weakness

"Samson" 2007

Questions are creeping all over me. are we ever really strong? or is it only our circumstances, the stability of our surroundings which ground us, that make us feel secure? Security is an illusion if it is based on anything external, situational, temporary--maybe that's just what i see out the window.. Even our self-confidence wavers, and yet all else depends on it. Humans are created to stretch boundaries, explore, write, sing, make mistakes, learn, take risks, and do things that look impossible. Almost nothing is impossible when you want it enough, even the human body alone amazes me.. I've met people that refuse to give up.. and nothing stops them. I met this one lady when I volunteered at a thrift shop, whose calf arteries exploded across the room one day (I can't remember why, but she showed me her huge scars) and she was told she would "never walk again".. of course being a single mom in and out of the shelter, she told me she can't afford to be crippled, so there she was that day asking me which jeans made her butt look good.


Slowly, slowly I am growing a bigger faith in people. I have been missing this, but I think God wants me to get it. He believes in us. He believes in me... and we wants me to believe too. He won't give up either.. He knows our potential, for good and evil. We are infinitely capable of both (but we need no help for the latter). I am no better than anyone else. Maybe if life was harder on me, or if I had more opportunities to cheat, lie, and steal, or felt more need to protect myself, I would make different choices and give into different temptations. And once in a while we're lucky enough to have temptations to do things we wish we could say we didn't do removed--because we get caught.

Anyway,
I had a very emotional walk home today, but describing it that way already limits what it really meant, but this is why i'm not done writing.

I left for class at noon, the morning was fine until I was getting ready to go. Something in me just gave way to weakness, like a wave without a crash I felt covered in loss, empty-handed with nothing to give, and on top of that feeling guilty about it. Something inside me thinks I should have all the answers, always be the encourager... shouldn't I? If I claim to know God and be hidden in Christ, shouldn't I have so much to offer? I felt so guilty....... doubtful, and condemned for being so in sunlight.


The whole way to school the word 'weak' resounded. And I told Jesus he had to be strong, that I am so weak and he's gonna have to take this, that I know his strength is made perfect in weakness, but I still feel faint... incapable.. empty. I asked him to be strong for me.


I went to class, got through it, ignored it. Interacted with others. Spoke in front of the class after working in a group to analyze "Bartleby, the Scrivener". Intellectual talk, small talk.


Got to the bike rack, biked a little ways, unsure if I wanted to go home to an empty house. I called some friends to figure out friday, they didn't pick up. I biked a little ways, I forgot my gloves, my hands were freezing. I couldn't keep going, I was so aware of my own weakness, I couldn't make it up the hill. I kept asking Jesus, be strong, be strong in me.. whatever this is.. I couldn't keep going. I knew I could quote truth to myself, tell myself I'm good enough, loved and provided for, redeemed, but I didn't want to. I needed someone else's voice to tell me. I pleaded to God for someone to call me, anyone, I know this is pitiful now.. so I wrote to a friend in Winnipeg, "Please call me". I expected she was in class and wouldn't call. I crossed another intersection, saw a bus stop bench ahead and couldn't get past it. So weak, so empty and frustrated not knowing why. I sat down with my hood up, leaned my bike against the cold metal. I looked in my bag: a book, an apple, and I shoved my bible in before I left the house thinking I might need it. I was hungry, I pulled it out and read the first page I opened to.. "Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near .... "And something in my spirit rebelled against these words the same way when my teacher played "I am a Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel in class that same day.. all in me felt like liquid and nowhere near anything like the words of the song.. I read on, being broken, "Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.
The coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come.
Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, "Be strong!"
...
But you, whom I have chosen.....
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand..."
And then the phone rang.
My friend from Winnipeg called, I don't even remember what I told her, I just told her I was weak, her voice on the other side holding me up on memories.. I haven't seen her in a while. She said she would read me something.. and she began to read the same passage, "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed....." I asked her to read the whole thing, and by the 29th verse I had walked again a ways, only water comes close to describing living words of a living God that we hoped for all along, that maybe he's good, even if he's not safe. The rest of the lines resonated beyond anything anyone except someone with full access to my heart could speak to me.
She also repeated those words back to me without even knowing they already pounded in my head all the way up the hill: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Months later, I still have sore spots, I can't even pray sometimes, so I am thankful for my friends. I think to be held up we have to be willing to lean on something, and it's certainly not our own understanding. But my memory is blessed with a glimpse of God in the pain, in joy, inadequacy, and he speaks in many different voices.
“Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” --Elizabeth Barrett Browning

SEEK

I live in Vancouver.
I am still more than a little lost in the mix of vibes I chase down Granville street. I finished my 3rd week at Emily Carr. I am feeling grounded in awe, I hope so high for these people. I live with a pastor's family again. I can't believe how God has paved this out. Their 5 kids from ages 2-11 are each so full of different sparking hearts.. DJ, Gabe, Vivian, Tye and Justice all came down last night with their python, so full of stories to tell about their days. The other day they invited me and Joelle to watch their snake eat a mouse. Gabe left a glass of change for me by the door and told me "I don't care about money."
My room mate Joelle hasn't killed me yet and I sort of love the way we can already talk about anything under the same roof. We have sit down dinners and bake muffins. We don't have any of the same classes, but we're in this together... we are very different people, but some important things overlap big time, it's funny how our stories of how we got where we are are similar, even the same: we both know God brought us, we only had to let our heart keep pumping, especially at a chance at art school.
A new church is being planted, I don't know numbers, but most people of Vancouver have never heard about true Grace straight, or at all. Last weekend I took on a sadness, for so many people worth so much, but don't know it. People who go to Chapters and find comfort there, and at the starbucks downstairs. I feel like Vancouver is sleeping, it's peaceful in restlessness here. This world is so short of how we should value human life.. So many desperate causes, and I ask where do I start and end letting myself get broken? 4 days in a row this week, I get told of India, Rwanda, Sudan, and Peru and asked for support.. passing by booths and billboards and protests, for china, for justice and hope, everyday this week as I meet new people I hear new kinds of hunger voices. I'm asking for God to say the word, I can't take on everything. And I'm turning over, for a people who have eyes but don't see themselves, or true substance, so hungry that they can't feel their hearts groan for something more. I ask God not to forget us, and I thank him because so many times this week my heart sank into joy and awe I couldn't hold, because I know he's moving. I want to be a part of it. To just care for people that walk around without life, to be arms and hands, everyone's searching from different places, the spirit of God is so patient, and so eager. I am holding on for my own dear life, that we can seek him and he will be found. And I don't even have to defend God, only search ....... frick, so many things inside that wish to crawl out in song or colour, but only flicker in words......................... does anyone know what I mean?
I'm still painting trees off my mind.
Creative Processes homework: build something to weigh a dragon.

written as summer falls down

Wow time flies like handlebars down a steep street.... I'm not gonna be able to wrap this around into something that makes sense tonight, but I figure I better start, and Joanna told me if I wrote something she'd read it.
I feel like a lot of things have gone in and out of my heart in the last days and weeks, and I think and imagine that this stuff is going to mean more in the next while, that this time of feeling like a complete bum has taught me a lot and it wasn't just a waste of minutes. Probably never again in my life will I be so untied-- in a new city, having time off to unpack my life and memories, and hold them close to me, and not have to work, or have a million people after me, or really much expected of me at all. I've been restless a lot of the time, but I've also been focusing on appreciating this crazy freedom. I've been free to choose and not choose to do even the things that I love to do. I realize I need shedules and I'll be glad in the fall to have a few fences, but for now I just love the 'what if' game.
what if nothing got done?
what if everyone just cleared the city and escaped everyone they knew for a while?


what if none of the success stuff mattered, the careers and labels and what your parents want, and what you're supposed to want, or down to the basest things like what you wear or how often you wash your face or how busy you are with social functions.. i feel like so much of our worth is actually measured in busyness-- all the important people are always busy.. as if that defines it.. i think some people like to make life complicated just to escape looking simple, empty handed.. but what looks empty to some looks like the picture of freedom to others... funny how that works out.



I think freedom is a fresh concept in my life that I'm going to toss around from hand to hand for the next little while, and maybe have it toss me around too.



I have also been thinking about money this week and listening to many different perspectives and ways of living with this big idea called currency. It simply puts a name to so much else, such impact, depending on who you're talking to. I decided today that money is meaningless, it is solely a means; or maybe a hoop to jump through to get you what you want, to be free to control and choose certain things, it may provide more options, but I decided it should never be my goal, even if it is for the rest of the people on this boat. (seabus) Even when people spend all their time focused on money, it never really is the core motivator; it means security, or comfort, or success, acceptance, acknowledgement or control. But for so many, all their time and forethought is focused on money: how to get it, how to keep it, how to get more of it.
What if money only served us instead of us serving it?
Experience and perspective shifts are worth more to me. I hope seeing the world, the birth and death of simple and deep forests, to see the complexity of the human heart will always be worth more than any digits.
I know I'm completely speaking from bias, because I have heating and clothes to wear each day, but still.. these are just thoughts without footnotes.

later that month..... and into september

Someone wrote in a letter to me, "I have an insatiable longing for heaven and I must see a glimpse of it everyday..." Sometimes I get crushed by distance. I am asking to see God everyday. I need to see Him, everywhere.. to see heaven in the rain when radiohead sings and people stand so close that the water against foreheads can't break the warmth, even as wet hair slicks across skin. To see Him reveal himself in the people who don't know Him yet, to see Him in textbooks and architecture, and to see hell too... both feel so close some days. But a new day always comes and I see with a new surface to my heart.
I am asking for a shift, for my paradigm to be wrecked, to pray dangerously for this city of light and dark and gray places. In the same space so many people intertwine, and a lot of them are very scary, and a lot of them are very beautiful.

I just pulled my face out of a pillow to write this and I'm so tired from the last few days, but I need to do this before too much time fills up the space between. Maybe the tiredness will help my thoughts slip out.. I keep relaxing my shoulders but they keep hunching up again until I notice.

Trek is over.
So much happened in the last month of Peru, and it's all still stirring in my head and heart.. I'll have to write more about it later. Earlier today someone asked me if I was jet lagged, not realizing the time change was only 2 hours. I said the time difference wasn't bad, but my heart feels jet lagged.
Debrief went by so fast, I can't even believe it. It was so good to get a little rest, and have some time between tough goodbyes. I wrote my friend who asked me about it that I know I'm no where near done processing all this thats been poured into my life and the changes in me that I'm left to live out, and I'm ok with that now, but I really feel like I can't settle down for another two weeks, when I get back from being a cabin leader at camp for a week. I feel like I haven't re-connected with my world yet even thought I've been back since the 17th of July, I've sort of still put most of my relationships on hold so I can focus a little longer on other things.. which I'm sorry about but I think it's the only way for now.
My sister gets married this Saturday. I've gone straight from the Mark center to her house to live with her and 3 of the other bridesmaids, and I'm fully committed to her this week as maid of honor since I haven't been around for so long. Weddings are so stressful, I'm so glad for Amy that the last few days have finally come and soon she can just enjoy all the celebration and then crash on a beach for a while and recover. The last few days have been so packed, but I've loved spending time with Amy and her other sisters...
So I have yet to see where I will be living in the next year, (my dad's apartment in North Vancouver) and won't be able to until after Charis camp-- more emotional and spiritual intenseness, but I know God will be pouring into me and I can definitely survive on his strength, enough to still pour out on others. And He's been letting me know this week in different ways that He is active and working here too- it's been hard as I've been trying to stay in contact with Peruvian friends and family and hearing about things going on there, and I still feel my heart is there.. and it's been hurting, but I know it needs to be here now and there is a place for me at home too, and that there are so many people worth pouring my life out into... that God has been calling and sustaining and forming, even when I wasn't around.

changing gears.

In Peru God was speaking to me a lot, about dreams. With getting to know so many people's hearts I saw so many dreams and different places in the paths of walking and running after them.. Even just within our team I just loved hearing these things, to see faith in so many different forms and seasons, planted in different places and light, I feel like I could write or paint about all this in a very thick book. I think something beautiful happens when our faith is intertwined in the things we long for a dream about, the visions of hope and higher things that we sometimes open up ourselves enough to have, and to dream with Jesus, even in all the vulnerability and nights of forget and hopelessness. To dream with Jesus. I feel like through out the trip Jesus was sort of tossing all these different seeds and things out there at us, and I wasn't the only one who heard them. They fell from many different mouths. I had a great conversation with Laura about this walking back from Fishtrap Creek.. it was one of those times you only realize something as you're saying it, each word you hear back from your own mouth and it only begins to ring truer as time passes over it being spoken out loud. I don't know why it was so unexpected, but Jesus came and taught us so much about faith, believing, it's like he was flicking off lids of boxes we didn't even know were closed.. we have these moments where some roof suddenly disappears and we realize we can ask "What if.." or "Why not..?" I don't know why it's always so surprising, but we can bring everything to Jesus, he told us that, but so often we don't even think to ask or bother to question why or why not. Why can't we ask for healing? Whatever part of us needs it, no matter how desperately, we just miss that childlike faith that asks.... to see Jesus in all circumstances.. the expressive God who meets us here..
And lately he's made me see it's time for me to dream again. For a long time Trek was my dream, and I sort of looked to that and poured everything into it, and that's ok, but now it's time to move on from that place. Sitting in on a log in the middle of a forest path he showed me it's just like when we sleep. We let our minds relax and let go of being in a control, of making sense.. then we fall into many different dreams easily at night. We are meant for dreaming, I believe that, and I've been telling a lot of people that and seeing that everywhere in so many ways now.. but it's time for me to take my own advice I think. I believe in art.. maybe I'll end up doing art as therapy, with kids who need to remember how to be kids again, victims of war, child soldiers from Cambodia or street kids and young girls who have to deal with traumatic burdens that no one should have to carry, let alone children. There's no shortage of needs for healing. I don't know what's ahead yet, I know it's something big . But still we have to give these things to him or they become burdens too..

It's like when you're learning another language when you listen to God speak something into your life. At first it just sounds like gibberish, you can't tell words apart, but as you catch some of the meaning of a word you begin to hear it everywhere, and it's so surprising that you never noticed it before. You hear it in different contexts and it only gathers more meaning, until you can use it yourself. Weird. And now I need to listen to my body and turn off all these sentences and to-do's in my head and sleep too, and even if I don't remember my dreams I know I let them practice being free at least. Did this make any sense? I really should start reading these things over...
thanks to anyone/everyone who read this and sorry that I enjoy spilling so much.
more pictures later.

kids

SATURDAY, MAY SEVENTEENTH TWO THOUSAND EIGHT. bre's secret diary thoughts.

"Writing the date out the long way makes me remember what I thought outloud to Sarah in the shade of the other day.. How sometimes I just feel the age of the earth underneath my young feet, all the civilizations today is built on, all we think we know.. I think and wonder why it's taking so long for this world to end, and I think it has something to do with how big God is. Some people can't see how the God of the old testament is the same God who sent Jesus; but there are so may sides and pages yet to be revealed to help us understand the meaning of all of God's beautiful names, that each of us needs to know. He is the Lion and the Lamb, the great "I am," and of course it takes a long time for such an unworthy reation to display his glory. And yet He chose us, and He will not abandon us. He has faith in us.. I told Otto last night, I was having a moment when listening to him talking by the fading fire.. I said that he other day (I remember where I was, coming back from the beach, just coming out of that brick alley onto the sandy street) I heard a faint whisper from God, a new, foriegn thought, a tight question presented itself right in front of me that I am no where near at the bottom of yet, that will make me examine a lot of the things I've done and will do....

I think God wants me to learn to believe in people more. This is such a huge side of God that I think I've sort of missed for a while, I haven't been swallowed up in this flame yet, the flame of love for his people, his kids, that he actually trusts with bearing his name, He has faith in his creation, enough so to give us free will and not interfere when we are learning to walk and choose and we trip and fall in all the holes he warned us about. He actually rejoices over us too.

Otto said he has tried to communicate a picture of fatherhood to his kids, to help them to understand more of his love and fear for them. He said sometimes it's like standing on the other side of a glass wall. They can see eachother and wave, but sometimes he's begging and pleading for them to hear his voice and they don't, he can see what's ahead of them sometimes, because he's been there, he can see the cracks and holes even as they fall into them and it hurts so bad. Each of his kids love differently, and he said he believes when children are young it's so important for their dad to be there, that htey may learn eachother's communication, in love and warning, sadness and worry and joy and calm, even if it's just carried in his eyes, he said he hoped he could somehow get a look across and that his kids could see and understand so that in the future they could communicate and listen to eachother better.

In Otto I saw another glimpse of God, his father's heart. Even all the way down here in creation. So God trusts us somehow. He belsses us with out guaruntee of return or being blessed back. He allows us to bear his name.

I am turning to realize that I am learning to trust my heavenly Father's character, I know He sill not fail because He is love, He doesn't change. I also know that people will dissapoint and fail me, I have see it's true. I am weak too. But I think God wants to restore and retrieve something in me there. He is crazy about His kids, and really believes in them, He really believes in me, has invested in me and wants me to love in fire and action and word and deed, he wants me to believe in his people too. How can I go walking around with this ugly crown on my head, this 'maturity,' to know the world isn't a perfect placea nd people will always fail, yes, both these are true I think, until Heaven comes, but there is sitll room to be a child. There has to be...

Or else who is going to run to Jesus?

The disciples were rebuked for hindering them. Kids still remember so many of the things the rest of the world has forgotten, like how to question without fear of the answers, how to trust, how to believe and hope and never pity themselves. This is partly why kids are usually so photogenic. they are naively aware of so many mysteries and are beautifully transparent in brilliant simplicity. .... To know someone may never kick their addiciton or pay me back or say the words I want them to say, and love them anyway, with unswerving faith in God's grace for them.

Yea. This is someone I'd like to be. And maybe I will fail at least most of the time, but I know all God desires of me is to be his daughter, to need Him and know it, and accept his provision."

Paint is fun, paint thinner is not.

Yesterday morning (sunday) we arrived back to home sweet home in Lima from our trip North, 16 hours on a bus through the night passed surprisingly fast. We are back with a lot of memories of so many new faces and places still fresh in our minds, and I don't know how to tell you about it all... it's so weird how you can spend so long looking ahead to something, and then it's over in a flash of colour. We spent so long preparing, and we found when we got there a lot of the time we had no idea what was expected of us. But we did the best with what we had, and I read about Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a few loaves of bread and some fish, and asked Jesus to do that again. We spent a lot of time with kids that we will never see again, but we loved them for the short time we had, and I prayed that our tracks would overflow with abundance and that they would truely be God's wagon tracks of Psalm 65. And I know they are all out of my hands now, but I pray that God will still hold them, and I have faith God can multiply love, even only a day's-worth of facepaint and singing songs and sharing secrets with giggly little girls.

I couldn't finish my blog yesterday. My head feels too full, I read some of my journal entries from the last weeks, and our trip alone took up a thick chunk, I'm on my last pages now...
We took a bazillion pictures and Lisa is working on a slide show for her home-coming party. I'm finding more and more my thoughts are turning towards home, everyone's talking about it, something is changing as we look at our time left as a number, in days even. I don't want to think this way.. I think about seeing lakes and mountains and eating food from home again, seeing my family and friends from highschool, and not being with my team and this family that I spend almost every moment with here. I'm thinking about the summer and all the changes that I am coming home to... new city, new job, new brother, and university in September, plus all the stuff that I don't see coming. I have been thinking about camp a lot, being with campers again, and the friends I see only a few times a year. I was reminded of Charis camp a lot on our trip north because we did a lot of kid's programs, and there is one little village outside Trujillo called Chicamita that was probably my favourite... this is a picture of me and some girls who told me all their secrets and I told them mine:
We spent 4 days in Trujillo, where we already have some Peruvian family (the pastor's family relatives, and our friends Carlos and Gustavo Lopez). From the start we knew we had to be ready to do serve wherever we were asked, and if we weren't asked, we would pray. We were given air mattresses to sleep on in the church in Trujillo, definatly the most fancy beds of the whole trip. The first day we were able to get our hands dirty and do some odd jobs, which was greatly appreciated. I loved spending time in the big empty sanctuary singing with the choir of acoustics, and praying on the behalf of the church. This is the church that recently had all the computer equipment and instruments stolen. But in prayer and on sunday too our voices without microphones didn't sound empty at all, every noise we made in the church was heard by God and as we interceded on behalf of the life of the church (which has been struggling lately with a lot of changes) there was just such a peace on that place I don't know how to describe it. I am learning lots about prayer. . .
We also had some free time to visit Chan Chan, where we saw Inca palace ruins from the 9th century, went to the beach, and got a ride in Caballitos de Totoros (boats made of this grass stuff) and jammed with Gustavo.

I did so much face painting on this trip, and Lisa got recruited too. This is a picture from El Indio, and really rough village where we did a kids program. So many arms and faces and voices right in our faces asking for maripositas and estrellitas and corazons.... but we were happy to do it. This picture captured a really hecktic moment when me and Lisa just looked at eachother and laughed because there were like 25 kids surrounding us, out of 50 that were there that we gave balloons and little cards to and the whole shabang.

These two pictures are from a little town called Chatochico. We spent two days there originally to help build a big bathroom for the church, but we mostly ended up moving bricks and the men did all the work. But at least we paid for all the supplies and made ourselves useful by sanding down and repainting the whole front of the church, and I pain a nedew sign. It was a long day in the sun, and in the afternoon we did a kid's program in the park for all the kids we could round up. So many great pictures but I can only put a few here... This was a donkey town and if you look down the road there's only desert where the sidewalk ends. There were animals everywhere, this second picture is right across the street from the church with a bunch of the ninos, the pastor was so kind to us.

Here's a picture of us doing our drime at the church in Piura where we stayed most of the trip. We did our drime a lot, and even taught it to a youthgroup in Sullana. We were told that day that there would be a "lesson"... whatever that meant.., we didn't know if we were supposed to be taught something, or if we were teaching... it was pretty difficult to teach choreography in another language but they got most of it. This was sort of the way it was most of the time, we would never really be sure what would be expected of us, sometimes more than we were told and sometimes we'd be totally ready to do a program and then there would be other plans we weren't told about. This was on the last mother's day service we helped out with, and I also gave my testimony before the sermon.. Mother's day is a bigger deal here I think, it probably has something to do with how people never leave home until their married and their mom's always cook and clean... but anyway, people really seemed to appreciate the message of the drime, and it's awesome to see how easy it is for people to connect through the arts...

Ok so I think pictures speak better than words, especially since I use way too many.
But I was looking back at my old journal, which I started the day before the first day of Trek training.. check out what I wrote, words that eerily reflect a lot of these last months of my life, even the last weeks. Some are Jesus' words and some are not:

True spiritual maturity is tested in our relationships with others.

"Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Jesus will do what is necessary to qualify and equip us for service.

"Not what I will, but what you will."

The importantce of being ready, or feeling ready, is an idea with a stronghold on our culture.
It is important that we are able to see the difference between these personal feelings that distract us and the desires of our hearts that guide us.
Those feelings align themselves easily with fears and insecurities, and they are dealt with only as we face them honestly and choose to rise above them.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2

I am so thankful.

This is us in Colan, where we spent 3 days for our midterm retreat. Such an awesome time of rest and refreshment... and bbqs!
K so I really don't feel like even this gigantic blog holds half of what I want to tell you about Peru.. I think you and I will just have to talk soon........

pictures

BELOW:
Kiddies at the park that love when we bring bubbles.

BELOW: This is me, being cute. I have no idea how to make pictures not sideways.

RIGHT: I finished the mural today! I had a lot of fun spending time with the kids and I hope to draw with them more when we get back from our trip!

ABOVE: is when we took three buses to Serco, where we went on a hike in the foothills of the Andes to see a gorgeous water fall. We also saw some cool rocks and pretended to be cave men.

BELOW: This was taken on the youth retreat, with some of the youth. duh.

PS

Mail always brightens my day.

Jr. Rodolfo Rutte No. 718

Magdalena del Mar, Lima

Lima Peru

more pictures coming soon, sometime after May 19th when we get back from the north! Please pray for our health because apparently the water is very sketchy, and the trip in general is going to be physcially challenging, not to mention everything else.. We'll be visiting somewhere around 12 churches, serving in whatever way we can and doing kids and youth programs, and I'll be sharing my testimony in Spanish at least a few more times. Thanks for thinking of us and even checking this messy blog, it means a lot!