Thought Processing

I've noticed that blogging is really good in helping me sort out everything I've been learning along the way; however, when I'm not quite ready to process major changes, it kind of puts a delay on my blogs so sorry this one is so late :) The Godchicks conference was the week before last in Los Angeles (more the Pasadena area) which is a three day get-together of hundreds of women in this massive church with amazing speakers. This was obviously a stark difference from Alive as there was no stinky mud, haha, but also the stories were noticeably different in a number of ways.

First of all, we easily got over 200 sponsors at this event which was really encouraging to see after we struggled to get just over 80 the week before. On the other hand, it was the people you would expect to sponsor: generally more financially stable women vs. the teenage boy sponsors. Despite that, being there really showed me how FH and the body of Christ is in need of both kinds of people. Even Jesus ministered through everyone from tax collectors to prostitutes.

(Left to Right-Me, Crystal (Artist Program staff from Nashville), Liz (AP director also from Nashville), Paige (my overseer here in Phoenix))

Also, in the beginning of the conference, they had this presentation where people silently presented cardboard signs that on one side had the major struggle of their life (drugs, prostitution, apathy, abortion, etc) and then on the other had how God had done an amazing work to bring them out of that struggle. So here I was watching these people from all walks of life share their darkest problems and being reminded that we all have the same core problem-brokenness. Brokenness within us and between us and God is something I've learned a lot about since teaming up with FH. And answering God's call to help deliver others from their problems is key to mending some of that brokenness through God's greatest commandment: love Him and each other. That's it-just love. Such a powerful notion! When we help others deal with their personal struggles, such as poverty, spiritual warfare (some of the issues child sponsorship helps with), it doesn't matter whether you're rich, poor, woman, man, boy, girl, teenage, middle-age...you get the picture, what matters is where our hearts are when we're doing all this. This all seems very obvious on the surface, but I think motives can be a continuous spiritual battle for not only those doing the non-profit work but also those supporting it.

On a more personal note, I was very blessed to get a chance to be renewed through the speakers' messages. I learned so much about being more than delivered from struggles but actually letting God make us whole afterward; honestly, I never realized that while I had let God get me through some tough stuff, I had never allowed Him to fully heal me. All along I thought I was doing good to just not be stuck under my problems when I was missing out on a whole other level of joy God was just waiting for me to accept. In order for me to actually forgive and move on, I had to be more than done with the problem. I had to actually be made new, like starting over, not without the memories and the lessons learned, but more with a faith that God is fully in charge now. Once again, a seemingly obvious notion, but clearly now I registered it at a time when God was ready to do that in me-and what a blessing! So thanks again to everyone for your prayers and support-please know that amazing things are being accomplished through YOUR faith!! :)

For the rest of my internship (as we don't have anymore major events until September), I will be working on updating the Facebook and Myspace pages for the Artist Program and FH. Please, please, please pray for wisdom on this, lol! Yes, I totally love that I get to do this because I really do love stuff like that, especially the html codes for Myspace :) but these will hopefully bring in a lot of new people and get new exposure for FH so I want God to take over these and do them as He wants them done. Plus this involves a level of free range creativity that I'm not exactly used to so I'm really praying for His guidance!!

Hope everyone had a fabulous 4th of July!

All about Alive

Wow, what a week! The festival officially started on Wednesday and what better to bring in the festivities but a downpour of rain, haha, but despite all the wind and stinky mud (praise God for rainboots!), it was the volunteers that blew me away. When we offered them a choice to stay out of the rain instead of going into the crowd to encourage child sponsorship, not one of them chose to stay!! They were willing to brave the storm (both physically and emotionally because the crowd was not always so receptive) just to speak out on behalf of kids and families that have no voice. Amazing! Then each day we would invite the audience to come to the tent to pray for Mozambique and the prayers of these spiritually focused teens were such a blessing to hear. It was really great to see that these teens coming up are actually interested in making a difference; in fact, we had quite a few teenage boys team up to sponsor a child! I think the coolest thing during this prayer time, though, was when we were praying in a circle and a family had come to join. Then, out of nowhere their little boy starts praying for "clean water for the kids in Africa"! Once again, AMAZING!


This is the sister and the mom of the little boy who prayed learning about rice-super cute side note, she stacked the pins on the table in the background just for fun, it was so funny to watch!


So that was the fun part...the not so exciting part was trying to demonstrate the deep complexities of poverty and social justice in just a few words or even a few days. People were constantly averting their eyes and their hearts. Deep down I know that the sponsorships we got will be eternally significant so I am thankful for those. I also feel I should work on trusting in God's plan instead of mine. I mean, how can I expect people to trust God when I'm not willing to do it fully myself? :) It was also a challenge staying encouraged so as not to put people off; for each person that came to the tent we had to be motivated which meant constantly relying on God to refresh and remind me of why I was out there. While it was pretty challenging, I was glad to get a chance to grow and I totally LOVED getting to talk to people about FH!! I also had a beyond awesome team of FH staff and volunteers keeping me on track and without whose support I would've straight up crashed and burned ;) Plus I got to work with WILLET (check them out at www.willetonline.com) - their music is powerful and their heart for the poor is even more inspiring. So now, I guess just be praying that the ones who did decide to sponsor will stick with it. Also for God to start opening the hearts of those coming to GodChicks next week and everyone coming to LifeLight in September!

Over the river...

After a long day of travelling that began at 3:30am Phoenix time, I've made it to my lovely Ohio hotel room! I took a three hour flight to Atlanta during which I got to watch Spiderman and the Brazil vs. Egypt soccer game (which was amazing because I love soccer, lol). When I got there I met up with Paige (my boss) and Josh (from Teams Dept) and Paige said that the luggage lady at her airport had gotten her destination tags mixed up. So her bag full of things for the festival was headed for St. Louis! But somehow the lady had managed to fix the problem against all odds (like the impossibility of finding a black suitcase already mixed up in other flights' luggage) and praise God, the bag miraculously showed up at our baggage claim in Ohio!! Then I met the head of the Artist Program, Liz, who lives and works out of Nashville and we all had amazing Mexican food (in Ohio!). So nothing too spectacular :) but I thought I'd just share that little praise about the bag with everyone. We're just setting up tomorrow so keep praying that it won't rain!! Hope everyone has a fabulous week :-)

Second Thoughts

So in an effort to keep my first update post short enough to read :) I decided to put some of my other thoughts that came up this week in a different post. Plus I haven't really done the whole blog thing before so I've decided to try it and see how it turns out!

Something I've noticed in meeting all of the other interns and the FH staff is the continuous paradox of how similar and yet how different we are on so many levels. Honestly, I've always been kind of secretly proud of my ability to meet and listen to the backgrounds of people different from me; however, God has recently been showing me the difference between just meeting someone and actually getting involved in each others' lives. We meet people all the time and most of the time our lives stay on whatever path they were on before; we meet, we chat, and we go on. But what happens when we meet people different from us, whether it is one person or an entire government, and we need each other to reach a common goal.

It's interesting to listen to other's point of views as I meet people from all over: city vs. town, America vs. world, denomination vs. non-denomination, church building vs. development, religion vs. relationship, etc. While this is sometimes frustrating for me as a person who likes to have clear definitions of things, I'm actually learning to appreciate it, especially since my involvement with Food for the Hungry. I’m learning that it takes a different level of humility to not just recognize or put aside our differences, but to be able to actually hold on to and draw from the diverse perspectives we have because I think these backgrounds and experiences open up doors to God’s rich personality.

I've always wondered why I have so much trouble defining who I am in one singular theme, but as I learn more about development and serving, the more I see that that this is actually a very significant part of the person God made me to be. :) Can’t wait for next week! Keep praying!!!

"The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life"-Jane Addams

My first week!!

Hey everyone!

So my internship is going fabulous! :) My first day the bus was late, haha, but despite public transportation I made it downtown full of nervousness and excitement of course. The first two days were orientation where we talked about the mission and vision of Food for the Hungry; plus they gave us a chance to get to know each other, especially since the international interns kind of scattered on Wednesday.

Though I haven't really done much in terms of work, I've already learned so much about the importance of glorifying God before anything and about all the different facets of development work both here in the U.S. and out in the field. I'm leaving on Monday for Canal Fulton, Ohio for the Alive Festival (http://www.alive.org/) which will be my first big project, and Ill be talking to all sorts of people about child sponsorship and why it is such a necessary component of Food for the Hungry.

Thanks again to everyone who has done so much for me by providing spiritual, mental, emotional, and financial support. It has been so humbling watching everyone step up to help make this amazing internship happen!! I'll be doing weekly blogs to keep you all updated :)

*Thing that impacted me the most this week- "As We Forgive" documentary about Rwandan genocide and the reconciliation efforts afterward; also the great need to reach the most vulnerable first and foremost-something to think about...