There is one day left in October. It's hard to believe that November is already here. With November comes Thanksgiving and the end of another semester is that much closer. I have been so busy lately that it seems like I have not had time to stop and just enjoy life, and yet I have tried to pause and enjoy moments that take my breath away. As I have driven to and from Upland for ESL student teaching I have looked up to the mountains and sung songs at the top of my lungs. I have enjoyed a few miraculous sunsets in Azusa. I have experienced the slow healing of broken relationships. Thankfully, as an intern at Missionary Kids Ministries in Cedarpines Park, CA, I also have the amazing blessing of spending many weekends up in the beautiful mountains. This weekend is one of those many weekends, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself today in the company of many awesome TCKs (some college aged and others as young as 2 years old).
Today we went to the lake with a pair of brothers. They are ages three and five, half Finnish, and fluent in Finnish. With them we had the opportunity to feed the ducks, and it was a blessing to experience this simple joy with them. For children everything is done with such passion, be it joy or pain, and sometimes it is pure joy to just sit back and revel in their awe at life.
After returning to the house their mom pulled out a Pumpkin to carve, and of course all of us TCKs circled around in awe at this thing called "pumpkin carving." We watched the master (their mom, Heidi) at work and then all dug in. It's interesting how many of us as Christians have problems with Halloween, and then how we extend those emotions to the act of pumpkin carving. That was not the case tonight. As Heidi dug into the pumpkin, scraped out the seeds and strings, and scraped away at other useless parts of the pumpkin she took the opportunity to make it a teaching moment.
"Timothy," she said, "do you know what carving this pumpkin is like?" "No mom," he answered. "Well let's see. Was the inside of the pumpkin yucky when you put your hand in it?" "Yes" "Well that's how our hearts are when we're born. We have all of this sin and yucky stuff in them, but Jesus comes into our hearts and digs out all of that gross stuff."
Wow! What a mom! :) I will never look at a pumpkin the same way again, and I dare anyone to ever associate pumpkin carving with "evil." God made pumpkins, God made little kids, God made amazing moms like Heidi, and here I am in the mountains getting to revel in the awesomeness of it all. As I continue my journey here in this country called "America" and learn more about the culture here I also learn about life and how even the simple things hold profound truth.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Does it Ever Stop?
Busy, busy, busy. When you ask me or almost any of my friends how we're doing, that's likely the answer you'll get. Busy or tired. Before every semester starts I say to myself, "This semester I'll make time for friends. This semester I'll do all of my reading. This semester I'll stay on top of devos. This semester I'll practice my guitar, flute, and maybe even keyboard. This semester..." You get the point. I think it's a pretty normal thing to do; we always expect more out of ourselves than we can actually give.
Well this semester is no different for me. I knew it was going to be a doozy, but I thought I'd have time to work at least 8 hours a week. Not a chance. In my infinite wisdom I decided to add a sixth class right before the add drop date, and that took my 6 hour class day to a 9 hour class day. Now I know that some people work more than 9 hours every single day, and more power to them, but that's just not for me. This past Tuesday looked something like this: Wake up at 7:30 am to do my workout, get ready for student observation, observe two classes twenty minutes away and return at 12:30pm, grab lunch and go to my 1:05 class, sit in class until 10:00 pm, return home and catch up with the roommates a little bit before hitting the sack. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE everything I'm doing this semester. I get to observe classrooms, tutor international students, learn more about spiritual disciplines, discuss how various cultures impact the way we read the Bible, take part in an internship for a ministry that I love with Missionary Kids Ministries, and come home to four amazing roommates. BUT It's exhausting, and I'm not the only one who's tired. I think I speak for most of my household when I say that we are worn out and it's only four weeks into the semester!
In other news I've had all sorts of fun mishaps lately. Primarily my computer decided to stop working last week and it took a week to get it fixed. This actually wasn't a HUGE problem because my awesome roommate Amanda has an extra computer that she let me borrow this whole time! Talk about a blessing!!!! Unfortunately when I got my computer back the whole hard drive had been wiped, so blessing of all blessings I basically have a brand new computer! :) It's been frustrating to figure out what I lost and what I didn't, but thankfully I had to back up a lot of my computer this summer and so only lost about two months worth of stuff. It's the small blessings that keep you going :) I also recently had to get my car fixed since it failed the smog test earlier this summer, but there were some hidden blessings there too: My dad was here to take care of arranging where to get it done and help me drop it off, the US government paid for over 500 of the almost $800 in repairs, and I have this great friend Dan who let me borrow his car so I could still do my student observations and teaching. Everything is sorted out with these two dilemmas, I guess they just added a little bit of spice to my life for a while :)
Actually my favorite thing about my computer dying was that I got to walk the streets of Pasadena since I had to park so far away from the Apple store. There is this one homeless man who always sits in the same spot and somehow he was an encouragement to me. I stopped and talked to him once and it brightened my day. I don't know if I'll see him again since I really don't make it a habit of walking the streets of downtown Pasadena, but he's in my thoughts and prayers and in the midst of all the craziness that has been going on in my life he really reminded me of just how blessed I am.
While the end is not in sight for must undergrad students I am halfway through my graduate courses! I have loved these courses BUT my life will be a lot more manageable when they are done. Other things to look forward to are MLB playoffs, a bunch of awesome TCK retreats, more roommate fun, carving pumpkins, decorating the house for Christmas, and having my parents come for Christmas!
Well this semester is no different for me. I knew it was going to be a doozy, but I thought I'd have time to work at least 8 hours a week. Not a chance. In my infinite wisdom I decided to add a sixth class right before the add drop date, and that took my 6 hour class day to a 9 hour class day. Now I know that some people work more than 9 hours every single day, and more power to them, but that's just not for me. This past Tuesday looked something like this: Wake up at 7:30 am to do my workout, get ready for student observation, observe two classes twenty minutes away and return at 12:30pm, grab lunch and go to my 1:05 class, sit in class until 10:00 pm, return home and catch up with the roommates a little bit before hitting the sack. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE everything I'm doing this semester. I get to observe classrooms, tutor international students, learn more about spiritual disciplines, discuss how various cultures impact the way we read the Bible, take part in an internship for a ministry that I love with Missionary Kids Ministries, and come home to four amazing roommates. BUT It's exhausting, and I'm not the only one who's tired. I think I speak for most of my household when I say that we are worn out and it's only four weeks into the semester!
In other news I've had all sorts of fun mishaps lately. Primarily my computer decided to stop working last week and it took a week to get it fixed. This actually wasn't a HUGE problem because my awesome roommate Amanda has an extra computer that she let me borrow this whole time! Talk about a blessing!!!! Unfortunately when I got my computer back the whole hard drive had been wiped, so blessing of all blessings I basically have a brand new computer! :) It's been frustrating to figure out what I lost and what I didn't, but thankfully I had to back up a lot of my computer this summer and so only lost about two months worth of stuff. It's the small blessings that keep you going :) I also recently had to get my car fixed since it failed the smog test earlier this summer, but there were some hidden blessings there too: My dad was here to take care of arranging where to get it done and help me drop it off, the US government paid for over 500 of the almost $800 in repairs, and I have this great friend Dan who let me borrow his car so I could still do my student observations and teaching. Everything is sorted out with these two dilemmas, I guess they just added a little bit of spice to my life for a while :)
Actually my favorite thing about my computer dying was that I got to walk the streets of Pasadena since I had to park so far away from the Apple store. There is this one homeless man who always sits in the same spot and somehow he was an encouragement to me. I stopped and talked to him once and it brightened my day. I don't know if I'll see him again since I really don't make it a habit of walking the streets of downtown Pasadena, but he's in my thoughts and prayers and in the midst of all the craziness that has been going on in my life he really reminded me of just how blessed I am.
While the end is not in sight for must undergrad students I am halfway through my graduate courses! I have loved these courses BUT my life will be a lot more manageable when they are done. Other things to look forward to are MLB playoffs, a bunch of awesome TCK retreats, more roommate fun, carving pumpkins, decorating the house for Christmas, and having my parents come for Christmas!
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