Between two worlds

I went downtown the other day dressed like this.  I wouldn't say this look is particularly "american" or "european" but probably somewhere in between.  The converses are less american than the many pair of other sneakers I have but the bright blue coat is not so very european.  Apparently I am completely wrong about what makes a look american or european for as I exited the Metro at DeBroukere a girl(woman actually-probably in her early 20's) essentially yelled at me, "Vous etes Americaine!"(you are american) and then looked at me and smiled and repeated it louder and with the affirmative nodding of her head.  I was so shocked -first that someone would make eye contact with a stranger on the Belgian metro but also that someone I didn't know would speak to me(maybe not so much to me as at me- but. . . )!  I simply nodded my head yes, gave her a quick smile(trying to hide the shocked look on my face) and ran up the stairs.

Seriously though- I am perfectly aware that I am 100% american.  As a matter of fact I am very capable of laughing at myself and my purely american sense of style.  But I was not aware that my outfits are so SHOCKINGLY american that perfect strangers in the metro feel it is their duty to shout it to everyone within earshot!

New year!

What a difference a year makes!

It's been a common theme in conversations recently.  Friends who were just beginning to date last year but are about to get married this year.  Kids who were babies last year but are now walking and talking.  People that we didn't even know last year who are now some of our intimate friends.
Some things change and some things stay the same and as one year ends and another begins it seems that is often on our minds.

What is the same, what has changed, and what would I like to change in the coming year?
I have often written about the fact that I don't always love change.  I am a lover of tradition and comfort and expectations being met.  I was in the States over christmas and I was on the phone with a good friend and we were talking about our holiday plans/activities.  As I went through the long list of "Hunsberger traditions" she said- "yeah I can see you loving traditions."

It got me thinking- why?  when my life is SO often crazy and change seems around every corner why am I a lover of tradition?  I think that is exactly why i love tradition.  My life IS crazy.  From one year to the next i never seem to be sure of where I will be living or what I will be doing.  I can not often count on even being able to communicate with people when I walk outside my door.  I think that is the very reason that when I go to the States I LOVE to have traditions.  Things I can count on.  Things that are comfortable and easy.  Times with people who I don't even need to talk to in order to communicate.

visited some friends in NYC(Rockefeller center)

Wanda and I on Christmas eve

3 of the sisters with our hangers and bags

the "BIGS" with their stockings

the "littles" with their trucks and shopping cart

settling in for Christmas eve sleepover

cousins together for the first time in a LONG time

Brothers and their toys

Duct tape creations were all the rage:)

watching wanda set off fireworks

our annual puzzle!

Christmas Uno

Days off

I don't know why but I have a hard time letting my brain turn off.  It's always been a problem.  Perhaps not so much a problem(it's probably why I've always done so well in school and in sports), maybe more of a nuisance.  It's like that piece of skin your tongue finds on the inside of your mouth and you just can't stop biting at it until the whole of your cheek is messed up.  I am that way with just about every thought that comes into my head.  I play it out in every scenario possible, seeing every angle, every possible combination of results.
It's one of the reasons why when there is a school holiday i try to get away.  It seems to be the best way for me to turn my mind from work related things to others.
Well as I said in my previous post I was just too tired to head out even for a few days this holiday so I am staying put.  Starting tomorrow I will be staying with 4 boys while their parents go back to the states.  They are great kids but I am gonna be honest and say it's probably going to get a little crazy over at the Lane house soon:)  so I wanted to enjoy my 2 days here in Brussels where I did not have to do anything work related.
My normal work schedule is a little crazy so it doesn't always mesh up with many of my friends schedules.  As a matter of fact seeing my friends sometimes involves putting it on the calendar a good month in advance!  I know it's crazy!  So yesterday I took advantage of my freed up schedule and spent a few quality hours with Jenna and baby Olivia(who is now 1 and not so much a baby).  It was so fun seeing Jenna and getting lots of cuddles from Olivia-she often looks at me like I am crazy but she is willing to give me hugs and those pats on the back that toddlers do best!!
Today I had no plans and the weather was alternating between raining and being sunny.  So i decided to go to a cafe that a friend had told me about.  They have free wifi(not as much of a given as in the states) and lots of food, drinks and comfy chairs. I took the tram there so I wouldn't have to find parking and I arrived amidst an influx of people.  I looked around a bit discouraged that all of the comfy seats were taken and I might have to sit on one of the not so comfy wooden chairs.  But i plowed on and ordered my fresh mint tea(yummy) and walked over to 2 men who were sitting with 2 empty comfy chairs.  And as you do in Belgium I asked if I could sit in one of the empty chairs(I may have even been a little too excited and asked in English instead of french but lucky for me A-they understood what I was asking and B-they weren't even speaking french!)
I proceeded to spend the next 2 or so hours oscillating between reading/doing my Bible study and people watching.  Brussels is such a mixture of culture and language.  It is always fun to sit in a public place and listen to the many different language(today I heard english, french, polish(i think), german and swedish)
It was a great day and a reminder of some of the many reasons I love this city

breaks and exhaustion

Breaks . . .
For all of my life (that I can remember) my year has followed that of a school calendar.  First as a student, then as a teacher and now as someone who works with students.  Those school calendars have months of intensity which lead up to a week or two of break.  Today marks the first day of Fall break here in Brussels.  For a brief moment I thought of going on an adventure to visit some friends in Luxembourg and then Germany but I have decided that both my mind and my body need a little break from running and so I will be spending the next week in Brussels while most of my friends and the kids I work with have headed out all over the world for their first real break of the school year.
exhaustion . . .
Thursday night at about 6pm I started to wonder if it was too early to go to bed.  I didn't want to eat or even watch tv.  I just wanted to sleep.  But I knew that if I went to bed at 6pm I would probably wake up at 2am and be wide awake.  So I made it until about 9pm and off it went to bed.  This semester has been amazing and I am just coming off a 10 day visit from my parents which meant lots of new adventures and exploring!  All of that, however, has led me to be really tired.
So this week I am looking forward to sleeping in, cooking good food, catching up with friends I haven't gotten to spend quality time with, and just re-booting!

summer 2012

So for some reason this morning I was laying in bed thinking about dreams.  Not the dreams you have at night but the hopes and bucket list type dreams.  It may have had something to do with the fact that some former Young life friends stopped over for dinner and a late night out on the terrace last night.  The conversation went to jobs-since they are all college students with the type of jobs that will make them a bit of money but they are not what they want to do for the rest of their lives.  I was recalling my days of working at Shelly's back in high school and college where I could not imagine doing that for the rest of my life.  I would sit there answering phones or marking off items that had been received thinking about what I wanted to do in the future.  The world was wide open.  I was young.  I was supposed to have dreams and ideas for the future.  

Somewhere along the line though people are expected to "settle down."  Their time for dreaming is over and they are expected to get a job and get a house and LIVE life like everyone else.

These are the thoughts that were floating through my head this morning.  And then I said a BIG "THANK YOU" to God because that is not the life He calls us to.  That is not the life He has given me.  He does not call us to forget about dreaming.  He does not call is to settle into so-called life and just keep going following the crowd.  He calls us to BIG dreams and to true LIFE.  He calls us to ADVENTURE and CHANGE.  Now all of that looks different to different people because I have met some people to whom adventure means leaving their state and I have met other people to whom adventure means going into the inner city or to others it is going to China to teach english but I believe God calls all of us to a life OUTSIDE of ourselves.  A life where God is evident because it would not be possible without Him.  I was reading in 1 Corinthians today and it says in vs 17, "for Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."  It got me thinking that I want to live a life that shows God's power-not empties it.

Ephesians 3:14-21 speaks about how wide and long and high and deep Christ's love for us is.  It is beyond anything we can ask or imagine.  He is in complete control and He wants great things for me and for you!  I just need to remember that-and that is what I am often not very good at!

This summer was a summer of adventure.  

It began right after school ended with a bus trip to Italy with about 40 High school and middle school friends.  The way there was QUITE an adventure that included breaking down on the side of the road for about 5 hours and then making our way to a rest stop to spend another 7 hours waiting for our bus to get fixed.  Once we arrived in Italy we had an amazing week of exploring Pisa and the Cinque Terre and getting to hear about and talk about the life giving love of Christ.

From Italy I headed to the states to visit family and friends.  The first week back I went to the shore with my whole family and we had an amazing week of laughter and fun.  It is so great to be together every summer!  I've said it before and I'll say it again- I have the best(though sometimes craziest) family in the world!  The next 2 weeks I got to spend with friends and family.  It was incredibly life giving to me after a crazy but awesome year of ministry.

Me with my nephews Devon(14) and Tyler(16).  Obviously they know how to grow!

Mom and the girls- we are lined up by age but I won't tell you our age- Just that wanda is a full 10 years older than me:)

the little ones got balloons!

Then I headed back to Brussels to be in a wedding of a friend and volunteer leader, Said.  You probably remember me mentioning him several times in these updates.  He met his wife Katie on our service project back in 2011 and now they are beginning life together in Brussels.  So as you can see-we not only tell kids about Christ but we are also a great matchmaking service:)

Right after the wedding I drove to England to fulfill a lifelong dream of going to the Olympics.  I have always been obsessed with the idea of representing my country in the olympics.  I have always wanted to go and be a part of such an amazing thing.  Now I can dream but I still have not figured out what I could be good enough at to make the olympic team but I decided going and representing as a fan would do for now!

My first event was the women's soccer- USA vs Canada.  If you watched the game at all you know it was one for the history books and being there live was amazing.  I had spent much of my time in the states finding any and all USA/flag things to wear so I could go all out in supporting teams USA.  Needless to say I believe will be in more scrap books than any athlete:)  People from India, Israel, USA, UK, canada, etc all took my picture:)  I even got featured on the USA Today website- here is the picture.  It is me and my high school friend Macey-I was sitting with some good friends, the Mcdowell's from Atlanta, which made it even more fun!

this was the crew on the way up to Manchester-it was about a 4 hr drive each way-well worth it!

after the game the were saying thank you to the fans

 Off to see women's basketball

 watching some cycling in olympic par

at the P&G house 

 The cool cab in the P&G house- there was no seat but I made it work:)

 you could take green screen pics but it was closed so we took our own

 women's wrestling- ask me about it some time.

 me and some friends at the gold medal game

 walking around London was just plain cool!

  It was an incredible week!  I think I am still on the high:)

security

Since we got back from our service project in Greece I have been meeting weekly with a group of amazing high school girls.  Seriously- they are the most amazing young ladies and I am so blessed to know them and be able to share my life with them and I am thrilled to know that they also have each other to live life along side of!
We have been talking about insecurity.  I think it's something we ALL struggle with.  Maybe we think once we are out of high school it will end?  Or maybe when we are out of college?  Or when we get our first job?  or get married? or buy our first house?  The reality is that unless we find our security in something other than these things we will NEVER be secure.  Because degrees and jobs and spouses will always let us down.  They are like shifting ground and if I am trying to find my security in them I will fall.  I need to find my security in something that doesn't move or change.  The only thing I can imagine that will never change is God.  That is what we have been looking at these last few weeks.  Finding our security in the arms of a loving God.  Though other things may come and go.  They may fail me and let me down.  they may cause me to FEAR rejection or failure.  but finding my security in Christ's love gives me FREEDOM.  You may know one of my favorite verses is from 1 John 4:18- "There is no fear in love.  But perfect live drives out fear"
I was in Spain a few weeks ago for our Young Life regional conference and one of the speakers was talking about a time when he realized that his beliefs about God being good were being tested and as they were put through the fire the "dross" was being brought to the surface and his true thoughts about who God was were being brought to the surface.  And those thoughts were not what he thought-the reality was that he didn't believe God was good because if he did he would act differently.
As we have been talking about insecurity/security the dross of my thoughts about life and God have been brought to the surface.  I am realizing that I often look for my security in things other than God and then I get frustrated because they fail.  When I look for my security in other things I FEAR.  I fear failure, rejection, disappointment.  And often those fears keep me from doing things or pursuing relationships.  So this week I am trying to fill me thoughts with the TRUTH of God and His control of all things and I am trying to get rid of the lies that the world often tells me about finding my security in passing things.

Just a fun pic from my time in Spain.  This is the Young Life Madrid crew and me-I am an honorary member since I have been to more of THEIR staff meetings than my own(joke-I am the only one on staff in BXL so I don't have staff meetings-in case you didn't get that)

lots of photos

Over February break I headed to Spain to meet with my new Regional director and to hang out with friends for a few days! Emily and I went to Toledo for the day!

We went to a "hipster" party-I think we did a pretty darn good job with our costumes:)

Fiona came into Brussels for a day and Jenna and I met her downtown for lunch.

A few weeks later Jenna and I drove to Luxembourg for the day to visit Fiona- here they are looking out over the beautiful city

This past week Celine got hitched. This is us after the civil wedding-she was legally married but still had the church wedding to go:)

And now she is OFFICIALLY married-big wedding and all:)

Met these awesome ladies at the bachelorette party where we got to experience the magic of pole dancing-it was hysterical!!:) and continued the party at the wedding!

Young Life Bulgaria reunion at the wedding:)

Another sweet friend whom i met a few years back in Ghent-we got to party it up on the dance floor.