"Consider the Ravens..."

Last week I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to Ecuador with 21 teens and three other adults to minister to both missionaries and local Ecuadorians.  The 11 days we spent abroad will likely remain a highlight of my year, and probably in my life for several reasons.  God showed up.  Here's my brief attempt to give you a glimpse of what happened. The team we took down was comprised of 21 very unique students, most of whom were 15 or 16 (the youngest we would allow).  I was nervous about our team being young and that so many of the students had never been out of the country, muchless to a place similar to the third-world set-up we were headed into.  There were very strong personalities and more than a few quirks (including my own) that made me wonder just how well we would get along for 11 straight days.  A majority of the students come from one of the wealthiest suburbs in the metro area -- not a bad thing, just another dynamic that would push...

Next week I will, God-willing, turn 26. While birthdays have never been an overly big deal for me, this one is a welcome change. If I'm really honest, I have to admit that 25 hasn't been my favorite year of life and I'm ready to move on.  Being 25 for me meant moving all my stuff seven times in twelve months-- SEVEN! It meant one of those seven moves was moving back to MN and leaving Manila indefinitely after just beginning to really feel settled. It meant new jobs, a lost job, a bad job, and now two busy jobs that weren't even on my radar until October. It meant new friendships, old friends, and new sides to old problems i thought were a thing of the past. For someone who likes to have big plans and all the details figured out, being 25 has been exhausting. Sometimes it feels like I'm playing a never-ending game of pick up sticks. Just when it seems I've got everything finally in my hand, a few sticks drop and a few more reveal themselves. This morning I was ...

A year ago today I was on a plane back to the US after 10 very long, full, difficult months of living and teaching (sort of) at Faith Academy.  This June 6 is very different. The 2013-2014 school year ended a week ago today, and part of me still can't believe it's really over.  The kids are gone, most of them to different countries, the staff has dispersed to corners of the city and the world, and I've managed to move everything I own three times in the last week (long story...).  I have another 3.5 weeks before I'm back on US soil for good and many people have asked me lately, "Why are you staying the extra month?  Why not just go back now?  You're done here -- don't you want to be back in the US?" They seem like easy, innocent questions.  Yes, of course I want to be back in the land of my best friends, great coffee, four full seasons, and Spotify.  But I also don't want to rush too quickly out of this season.  Quite frankly, when a season ...

I woke up at 3:25 AM today after a fitful night’s sleep that was far too short.   I tried convincing myself to just roll over and go back to sleep, but these days that’s not so easy.   Sometimes the things we know we need to do are the hardest to actually accomplish. All of fourth quarter, my Creative Worship kids have been sort of drifting through classes, often distracted, but always with a positive attitude.   Each Thursday we start with a devotion led by one of the students.   And each Thursday, it seemed like we collectively felt the weight of the end of the quarter pressing heavier every time we met.   I have 6 Seniors in the class who are waking up to their last day of high school as I write this.   One other student in the class is leaving Faith Academy this year to return to another mission field, and I am leaving as well.   There is only one student among the 9 of us who is not leaving, but even he knows the agony of the end of an er...