Home Sweet Home

 Jon Foreman singing "Southbound Train"

"I'm headed home

But I'm not so sure

That home is a place

You can still get to by train"

 My first week back in San Francisco was blessed, overwhelming, peace-filled, refreshing, exhausting, joy-filled, nostalgic.. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

I got to visit the YWAM San Francisco base yesterday with Heather, one my friends from my DTS, rarara! It's smaller than the base in Herrnhut, but very cool and social justice focused. I worshiped with them in the morning and then joined for the Monday "nail day." I painted nails for women in the Tenderloin- it was a sweet way to get to really invest in the women and hear their stories, too. 

Visiting YWAM SF with Heather

Magazine Dropping at Phil's Coffee downtown, yah!

ATOM Magazine

 Check out the link below to magazine our DTS (Discipleship Training School) made! It's a compilation some of the artwork and stories from the last six months. Everything inside was created and designed by members of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Herrnhut. Take a look, share with friends and family, and most of all, get involved. See how good God is!

click here: January ATOM Magazine

Birthday Blessings

Birthday Dinner

Indian curry with brownies and ice cream for dessert. Did the flight attendants know it was my birthday??!

God is personal.

The year of travel has come full circle- it began with curry on the ride to India, and it ends the same. It felt celebratory with the birthday brownies and ice cream, too.

Truly, it was a grace-filled journey home.. After arriving safely in San Francisco, I proceeded to customs, where I met a woman from Addis (yeah!) and we got to discuss all things Ethiopian. Not only that, but I have been searching for an Amharic-speaker since I got back from Ethiopia because I was given a letter in Amharic from one of the kids in Jaja. I've been praying that I could get the letter translated, and I especially prayed yesterday that I could get it translated before I got home. Literally the last person I talked to before reuniting with my family was the woman at customs. And she was Ethiopian. She translated the letter!!! yeah! She also invited me to eat injira with her sometime. hoorahhoorah! God is faithful. After befriending the woman at customs, my family welcomed me by singing happy birthday and holding a big welcome back sign. It was the best welcome home.

Faith Weekend 2012

Me, David, Rachel

Often, we spend our lives working for extra things to create the comfort of a safety net. We want freedom from worrying about money. We work unsatisfying jobs in order to have savings accounts, spare cars, extra clothes, overflowing refrigerators... And yet the paradox is that what is meant to make us more free actually locks us in further. Jobs take time away from family and friends, low savings accounts cause us stress, cars break down, insurance needs to be paid, we can't decide what to wear or what to eat for lunch- or we eat too much. It turns into MY car, MY home, MY food, and so on, separating us from the need for anyone to help us and our ability to really help anyone. In the process, we eliminate our need for God. 

True freedom, it seems, comes through having less. 

Last weekend, Fina, David, Rachel, and I embarked on a journey that tested this theory. Does true freedom come through having less?

Packing List:

Two euros.
Two Bibles.

One guitar. 

One camera. 

One journal.

Four friends.

Cardboard and pen

  (for hitchhiking purposes).

No food.

No shelter.

Plan:

Pray.

Destination:

Unknown.

Purpose:

To be entirely dependent on God.

  

 Timeline (as it unfolded):

9:30 am. Departure. Walk for 30 minutes, then hitch a ride to Lobau!

10:00. Play worship music on corner in Lobau.

10:45. Ride #2- to Dresden!

11:30. Arrive on outskirts of Dresden. Along the walk into the main city, we found blackberry bushes and apple trees. Food! Some picnic-ers also gave us leftover donuts. hoozah!

Picking blackberries on the way to Dresden.

Feast

 1:00pm. We have arrived in Dresden- and so has the rain. It's chilly and wet out, so we eventually take shelter in a tunnel where I play music for the passing pedestrians and make 5 euros! We decided we should use the money to bless someone in town, so we bought hot chocolate for a woman on the street.

3:00pm. Mid-day was the most challenging- cold, wet, tired, and hungry, we took some prayer and worship time... and then decided to try hitching a ride to a nearby (ish) town called Boutzen.

Hitch Hiking.

5:00pm. Walked through the streets of Dresden. 

7:00pm. We got a ride part way to Boutzen- we were dropped off at a rest stop on the side of the autobahn and after hearing what we were doing, the guy who drove us decided to give us 30 euros. We were shocked and overjoyed.

30 euros and prayer cards!

 9:00pm. Still no ride to Bautzen, so we called it a night and decided to set up camp in a bathroom at the rest stop. It was a tight squeeze with all four of us in a 5 feet by five feet room..

A true rest room.

6:00am. Wake up. We held our own church service at the rest stop- prayer, music, and Bible reading.

7:00. We decided to forgo stopping in Bautzen when someone offered us a ride all the way back to Lobau, where we used some of the 30 euros to buy a decent meal at the only open cafe in town.

Croissants, latte, fruit.

Fina, me, Rachel, David.

 10:10. Used more of the 30 euros for a bus ride back to Herrnhut.

11:00. Back at the castle! Weekend success.

Closing Thoughts
 

Full dependence on God seems only possible when there is room for God to provide for us. With so little provided already, the weekend brought more than the occasional conversation with God. And when we were provided food and transportation, we praised God for it and couldn't help but ask, "How can we share this with someone else?"

The weekend was challenging, though, for sure- we were hungry, cold, tired, and wet at points. Sleeping in a public restroom on the side of the autobahn was interesting, too. On the other hand, we actually felt blessed to have somewhere safe (a locked door) and warm(er) to stay for the night.

Another thought that struck me was this: it was a struggle for us to go without food, transportation, and shelter at our fingertips for a mere two days, but the women I worked with in Jaja for the last two months live every day that way. What does this imply about us? Or perhaps them? Are we so apathetic as to let our days pass mindlessly while we turn a blind eye to the daily struggle of so many people?

As for whether or not having less allows more freedom, my answer is yes. When you have nothing, there's nothing to lose. Life becomes eager anticipation of the future, while simultaneously, you cannot take your focus off the present.

Here's to The Crazy Ones

Here's to the Crazy Ones

Taken from an Apple ad.

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones,

We see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think

they can change the world,

Are the ones who do.

Radical

It's half past nine and an orange haze soaks the sky above the fields. The change in scenery in the last twelve hours is notable: taken from the showering acid rain and multitudes of noisy taxis in Addis, Germany's quaint villages and rolling hills have welcomes me. I'm grateful to be back in clean air, though I admit that the silent solitude, cleanliness, and political correct-ness feels almost stuffy in comparison to the hustle and bustle of Addis. Though as I ride the train back to Herrnhut, more pressing are thoughts of how my life will change after three months in Ethiopia...

My mind races alongside the stone-steepled churches and farm-fields that speed by the window. What does it mean to radically obey Jesus' commands to love and serve? After spending these last months with the Jaja families, my life cannot go back to normal. I won't let it. But what does it mean to put aside lukewarm notions of following Jesus in order to radically obey what he commands? How do I really leave everything behind and choose to follow him? How do I love radically?

When Jesus sends out the twelve disciples, he tells them to take "no bag for the journey, or no extra tunic, or staff; for the worker is worth his keep" (Matt 10:9-10). Would if I arrived at college with nothing but the clothes on my back? Do I trust that G-d will provide if I "seek first his kingdom"? (Matt 6:33)

"Give! Give the love we have all received to those around you. Give until it hurts, because real love hurts. That is why you must love until it hurts." -Mother Theresa

Betam Betam Amaseganalo

We stood on either side of the freshly painted teal gate- twenty or so kids on the outside, many in tears, others simply standing silently; Raquel, Fina, and I on the inside, crying as we realized that saying goodbye might mean forever. We had just hugged and kissed the kids goodbye and, finally, had to shut the gate. But it was harder than we might have imagined. It had been a quieter walk than usual back to the compound, and it hurt thinking of leaving the kids.

The past two days, we spent some time winding down outside of Addis at a place called Lake Longano. The lake itself was stunning- it felt almost dream-like standing waist deep in the water looking out at the mountains beyond. The looming storm clouds seemed to blanket the lake, pelicans floated on in front of me, and in the distance, a hippo hid beneath the water. Swimming and having time to relax brought time to reflect on the past three months...


I don't think I can ever fully express my gratitude for the families in Jaja. Through them, G-d has shown me more of His love than I could have imagined.. And the last days here have been unreal. I've felt perhaps more at peace than ever. More reflections to come, but please keep us in your prayers as we travel back to Germany tomorrow. Cool Runnings.

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountaindreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain!I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

by
Oriah Mountain Dreamer