I've been thinking a lot lately about faith. Faith is such a powerful feeling and it's instilled in all of us, whether or not we believe in God. However, the fact that I have faith is what lets me know that there is a God. It is another beautiful aspect of humanity that proves we have a loving creator.
I have had to utilize my faith throughout my life on many occasions.
When I held my little one-week-old baby girl while she was crying and I was taking a final that my professor allowed me to take late because I was giving birth to her shortly before the day of the actual final; I had faith that if I continued to work hard, I would finish my degree someday and get to do what I really wanted to do in life. Even though I knew I would have to complete school as a single, working mother.
When I learned that my baby boy inherited the eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa, that runs in my family; I had faith (and continue to have faith) that he will still get to grow up and have as much of a fulfilling life as anyone else, regardless of whether he loses his vision completely.
When I knew that my husband could not work in his job any longer due to aspects out of our control, and when I realized our family needed a change, I had faith that if I made a sacrifice for him and our family, and moved our family across the U.S., that we could have a good life and God would still help me reach my goals.
The (true) story that really inspired me to write this post was reading about Noah this week. Did you know that it took him 120 years to build the ark?! 120 YEARS! Before he built it, there had been NO rain. EVER. Yet, God told him to do it, so he had faith that God would fulfill his promise, and he built a huge boat to prepare for flooding. If Noah can have such faith, I can too. Even if it takes a lifetime, I know that God will fulfill his promises to me.
I will continue to have faith.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
The Call: Part 3 (Africa)
So I've been putting off writing this post because I feel overwhelmed with emotion when I think about my trip to Africa. I was 17 at the time, and I had a head full of beliefs about life and my religion, and I thought I knew pretty much everything there was to know. This trip changed that mindset.
First, I must tell you that, since I was a young child, I had envisioned traveling to Africa. For some strange reason, I knew that I would be going there someday. I used to even draw pictures of what it might look like. I must have been reeled in by those Save the Children commercials at some point. I was definitely a sensitive kid.
The opportunity came about when I heard that an organization my parents were involved with called Good Samaritan Ministries (a world-wide non-profit counseling agency) was taking a trip to Uganda. The second I heard about it, I told my parents I was going on that trip. They initially smiled and said "ok honey" and kept it moving. After I said this repeatedly for about a month, my step-dad called the group and inquired for me. The crazy thing is that they were specifically looking for a teenager to take with them! When I heard that, I knew that God had specifically planned for me to go on that trip. Just like my other mission trips, the money was raised miraculously for me to be able to go.
I will never forget the moment I stepped onto the pavement at the airport in Uganda. It felt like a miracle occurred that I had waited my whole life for.
Throughout the trip, we traveled around Uganda and Kenya. We visited widows and orphans and brought them food and medical supplies. I played soccer (they call it football, which makes more sense) with lots of children, I sang songs and danced, and I helped teach social skill lessons, such as relationships/sex education.
I also washed my clothes in buckets, accidently ate one of my contacts, and I lost my luggage for two weeks, so I had to wear my friend's long dresses that didn't really fit me. I bought beautiful African art work that I still have. I picked coffee beans off trees and saw monkeys swinging from trees down a main highway. I went to the zoo and saw a huge hole in a lion's cage. I'm still not sure what was going on with that but it was crazy to see!
Adding to the plethora of experiences I had while there, I also got infected with malaria. Despite taking all of the precautionary measures, I still became infected. I think it was because I stayed the night with the little girls during the last night of camp and my mosquito netting was not properly placed. They had begged me to stay and every other night I had been going back to the apartment we were staying at for safety and so that I could have proper netting. Having malaria is like having the worst flu of your life. I knew I wasn't going to die, but I certainly felt like I was going to.
With all of the craziness, this trip was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. This is where I learned first hand that true religion is serving the widows and orphans.
It's about getting dirty by building a house made of red mud bricks for a woman who lost her husband to disease and who has to raise five children by herself. It's about playing a game of soccer with 20 kids that were all orphaned by AIDS.
It's also about lending some money to a friend during a hard time in her life. It's about driving a friend to work while her car is broken down. It's about spending real, quality time with your children that doesn't involve a screen of some sort. It's about spending time with someone else's child that doesn't have enough adults to look up to.
This is what Jesus is all about. I hope all of my family and friends get to meet the real Jesus someday and before that time comes, I want to show him to everybody. I'm going to fail at it sometimes, because I'm imperfect, but I'm going to try my very best. Not by what I say, but by what I do.
First, I must tell you that, since I was a young child, I had envisioned traveling to Africa. For some strange reason, I knew that I would be going there someday. I used to even draw pictures of what it might look like. I must have been reeled in by those Save the Children commercials at some point. I was definitely a sensitive kid.
The opportunity came about when I heard that an organization my parents were involved with called Good Samaritan Ministries (a world-wide non-profit counseling agency) was taking a trip to Uganda. The second I heard about it, I told my parents I was going on that trip. They initially smiled and said "ok honey" and kept it moving. After I said this repeatedly for about a month, my step-dad called the group and inquired for me. The crazy thing is that they were specifically looking for a teenager to take with them! When I heard that, I knew that God had specifically planned for me to go on that trip. Just like my other mission trips, the money was raised miraculously for me to be able to go.
I will never forget the moment I stepped onto the pavement at the airport in Uganda. It felt like a miracle occurred that I had waited my whole life for.
Throughout the trip, we traveled around Uganda and Kenya. We visited widows and orphans and brought them food and medical supplies. I played soccer (they call it football, which makes more sense) with lots of children, I sang songs and danced, and I helped teach social skill lessons, such as relationships/sex education.
I also washed my clothes in buckets, accidently ate one of my contacts, and I lost my luggage for two weeks, so I had to wear my friend's long dresses that didn't really fit me. I bought beautiful African art work that I still have. I picked coffee beans off trees and saw monkeys swinging from trees down a main highway. I went to the zoo and saw a huge hole in a lion's cage. I'm still not sure what was going on with that but it was crazy to see!
Adding to the plethora of experiences I had while there, I also got infected with malaria. Despite taking all of the precautionary measures, I still became infected. I think it was because I stayed the night with the little girls during the last night of camp and my mosquito netting was not properly placed. They had begged me to stay and every other night I had been going back to the apartment we were staying at for safety and so that I could have proper netting. Having malaria is like having the worst flu of your life. I knew I wasn't going to die, but I certainly felt like I was going to.
With all of the craziness, this trip was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. This is where I learned first hand that true religion is serving the widows and orphans.
Although it feels good to do, Christianity is not dressing up in your Sunday best and heading to a brick building every week.
It's about getting dirty by building a house made of red mud bricks for a woman who lost her husband to disease and who has to raise five children by herself. It's about playing a game of soccer with 20 kids that were all orphaned by AIDS.
It's also about lending some money to a friend during a hard time in her life. It's about driving a friend to work while her car is broken down. It's about spending real, quality time with your children that doesn't involve a screen of some sort. It's about spending time with someone else's child that doesn't have enough adults to look up to.
This is what Jesus is all about. I hope all of my family and friends get to meet the real Jesus someday and before that time comes, I want to show him to everybody. I'm going to fail at it sometimes, because I'm imperfect, but I'm going to try my very best. Not by what I say, but by what I do.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
The Call: Part 2
As stated in my last entry, I had the amazing opportunity to go on mission trips as a child. When I was 12, I traveled with a group called King's Kids, which was a dance/worship team through a wonderful organization called Youth With A Mission.
Now that I am an adult with children and have regular expenses, I can really see what a miracle it was that my mom made it possible for me to go on that trip. We were 'American poor' at that time; meaning, we were not third world country poor, but we were still broke. It seems that we didn't even have a regular pay check to live month to month by. My mom was dating a man (who is now my step-dad), but she had spent the last two years prior to that financially struggling through single motherhood.
When I heard about the trip, I knew it would take a miracle to be able to go, but I knew that God would provide. After a car wash (or two), a soda can drive, and some donations from family and friends, the money was raised!
On this trip, my team traveled to Spain, Latvia, and Denmark. Here are some memories from this trip in no particular numerical significance or order (now, remember, I was 12 at the time, so these are the things that were important in my 12 year-old brain):
1. Some women in foreign countries do not shave their armpits.
2. It's impossible for many people to drive slowly overseas. If you want to cross the street as a pedestrian, you better run.
3. A Happy Meal in Denmark is outrageously priced, and chewing tobacco and ice cream made that country significantly wealthy.
4. Eel is tasty (a meal we had in Latvia).
5. The Baltic ocean coastline is beautiful!! It looks very much like the Oregon coast.
6. Cobblestone streets are amazing but your feet will be severely sore after walking on them for a day.
7. Toilet paper can be blue and it is the consistency of sandpaper everywhere else but America. God bless the U.S.A.
8. Some people still do not have bathrooms with running water that are attached to their houses (i.e. many people still use outhouses).
Of course, these are observations that are not necessarily the gospel truth for everyone, but for some reason, my brain held onto these memories that were true for me at the time.
All jokes aside, the experience that really touched my life on that trip was visiting an orphanage. I will never forget seeing the rooms full of babies and toddlers that were lying in cribs and waiting for someone to pick them up. Many of them had decided to give up on crying, because that form of communication was of no use. There were too many babies for the workers to care for, so it was impossible to hold each baby when he cried.
This was the first time in my life that I really focused on someone other than myself. It was the first time that I took on a world view. I knew that I had been through my own abuse as a young child, but in comparison, this seemed much worse.
At 12 years old, I knew I had to grow up to make a big impact, but I also knew that someday I would. I couldn't let those babies down.
Now that I am an adult with children and have regular expenses, I can really see what a miracle it was that my mom made it possible for me to go on that trip. We were 'American poor' at that time; meaning, we were not third world country poor, but we were still broke. It seems that we didn't even have a regular pay check to live month to month by. My mom was dating a man (who is now my step-dad), but she had spent the last two years prior to that financially struggling through single motherhood.
When I heard about the trip, I knew it would take a miracle to be able to go, but I knew that God would provide. After a car wash (or two), a soda can drive, and some donations from family and friends, the money was raised!
On this trip, my team traveled to Spain, Latvia, and Denmark. Here are some memories from this trip in no particular numerical significance or order (now, remember, I was 12 at the time, so these are the things that were important in my 12 year-old brain):
1. Some women in foreign countries do not shave their armpits.
2. It's impossible for many people to drive slowly overseas. If you want to cross the street as a pedestrian, you better run.
3. A Happy Meal in Denmark is outrageously priced, and chewing tobacco and ice cream made that country significantly wealthy.
4. Eel is tasty (a meal we had in Latvia).
5. The Baltic ocean coastline is beautiful!! It looks very much like the Oregon coast.
6. Cobblestone streets are amazing but your feet will be severely sore after walking on them for a day.
7. Toilet paper can be blue and it is the consistency of sandpaper everywhere else but America. God bless the U.S.A.
8. Some people still do not have bathrooms with running water that are attached to their houses (i.e. many people still use outhouses).
Of course, these are observations that are not necessarily the gospel truth for everyone, but for some reason, my brain held onto these memories that were true for me at the time.
All jokes aside, the experience that really touched my life on that trip was visiting an orphanage. I will never forget seeing the rooms full of babies and toddlers that were lying in cribs and waiting for someone to pick them up. Many of them had decided to give up on crying, because that form of communication was of no use. There were too many babies for the workers to care for, so it was impossible to hold each baby when he cried.
This was the first time in my life that I really focused on someone other than myself. It was the first time that I took on a world view. I knew that I had been through my own abuse as a young child, but in comparison, this seemed much worse.
At 12 years old, I knew I had to grow up to make a big impact, but I also knew that someday I would. I couldn't let those babies down.
Monday, September 2, 2013
The Call
I have been inundated recently with the concept of 'destiny'. For the last year (or so) I have been questioning the reason for my existence in terms of wondering what exactly am I supposed to be doing with my time here in this world. First and foremost, I was meant to be Mose's wife. Secondly, I was meant to be a mother to Harmony and Mose V. Aside from that, I often wonder if I am truly doing what I have been called to do with my life.
One thing I do know is that we are ALL called and pre-destined according to the purpose of his will (Eph. 1:11). In addition, we were all created in order to do good works, which God outlined for us before we were even born (Eph. 2:10).
However, with the free will that we have been given, we have been given the choice to decide to walk in that purpose.
Part of my purpose was shown to me when I was a child. I had the privilege of going on missions trips when I was 12 and 17. Both trips were funded by donations by family members and friends, by soda can drives and carwashes, and the trip when I was a teenager was even made possible by extra tips given to me when I was working as a server at the Golden Corral. It was a miracle on each occasion that I was even able to go on the trip, since my family certainly did not have the money for me to go. Both trips opened my eyes to the world in a huge way and they both changed my life forever.
My next two posts will be about these trips, since they each deserve a post (or more) of their own.
Stay tuned!
One thing I do know is that we are ALL called and pre-destined according to the purpose of his will (Eph. 1:11). In addition, we were all created in order to do good works, which God outlined for us before we were even born (Eph. 2:10).
However, with the free will that we have been given, we have been given the choice to decide to walk in that purpose.
Part of my purpose was shown to me when I was a child. I had the privilege of going on missions trips when I was 12 and 17. Both trips were funded by donations by family members and friends, by soda can drives and carwashes, and the trip when I was a teenager was even made possible by extra tips given to me when I was working as a server at the Golden Corral. It was a miracle on each occasion that I was even able to go on the trip, since my family certainly did not have the money for me to go. Both trips opened my eyes to the world in a huge way and they both changed my life forever.
My next two posts will be about these trips, since they each deserve a post (or more) of their own.
Stay tuned!
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