Whispers

Time to dust off the cobwebs on this thing. :)There are many changes that have transpired in my life in the past few months and I decided it's time to keep this blog a little more current to keep some of the friends and family updated on my happenings since I won't be seeing some of them as often! :) When I went home for Christmas back in December I heard quite a bit of whispers and prompting from the Lord that some things needed to change...that is was time for a new direction to take place in my life. At the time, I wasn't quite sure what that meant yet. My good friend and carpool buddy to Arizona, Jean, talked to me a little bit about if I had though about going back to school. Around that same time my dad and sisters had been asking the same thing. That set the spark in my mind that maybe it was time. I have a couple of years of college under my belt, but never finished. This is something that I have intended to do for a long time. I have been praying since December for God to continue to speak into me, to give me direction on the next steps. I applied for my FASFA in January and decided to apply for a few colleges here in the Springs. I got my acceptance letters to a few of them very soon after which was very exciting! Thinking through everything, I decided that if I was going to go back to school in the fall 2011, that I needed to keep my eye out for other jobs that might be a little less stressful and a little more flexible with my schedule, because juggling both a full time job and school will be tough. On a whim, I applied for an Executive Assistant position at the Navigators, which is an awesome Christian ministy here in the Springs. Got an interview days after and an offer for the position a week after that. I couldn't believe the doors God was opening for me to make this college thing happen! I firmly believe this is the direction God has been wanting me to go for a while, but I have been too stubborn to listen until now. Last Friday was my last day at Compassion and this Wednesday starts my new job at the Navigators. I feel a huge stirring of great things to come and I can hardly wait! This is going to be such a fun rest of the year...new job, sister Megan's wedding, sister Anna moving to Colorado...and back to finish college! All I can say is...bravo God. You are truly my Lord and Saviour and I am so grateful for your loving guidance during this time of scary decisions! I must say...there are a few people at Compassion that I will miss working with SO MUCH. You know who you are ;) I wish I could hand pick the people I want to keep with my from Compassion and just take them all with me! Thankfully, they are all close enough to my heart that I know I will still see them often. Thank you all for your love and support as I have been sorting out these next big steps in my life! More blogs to come on the new stuff!

Waterworks

I couldn't resist sharing this video.  It had my waterworks flowing....completely heartbreaking and humbling at the same time.  Please take the time to watch this whole video....it's incredible.
 

The faith that these two brothers have/had in God is truly inspiring. What an amazing testimony of life.

"My Left Foot"

While trapped in my apartment with a stomach bug last weekend, I watched quite a few movies.  One of them was really interesting.  It's an older movie called, "My Left Foot".  The movie is a true story about the life of Christy Brown (suprisingly, this is a man), who had Cerebral Palsy.  This man was born in the 30's and grew up in a poor, Irish Catholic family somewhere in Ireland.  He was one of about 20 kids.  The movie showed all of the obstacles he and his family had to overcome caring for him in those conditions.  Amazingly, this guy went on to become a famous artist, creating paintings using only his left foot (since that is the only limb he could control).  He ended up selling many of his painting around the world.  He also wrote a book, typing the whole thing on a typewriter also using only his left foot.  In his book he talks about what it was like growing up with his conditon, always being talked down to like he was dumb, even though he could understand everything everyone was telling him, he just couldn't communicate back to them or control his movements the way everyone else could to him.  He said it was like being trapped, his own body was his prison.  I have not read the book yet, but am definitely planning to order it.  The movie was so inspiring.  Daniel Day Lewis played the role of Christy Brown and did an AMAZING job portraying someone with Cerebral Palsy.  I recommend the movie to all of you.  I will let you know how the book is once I read it!

Here is a picture of the real Christy Brown:

"The Opposite of Poverty is Enough"

One of my absolute favorite quotes penned by our President and CEO at Compassion International is, "The opposite of poverty is enough".  I have worked for Compassion for two years now and every day my heart grows bigger and bigger for the poor and the oppressed.  And as my heart grows for the poor, so does the sadness and anger I feel at the senseless injustices I hear about and see through the experiences of other Compassion staff members. Some of the stories of what these little tiny children go through on a routine basis are completely heartbreaking. 

When I walked into the chapel service today at work, I didn't really know what to expect.  In all honesty, I was a little tired, not feeling well and had a million projects on my mind that I had to finish.  The speaker for the day, Shane Claiborne, was announced, and when he walked on stage my attention was instantly caught.  Standing on the stage was a guy with dreadlocks down to the center of his back, big baggie cargo pants with pockets the size of buckets, a long loose fitting shirt, sandals and a red bandana tied around the top of his dreads with big, black thick framed glasses on his face.  My first thought was, 'Huh.  That's interesting'.  But when Shane began to speak I was immediately captivated.  His passionate speaking about the poor and how we can change poverty completely captivated me.  There was so much that he said that spoke to me, but I will only share one with you on this blog and then let you look him up from here...

Shane talked about a newspaper he read many years ago that competely started a fire in him.  In fact, he carries the front page of that newspaper everywhere he goes, and he had the yellow, tattered newspaper page with him when he spoke to us. He waved the newspaper at us and said, "I noticed two things on the front of this newspaper as I was reading it.  First of all, the main article on the page is talking about children who are making grass into patties to eat in (enter the country here...sorry, I forget which country he said). They were eating grass because they were starving and literally had nothing else to eat." The article was truly heartbreaking.  "On the same page, the other headlining article is'The Growing Rate of Obesity in America'.   Coincidence? I personally don't think so. :)" The article went on to say how many American's live in access and convenience and not only overeat, but continuously throw away food that we don't eat.  One of the quotes that Shane said after that, I thought was profoundly powerful.  He said, "Millions of people die from poverty, but millions of people also die from wealth".  He explained how people who live in excess and overindulge tend to live reckless lives not only to their health, but to their souls. He went on with a disclaimer that not all wealthy people are like this, but a high percentage are. I thought he made a great point. 

I encourage you to look up Shane Claiborne.  He is the author of the books, "The Irresistible Revolution", "Jesus for President" and others.  He leads a movement called The Simple Way, a faith community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped connect radical faith communities around the world.  Shane spent 10 weeks working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta years ago and also spent time in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team.  Go check out his website: http://www.thesimpleway.org/

All I know is, what he had to say really spoke to me.  It makes me so thankful to have a roof over my head and food in my mouth, and to live in a country where I have many more freedoms than most. 

God doesn't suggest we help the poor, he commands it.
"Anyone who oppresses the poor is insulting God who made them. To help the poor is to honor God."
-Proverbs 14:31

Remembering

Thinking of my grandpa a lot tonight.  I've had dreams of him off and on since he passed away in March.   I miss him.  I wish I would have called him and told him more often what he meant to me and how much I loved him.  And I wish I would have been there this last Thanksgiving when he went to Arizona to see the rest of the family.  Not being there has been haunting me.  At least I would have gotten to see him one more time. 

It just pounds into my head how precious every single moment is with everyone that you love on this earth.  You never know when someone's time will come so make every moment count.  It's important.

God's Fireworks

Though I was a little envious of not getting to be with all my family over 4th of July, I still had a wonderful Independence Day with one of my adoptive Colorado families.  LeAnn is a co-worker of mine and a very dear friend.  She is married and has 3 awesome kids (who are grown, around my age).  I spent the day with LeAnn and her husband and her son and his wife.  We had some BBQ in the park for a good portion of the afternoon until the heavens opened up and niagra falls came out.  Let me tell you, God created a WAY better fireworks show that night than any man-made ones I have ever seen.  We had rain like I haven't seen in a LONG time, topped off with some golfball sized hail.  It was quite the event! I ended up playing cards with the Vasquez family until about 10pm that night...it was great! I hope you all had a nice time with your friends and family. :)

Creative Juices

I was doing some spring cleaning in my closet and I found a folder full of poetry I had written for my English class in highschool.  It was was kind of fun looking through all of them again....takes me back!

This poem was one that I had written right after the Columbine high school shootings.  I won first place and a sweet $100 bucks in this poetry contest and got it published.  Although I can't tell you today what book it was published in. The poem is called 'A Normal Day'.

It started out a normal day,
I grabbed my books and was on my way.
The familiar faces, the noisy halls,
All of the classrooms with stark, white walls.

I took my place in the usual seat,
Working quietly despite the heat. 
I heart the chattering and casual talk;
The passing gossip, the screech of the chalk.

Then all of a sudden, a shot rang out.
There was screaming and panic and running around.
I couldn't tell what had been done,
I just remember the screams to run.

And then I saw them coming my way,
I had to get out of there, or I would pay.
The bangs continued to echo the halls,
Followed by the sounds of terrified calls.

They begged for mercy, the begged for a chance,
But they didn't even give them a second glance.
They just laughed and said, "You are too little too late,
For today you will reach your final fate."

I laid there in my hiding place,
Trying desperately not to show my face. 
I sobbed, trembling, all alone,
All I wanted was to be at home.

Why is this happening? How can it be?
I never thought it could happen to me.
Why so much violence? Why the pain?
There is nothing to accomplish! Nothing to gain!

Where were my friends? I did not know.
I just prayed that they had found a safe place to go.
As the noise died down, I could scarecely move.
Just what was it they were trying to prove?

We all started creeping out of our spaces,
Only to find white, ghostly faces. 
I turned away, how could this be?!
Wounds and lifeless bodies were all I could see.
I frantically searched all around,
But my best friend could not be found.

I screamed in desperation and called out her name,
I feared the worst, that she had been slain.
I continued to search, as the red lights drove in.
They asked me questions; I didn't know where to begin.

As they began to bring the bodies out,
I shuttered and let out a gasping shout,
For laying there, with a sheet on her head,
Lay my best friend, shot dead.

Why the violence? Why the pain? There is nothing to accomplish...nothing to gain.

-By Kelsey Donahue, 2001