me full force.  The overwhelming feeling that I got was one of heaviness.  The thought of being on staff here ALONE, of having to make ALL of the decisions, of feeling responsible for keeping up SO many relationships, of needing to raise A LOT of money to stay, of NOT being capable of any of the above-that is kind of how my thoughts roamed for a little bit.  Then it struck me- where am I putting God in all of this.  I am so quick to take responsibility for everything-which some might say is a good thing but in reality I am holding onto things that are not even mine to hold onto.  I am taking responsibility for things that God already has under control, for things he wants to take care of for me.  This led my thoughts to the word GRACE.  In my life it is something I am very free to hand out to others but I am not as willing to accept it. How often do I live outside of grace?  not because it is not available but because I CHOOSE to not to accept it.  So as I begin another school year in Brussels I am praying to live in the freedom of grace!

In other news:)  We went to Wyldlife camp last week and had such a great time.  Bonnie, a girl from Atlanta(woot! woot!) came along to check out Younglife in Brussels and to help.  Here is our group on dodgeball day-we were in England so we thought it appropriate to be Bobbies:)

 

Here we are after a water and flour fight the next day- I know it's hard to see but I DO have flour all over me- and all in my ear-it took a while to get it out!

The object of the game here was to put as many clothespins on the guys face as possible-We won!! 

Travel, visits, odd and ends

Yes-it has been a while but you are about to see why- I have been off working, traveling, visiting friends and family and all in all just living the crazy life I tend to live!
So first summer stop was Club Malibu- YoungLife's camp in British Columbia, Canada. It was awesome and here are a few pics of our head leader team. The first is us all smooshed into the "info booth." This is the place where at least one of us had to be for many hours each night in order to keep campers in camp- fun times!! The next is our version of the "family portrait" awkward style:)


After camp it was off the Seattle for a few days. My family was in Chicago for a family reunion so I needed to kill a few days til someone was in PA to pick me up from the airport. I got to hang out with Hannah-who was the hostess with the mostess and can get you around seattle like nobodies business!! Here are pics to prove I was there-first the space needle and then Julio, Hannah and I at Gasworks-cool story- when we had been in town earlier we had seen these people running with amazing race envelopes. And we were like- how cool they must be doing a local amazing race. So then we were out by gasworks later and right after we took this pic of us this team comes running towards us with the same envelopes but they had a different colored bandanas. And they were finishing the race-so we cheered them on!! and then talked to them of course. It was a church group and they had been doing it for like 5 days- all over the seattle area-and we were at the finish-pretty cool!

And what would summer be without a trip to the Shore?!!! So off we went at 6am on the 4th of July for a week of fun at the shore. The sisters got hardcore when the firemen gave us plastic hats-no one's messin' with us!

Here we are waiting outside Luigi's.

And some of us before the fireworks on the beach.

After I got back to Belgium my friend Matt came for a visit and we went off to Ireland to visit our friend Emma- here we are in Northern Ireland-rainy just the way it should be in Ireland!

Here are Matt and I at Giant's Causeway- Emma even told us the Irish tale of how it was created by the Giant Finn McCool! I mean how much better can you get-hearing the tale from an Irish lady, in an Irish accent, at the actual Causeway!

And then some of the reasons why it's great to be in Brussels in the summer. Were were sitting in Leuven and these "trash" costumes started walking around. And they would do crazy things. Like here they are standing in front of this truck so he can not get by. They then proceded to lie down in front of the truck and he ended up backing up and going the other way. Then they would walk up to people and lean on them while they walked and not let them go. One lady sat down and the soda can continued to lean over her shoulder. I don't know if they said anything but they were surely entertaining to those of us whom they weren't bothering! The one I didn't get a picture of was the cigarette butt!

Matt and I were out for a walk one night and we saw this coming down the path. A guy on a bicycle with a sofa hitched on the back and a guy sitting on the sofa. They were not out for a joy ride- but were moving furniture instead- it looked like hard work!(for the guy pedaling at least!)

The first video is from the Brussels Jazz Marathon. This was the stage on the Grand Place. I was sitting there and this lady was getting set up when a fairly drunk guy asked her to sing Amazing Grace and she sang a few bars- who'd have thought- in europe?!

This ones from National day in Brussels- I was with a bunch of friends and we got pitas and were sitting on the Grand Place near these (Again) pretty drunk people when this bagpiper man came by and they asked him to play. Well of course a crowd gathered and we ended up in the middle of them!

This is in Leuven- Matt and I were sitting at a cafe having a tea-you just never know what you're going to get in Belgium!

Daughter of a Farmer

On more than one occasion I have been told, "you are the smartest person I know." I find this slightly scary- 1-because I don't feel all that intelligent. I mean high school and college were easy for me but that is thanks to a very good memory and NOT anything I ever did and 2-If I am the smartest person they know I think we are all in trouble cuz there's a LOT I don't know.
My friend Janet is one of those people who has been awed and amazed by my knowledge:) on more than one occasion. So one day she asked me why I know so much(mostly about pretty random stuff) and I told her it's because my dad was a farmer. I mean farmers have to know a LOT of stuff. They have to know math-so they can run their business. They have to know all kinds of sciences so they can grow whatever it is they are growing. They have to be historians- so they know when to plant things or do certain things. I think the biggest thing though is they have to be good engineers because something is always breaking down and there isn't money to buy a new one or have someone else fix it.
I think I have inherited this last trait from my parents- this idea that if you can fix it yourself you don't throw it away-even if every other person on the planet would! Take for instance my computer. It is something I use pretty much every day for work. Not that I love the computer-it is just a necessary evil. So my computer has been having problems for about 1 1/2 years now. It is super slow and if you are impatient and hit more than one button at a time it will totally freeze up and requires trying to get it to shut down in order to wait the 10 minutes it will take to reboot! I have had Mike, my bro-in-law, wipe it clean and reinstall everything twice. Then while we were away in Macedonia it decided it had enough and died again. So I set out to make things right and did my own reinstall(luckily I had seen the writing on the wall in March and backed up all my documents!). My boss Paul- has been laughing at me for the past few weeks- telling me to let it die-to take it out back and shoot it if I need to:) But I am confident that it will last at least until I come to the states for the summer!
So the other day I noticed that my watch band was starting to crack(it is made out of this plastic stuff) and i thought- oh no! I love this watch and I don't want to have to buy a new one. Then the little strap thing that you put the band in once it is through the latch ripped off on Saturday. Now most of you would -as Paul says-let that watch die -but NOT me! I went to the hardware store and bought some electrical tape.
So I showed up at the office today with my 2 different colors of electrical tape(the packet came with 3 colors but I didn't think red would go with the orange band). And I asked Paul which color he thought would go best for fixing it-white or black. His response was- what are you using it for? And when I told him my master plan of restoring my orange watchband to mint condition with black electrical tape he just laughed and said- you are the daughter of a farmer:) and I love it-I am and I am proud of it!!