Adventurous Life

This past week has been really difficult. Deciding about an apartment, financial issues, exhaustion, difficult situations, miscommunications, and all in the midst of learning to live in a new country. Definitely glad it's Sunday and a new week begins. Throughout it all, God has been a gentle teacher. These are the lessons I learned this week. 1. Each day really is new every morning. Confession: I'm not really an optimist. I try, but it is a muscle that tends to atrophy. Sometimes I wake up not wanting to face the day because I know it will be just as trying as the day before. I don't often view the day as an opportunity for something new and different. After a really rough night this week, I woke up the next morning lighter for no reason at all. I realized that even though I still had to deal with the difficulties from the day before, this new day could be and would be different because the Lord's faithfulness and steadfast love hadn't changed. I have Him. Isn...

This is the story of how I became a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle... I grew up in a passive-aggressive home that would let the tension build and express the hurt, frustration, and disappointment in so many other ways rather than discuss the conflict and try to resolve it. As a result, I try to avoid conflict when  ever possible. I will deny there is an issue, push it off as long as possible, end it messily just so there won't be any more conflict, or try to find someone else to handle it. Any conflict (real or potential) emotionally and mentally drains me. I feel the tension even when the conflict does not involve me. If I have to face conflict, I physically struggle with an increased heart rate, shaky legs, and an upset stomach. Fortunately, there are those in my life who love me enough to help me grow in this area, but I continue to feel like a failure at the end of any conflict. I thought I always handled conflict wrong and everyone else did it right. Hopeless. When I saw on t...

Life lately has been frustrating and a little hurtful. Relationships aren't going the way I expected. Partner development seems to be stalling. My physical and spiritual lives are fluctuating. Loneliness is increasing. Some of this is due to life in transition, and I understand that, but I knew there was something else to what was going on--especially in my relationships. That's when I remembered another part of the training at MTI--being twanged by expectations. The training at MTI wasn't just for the adults. Children had their own program and they were taught the same lessons we were but at an age-appropriate level. On a few occasions, the children would join us for an object lesson and we would learn together. This post is about one of those lessons. Have you ever felt that jolt when your expectations didn't match up to reality? That is the twang of expectations. Picture your feelings as the nucleus of many factors orbiting on different axes around you: realty vs...

What are your thoughts about language learning? Does it excite you? Stress you out? Something you have to do to fulfill some requirement? The prospect of learning a language has always been exciting to me. In high school, I took an etymology course so I could learn a smattering of Latin. I switched programs in seminary so I could study Greek and Hebrew. If I could have one superpower in the world, I would want to be fluent in every language ever. I remember one of the first times I saw language acquisition in action. I was babysitting a 15-month-old and told him, "Adam, come here." He paused, looked at me, and you could see him beginning to understand what I said. He then walked over to me. I loved seeing him grow in comprehension and was grateful to witness this moment. Too late to flash the nerd alert? You can imagine how much I was looking forward to my training at MTI when I learned that part of it was on how to learn a language. I went expecting tips on how to get the ...

I am afraid of heights. I like the views but the possibility of plunging to my death? Not a big fan really. I like my railings, holding on tightly, and keeping my feet firmly planted on the ground. Right now, this fear is manifesting itself within my faith I am preparing to move to Austria to serve refugee children and their families. My trainings are all done, and I am focusing on developing a partnership team. My goal is to arrive in Europe by September so I can attend a conference later that month. While it is good to have a deadline to work toward, that deadline is not definite. If I miss the conference it will not be a huge setback. But, a living opportunity has come up which provides a a more definite deadline. There is a good apartment available for sublet beginning 05 September, and I have to decide about it this week. I am standing on a precipice and asked to jump. Do I jump with a "yes" to the apartment and trust God will bring in the necessary partners in time?...

Soaring high above the clouds A carefree bird sings aloud, "Here I am full of joy and free, To be as I was created to be." A shot rings out and a hunter growls: "You are too high, you must come low. How dare you leave us here below? How dare you fly up in the air? You have no business to be up there." Falling, falling to the ground The bird crumples without a sound. Shattered to pieces both heart and wing There are no more songs to sing. Careless words, a poison dart, Flightless bird, kept apart. These verbal wounds are fresh and deep. Only time will tell what scars she keeps. Only time will tell what scars I keep.