heart for the city

chicago, illinois

the diversity
the towering skyscrapers
the crowds
the smells
the cars rushing by
the culture
the people with their noses in maps
the constant change
so much to do & see
halting for a tourist who suddenly stopped to take a picture
seeing people dragging luggage
observing groups protesting or promoting their cause
feeling so alone in the sea of faces (loads of people unlike you)
feeling so alive in the hustle & bustle (loads of people like you)

indianapolis, indiana

feeling overwhelmed by the amount of people touching you
feeling deep despair for those on the ground with a cup of clinging change
discovering markets where you can buy everything under the sun
tapping your foot to street musicians who litter the city & fill it with eclectic sounds

it's where history is made & preserved
it's where the new & old collide
it's where transportation ranges from bicycles & one's own feet to double deckers & taxis
it's where statues immortalized heroes, leaders, rebels, & artists
it's where governments meet, conferences are had, concerts, sporting events, parades, all commence

prague, czech republic

it's the contrast of cities which compels me to love them. the idea you can see a man in a tux hop out of a sports car onto a sidewalk where a man is sleeping on a cardboard bed. the idea you can walk by a beautifully laid out park only to be bombarded by run down housing complexes. the idea that you can hear more than 3 languages being yelled, whispered, or mumbled on one bus. the idea that you can see some of the most well known art in a glamorous gallery only to walk out the door to find a street artist creating sand art on the ground. the idea that you can walk down one street & smell freshly baked bread, newly roasted coffee, dog poo & vomit. the idea that you can imagine other worlds as you enter into the cinema or theatre only to be greeted with the often rude reality as you walk out the door. the fact that some days, i absolutely love living in a city with all the light & life it brings but others i hate the darkness & death that is present.

as i live in the city of dublin, (having grow up on 86 acres of mostly cornfields & ponds) it keeps taking pieces of my heart. it captures my thoughts, my imagination, & my soul. all its character, all its detail, all its history, all its complexities suck me in to this vortex of wonder.

new york city, new york

timothy keller has a lot to say about cities

• check out this video & check out this website 
• WATCH THIS ONE on god's global urban mission. 300 years ago, less than 3% of people lived in cities, now, more than half the world lives in a city.

here's a link to christianity today's website on urban ministry.
here's an article titled, "why cities feel glorious."

quotes about the city

washington, d.c.

• "i love new york, even though it isn't mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because i belong to it." -truman capote
• "what strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need to do is stroll about with our eyes open. life swarms with innocent monsters." -charles baudelaire
• "for those who are lost, there will always be cities that feel like home." -simon van booy
• "walkers are 'practitioners of the city' for the city is made to be walked. a city is a language, a repository of possibilities, & walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities. just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents other ways to go." -rebecca solnit

  

  london, england
  

• "with cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. cities, like dreams, are made of desires & fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, & everything conceals something else." -italo calvino
• "the city gives even to children a sophisticated look that baffles the casual psychologist." honore willsie morrow
• "the city blew the windows of my brain wide open. but being in a place so bright, fast & brillant made you vertiginous with possibility: it didn't necessarily help you grasp those possibilities. i still had no idea what i was going to do. i felt directionless & lost in the crowd. i couldn't yet see how the city worked, but i began to find out." -hanif kureishi

  

  san sebastian, spain

• "it was a cruel city, but it was a lovely one; a savage city, yet it had such tenderness; a bitter, harsh, & violent catacatacomb of stone & steel & tunneled rock, slashed savagely with light & roaring, fighting a constant ceaseless warfare of men & of machinery; & yet it was so sweetly & so delicately pulsed, as full of warmth, of passion & of love, as it was full of hate." -thomas wolfe
• "a city isn't so unlike a person. they both have the marks to show they have many stories to tell. they see many faces. they tear things down & make new again." -rasmenia massoud
• "this city is what it is because our citizens are what they are." -plato 

  

  edinburgh, scotland

• "a city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a questions, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to & familiar ones to listen to again." -margaret mead 
• "a great city tends to spread out & lay bare to the public view in a massive manner all the characters & traits which are oridinarily obscured & suppressed in small communities. the city, in short, shows the good & evil in human nature in excess. it is in fact, more than any other which justifies the view that would make of the city a laboratory or clinic in which human nature & social processes may be most conveniently & profitably studied." -robert e. park 
• "i'm in love with cities i've never been to & people i've never met." -john green 



dublin, ireland

• "the city, as one finds it in history, is the point of maximum concentration for the power and culture of a community. it is the place where the diffused rays of many separate beams of life fall into focus, with gains in both social effectiveness and significance. the city is the form and symbol of an integrated social relationship: it is the seat of the temple, the market, the hall of justice, the academy of learning. here in the city the goods of civilization are multiplied and manifolded; here is where human experience is transformed into viable signs, symbols, patterns of conduct, systems of order. here is where the issues of civilization are focused: here, too, ritual passes on occasion into the active drama of a fully differentiated and self-conscious society." -lewis mumford
• "in cities you have more image of god per square inch than anywhere else on earth." -timothy keller

detroit, michigan

madrid, spain

amsterdam, the netherlands

if only in my dreams

i'm dreaming tonight of a place i love

even more than i usually do

and although i know it's a long road back

i promise you 

i'll be home for christmas

you can count on me

please have snow and mistletoe

and presents under the tree

christmas eve will find me

where the love light beams

i'll be home for christmas if only in my dreams

christmas eve will find me

where the love light beams

i'll be home for christmas

if only in my dreams 

if only in my dreams

as the holidays roll around, the thoughts of home cross our minds more often. we think about taking a plane, a train, a bus or a car to the place we call "home." there are numerous songs, poems, books & movies about this word...home...what is it?

home is...

where the wifi connects automatically,

where you can drink straight from the carton,

where family lives,

where a bookshelf full of your imaginary worlds reside,

where a room stores all your possessions,

where you can laugh & cry without worry,

where you're deepest desires & burdens can be shared,

where you welcome others,

where you make sweet memories,

where you get into bed each night,

where you fee loved & open to be yourself,

where you decorate the walls & put furniture,

the list goes on & on...

can it be more than one place? how long does it take to call a place home? can you have more than one home? is it even a place? is it a feeling? 

home is where the heart is

where you are, i am home

"when i look at you, i'm home." (dory speaking to marlin)

for harry, it's at hogwarts
for the weasleys it's the burrow
dorothy spoke of it while tapping her red shoes together saying, "there's no place like home"
home sweet home
homesick
homeward bound
home for the holidays

one of my favorite movies is garden state & there's a great scene about home...

andrew: you know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? all of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your stuff, that idea of home is gone.

sam: i still feel at home in my house.

andrew: you'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. you feel like you can never get it back. it's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. you won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. i don't know, but i miss the idea of it, you know. maybe that's all family really is. a group of people that miss the same imaginary place.

"a group of people that miss the same imaginary place." for believers in Christ, there is a place we long to be. the place where He is & where He calls us to be. in john 14, Jesus says, "do not let your hearts be troubled. trust in God, trust also in Me. in my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. you know the way to the place where I am going." 2 corinthians 5:1-10 speaks of our heavenly dwelling. it speaks of an eternal home we have in heaven. one which is not built by men, one which we long for, one which He has waiting for us. it is this home i find most comforting. this home is wherever He is. wherever we are, we are home in Him. we can rest in Him & find comfort in Him. so as i spend my first christmas away from "home" i will take great delight in knowing He is home. i will cherish the precious memories of past christmases at "home" & i will look forward to those yet to be made.

links to some songs about home...

switchfoot's "home"

birdy's "home"

dave barnes' "home"

quotes about home...

• winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. -edith sitwell
• thank you. mr. rochester, for your great kindness. i am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you is my home-my only home. -charlotte brontë in jane erye
• the ache for home lives in all of us. the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. -maya angelou
• i believe that one can never leave home. i believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one's skin, at the extreme corners of one's eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe. -maya angelou
• a true home is one of the most sacred of places. it is a sanctuary into which men flee from the world's perils and alarms. it is a resting-place to which at close of day the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow. it is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into discipline and strength, where character is molded. - j.r. miller
• home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration. -charles dickens
• for he came to perceive that since people were his study, his teachers, the objects through which he could satisfy his persistent wonder about life itself, his own being among others, wherever he lived for the moment, there was his home. pearl s. buck

tree at Christ Church

tree in Smithfield

tree on O'Connell Street

we got a christmas tree

we made it through the Santa Dash

identity

what defines us? how is our identity sculpted? what makes us who we are? our name, our nationality, our race, our gender, our family, where we live, where we're from, what we do for a living, our achievements, what we do when no one's looking, what we like, what we don't like, our memories, our past, our future, our friends, our spouse/significant other, our co-workers, the face looking back at us in the mirror, our fingerprints, our expectations for ourselves, others' expectations for us?

being in a new place requires you to meet a lot of people. i meet someone new almost everyday! lots of shaking of hands, sometimes a hug, & every so often, they don't understand my name because of the my accent (i then proceed to spell it & they get it, well...most of the time)! there's a lot of first impressions. lots of initial encounters.

we "look/search" for ourselves, we try to "find" ourselves, we size up one another, we get to know one another, we discover each others' identities. we're obsessed with "selfies" & revealing our "identity" to everyone who clicks on our profile. but what is our identity stripped down to its bones? who are we at the core of our being? what makes us that way?

i've found myself questioning my identity a lot. i question why i am the way i am. for i am not who i was & have yet to discover who i will become. but what makes me the "me" of today? i've found that the people i'm around have a lot to do with who i am. not in a way that is fake or misleading but in a way that i'm overly sensitive to who is around me (this affects me & those i encounter). my confidence soars through the roof if i have a dear friend nearby. i'm more of myself when i feel at ease or free to be me. i am more myself if i know someone else's identity. if i can relate to the person i speaking with then i feel more "at home" & i guess this is at the core of our humanity. we want to be accepted, loved, & feel a part of something.

so if you know me super well, you'll know i'm not the most patriotic person, hence my living the life of an "ex-pat"! but living in a country that's not your own you're faced with your nationality often. there are countless discussions i've had with people where the US or americans come up. truthfully, it's usually negative but overall people here love americans & are accepting. but the fact i'm american will never leave me. it's where i was born, it's where i can vote, it's where my (most of) family lives, it's where my accent comes from, it's the country on my passport. it has shaped my values, my assumptions, my expectations, my mindset, my worldview, etc. i can't escape it. it's part of me. it's a part i didn't choose much like a lot of other aspects of my identity. 

if there are parts of our identity that we can't control, change, or manipulate, then what's at the core of it? what's the basic substance of our identity? truthfully, i don't know, i don't have an answer to that question. i guess, right now, i feel like my core identity is a "child of God". from this seemingly simple aspect of my identity comes a lot of who i am, how i think, what i believe, how i treat others, etc.

what the bible says about identity:

• genesis 1:27, "so God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male & female He created them." we are made in the image of our Creator God. there's huge significance to this in terms of our role in this world, how we treat our bodies, how we treat others', etc.
• isaiah 43:1, but now thus says the Lord, He who created you, o jacob, He who formed you, o israel: "fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine. we are His. we are God's. He calls us by name & knows us better than we will ever know ourselves for He created us.
• john 15:15, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. we are Jesus' friends, we are partakers in what He does, & He is close to us.
• ephesians 4:22-24, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life & is corrupt through deceitful desires, & to be renewed in the spirit of your minds & to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness & holiness. old self vs. new self. we are renewed! how amazing is that! we are renewed from our old selves that are full of greed, pride, guilt, shame, & sin! we must put on our new self!
• 1 peter 2:9, "but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. we are chosen. we are wanted by God. we are also called out of something into something else, something better. 
• 1 john 3:1-3, see what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; & so we are. the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. beloved, we are God's children now, & what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. & everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. holy cow, this passage is packed full of significant info on identity. the fact that we shall be like Jesus when He comes, that we are children of God, & it all has to do with God's love!

while thinking about identity, i found some great quotes!

• “man is not who he thinks he is; he is what he hides.” andre malraux
• “who is it that can tell me who i am?” william shakespeare
• "if you asked me now who i am, the only answer i could give with any certainty would be my name. for the rest: my loves, my hates, down even to deepest desires, i can no longer say whether these emotions are my own, or stolen from those i once so desperately wished to be." evelyn waugh
• "i am the combined effort of everyone i've ever known." chuck palahniuk
• "can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?" danielle laporte
• "i am not what i think i am, and i am not what you think i am. i am what i think you think i am." robert bierstedt
• "it is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt & pity. one every feels his two-ness--an american, a negro; two souls, two thoughts, two reconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." w.e.b. dubois
• "be a bush if you can't be a tree. if you can't be a highway, just be a trail. if you can't be a sun, be a star. for it isn't by size that you win or fail. be the best of whatever you are." martin luther king, jr. 

aungier street (where the Y is) is looking festive

on the bus by myself...happens a lot because i get off/on at the last stop

still looks like fall despite the christmas lights

watching Gilmore Girls via a projector with a fire = awesome 

the custom house on the river liffey

comfort

this week, i've been sick & it's got me thinking about comfort. if you've ever been away from home or an unfamiliar place while sick, you know how it feels to be in discomfort while in an uncomfortable place. when all the remedies you usually use to get better aren't available or accessible. to be uncomfortable in a place you've yet to feel completely at home in (not a bad thing, just the reality).

what gives you comfort? what makes you feel at home? what causes you to smile with delight or sigh with relief? i found this word, "gezelligheid," which is a dutch (no, i don't know dutch) abstract noun, depending on context, can be translated as convivial, cozy, fun, quaint, or nice atmosphere, but can also mean belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. such a great word! not really sure how to pronounce it but i like it. what is your gezelligheid?

for me, it's... a cup of delicious coffee/tea, a big bowl of spaghetti, jamming to some great music, laughing with someone who truly knows & loves me, cuddling up in a blanket with a great book, having dinner with my family around the table, times of worship, and falling on my knees to pray.

those last two strike/surprise me. i don't know if those would have been on my list of top comforts a year ago yet these two have crept in over the last few years to be a true sources of comfort for me. where do we find our truest comfort? is it in things? is it in people? is the answer ever prayer, the bible, or God? should it be? comfort is defined as a state of physical ease/freedom from pain or constraint or consolation for grief or anxiety. where do we find ease or freedom? what causes us to feel free or at ease? in whom do we find this freedom & ease?

the psalms are littered with words of comfort. psalm 23, a classic, paints a beautiful picture of comfort with a pasture, paths of righteousness, quiet waters, & His rod & staff. psalm 147 speaks of the Lord binding the brokenhearted. psalm 46 speaks of God being our refuge & strength, an ever-present help in trouble. psalm 73 says that God is the strength of our hearts & our portion forever. 

2 thessalonians 2:16-17 says, now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, & God our Father, who loved us & gave us eternal comfort & good hope through grace, comfort your hearts & establish them in every good work & word. there is a sense of encouragement here. a genuine sense of the triune God cheering us up/on.

i really like what 2 corinthians 1:3-4 says, "blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies & God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." how great are the words, "God of all comfort." such reassuring & frankly, comforting words! no matter where in the world we find ourselves or whatever situation, the Lord is there to comfort us. whether we're sick, healthy, old, young, broken, optimistic, mourning, homesick, away from loved ones, in our favorite place, He's there to comfort us. He wants to be & is our comfort. we are to comfort others with that same comfort. the comfort that comes from Him is fed through us to others. we are to be comforted by Him to comfort others! He meets us in our afflictions to bring freedom & ease. may we rest in that comfort.

i'm continuing to find my way in this still slightly uncomfortable/unfamiliar city. here are a few pictures of the places i've been recently; places where i have found comfort in simply discovering their history & beauty. 

the long room at Trinity College

General Post Office on O'Connell Street

Garden of Remembrance near Parnell Square

honeymoon's over

i've hit the point...the truth profs & cross-cultural workers have told me about, "there will come a time when all the fun little things start to annoy you! when things aren't so great, happy, & cool anymore." simple things like the rain, riding the bus, grocery shopping, flushing my toilet (you have to jiggle it about 5 times before it will flush), have become mundane, easy, & at times, frustrating. 

i've hit the stage where the reality of my 2 YEAR stay here is becoming more & more visible to me. when i arrived, i was joyful, excited, full of wonder, & ready for all the unknowns. now those thrilling unknowns (&there are still a lot) are becoming stale. they are becoming frustrations instead of wonders to be discovered. 

but as i step into this new phase, i remember the last month with great joy & fondness. i look back on the 4 weeks with a smile. a new place to call home, new people to meet & get to know, & new adventures. i remember how incredibly faithful the Lord has been. how He has provided for me & others. how gracious & merciful He has been as i stumbled. i also remember He is in the mundane. He's in the daily routine of our lives, that's where He meets us. He meets us at those simple things like a sliver of sunshine through a tree branch, a child's laugh, the kindness of a stranger, a good conversation with a friend, a hug from a family member, reading a good book, getting into a warm bed, drinking, eating; in all that we do, God is there. He's right there! 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." in all that we do, we can & should give glory to the God. listen to this song by Gungor about God being right here with us.

in moving out of the honeymoon stage, i long for it to continue, i reach out to hold on to it as a lifeline. in a sense it will linger as i continue to learn about the place in which i dwell. i will continue to say the wrong word or completely misunderstand someone. i will still have trouble understanding 2 dubs (dubliners) when they speak to one another & i will still find joys in the new little things (hopefully). wanting to cling to this great stage reminds me of the time Jesus spoke of entering the Kingdom as a little child in Matthew 18. He says, "I tell you the truth, unless you change & become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." clare, my housemate, thinks i'm kinda weird for my love & interest in children. i guess i find them interesting because of their curiosity, their truthfulness, & their genuine wonder. they want to discover, to know, to learn. that's the way i was when i arrived (& hope to continue to be). i wanted to know everything, discover new places, meet new people, ask them questions, etc. i am a child in this place, in this culture. how beautiful this picture is of us as children of God in His kingdom. how humbled we are & how curious we should be about His kingdom, His people, & His heart! 

the YMCA where i volunteer

alley near the YMCA

first house dinner & pumpkin carving with my housemates

James Joyce Centre

St. Patrick's Cathedral (beautiful even when it's raining)

cuLturE

culture...
what is it? where does it come from? what/who defines it? how can it change & who gets to change it? what is it not? does it look the same to all who are "in" it? is it/can it be good/bad or right/wrong? can you truly be "in" or "out" of a culture? is it possible to be a part of only one culture? if you could take a snapshot of your culture what would it look like?
i tell people i'm from the States & then they ask which state & i say, Indiana (most have no idea where it is). but what does that really mean? what does that say about who i am? how does being from the US & the Indiana culture affect who i am, the way i act, how i think, what i believe to be true, & how i see the world around me?

one of the parts of culture that has had an impact on me recently is assumption. the things the people "in" the culture take for granted, the norms, etc. the things a "native" to the culture probably doesn't think about. maybe it's just culture in general that has hit me hard because if culture is all the history, customs, symbols, language, beliefs, ways of living, food, etc. that make up a society then maybe it's the idea of culture that has been on my mind. the confusion of it, the intertwined-ness of it, the variations of it, etc. 

think of your culture. whatever/wherever it is. may it's the US, maybe it's your school or your work, maybe it's your home or your church. now think of things that a complete stranger wouldn't know if they walked in the door or hit the airport floor in an American terminal. think of things you take for granted that you know how to do. maybe it's turning on the stove, maybe it's knowing who to ask for help, maybe it's knowing when you're being cheated by a street merchant, maybe it's whether or not you should take off your shoes, maybe it's knowing every song on the radio, maybe it's understanding your accent or language. these are things that strangers to your culture would not necessarily know. 


ymca: this week was about the same as last week at the Y. it's been really good to get to know the staff & hear about what goes on at the Y. it's been fun to laugh & joke around with them. i've been thinking more about the history of the Y here & around the world, it's pretty interesting! click here for history of the Y.

innovista: we had our weekly team meeting, our weekly prayer meeting, brainstormed about Rise (program for the youth), & i attended my first Rise session. it was great to see the program at work & to see the students learning! i'm excited to see the program at work each week & see how the students progress as they learn about leadership & how they can help change their community!

brainstorming for Rise

last weekend, my housemate, grace, & i walked to a farmers' market which was so great! it was very sunny & warm (rare here) so it was a perfect day to be outside. simply beautiful!

fridays tend to be my "touristy" days as i usually walk around the city & discover new places. this helps me understand the city more & allows me to get a better grasp on where things are. last friday i went to the National Museum of Ireland which was awesome! so much old stuff!!! i absolutely loved it! things from like 1500 BC, you know, no biggie! yesterday, i ended up at a REALLY old church this time. and when i say old, i mean super old! it was established in 1190! it's called st. audeon's church, check out it's wikipedia page here.

cross at the national museum

remains of the Portlester chapel at st. audoen's church

st. anne's chapel within st. audoen's church

His provision

it's been amazing to witness the Lord's provision & the fact that He has gone before me. i've simply sat & watched His handiwork play out this last week. i have heard, felt, & seen things the Lord had tucked away in the deepest places of my heart & is now revealing. it's a beautiful thing to be where He wants you! it's a wonderful thing to follow His lead (not knowing what's ahead) only to laugh at how perfect it is. it truly is beyond my dreams, it's more than i could have ever intentionally planned.

ymca: this week i sat in the entry way at the Y to meet people & observe what goes on there. it was great to chat with staff over tea & smile at all the little kids coming in & out (may have seemed like a creeper!). there is a lot of activity there with the gym, fitness classes, & the creche (kind of like preschool/daycare). it's been great to get to know people! check out the Y's website here.

there's a great coffee shop near the Y that i like to go to.
stephen (my new barista friend) makes awesome designs!

innovista: had out first true team meeting yesterday which was good. i am very excited to be a part of innovista & all it stands for & feels called to do! it's great to see the passion for youth, young adults, & leadership in my co-workers! we chatted about what leadership actually is & how we define it. as i was listening to a recorded talk (homework for my Tempo training) by innovista's founder, jason, i just laughed because much of what i was hearing him say & a lot of what we had talked about leadership, i had written in my final ministry paper senior year at Hope College! it was so great to thank the Lord for people sharing a vision & passion for something! so great how the Lord works! check out innovista international's website here. check out innovista ireland's website here.

the innovista office

i still (& probably always will) love walking around & discovering new places. yesterday i literally just jumped on a bus, i think it was the 83... i was going to meet someone & knew i needed to go north so i jump hoped on the first bus that came up to the stop. haha, i then just saw where it went & got off when i knew where i was. i almost laughed out loud at myself on the bus but then thought that would be weird.

sunset from my street. i was walking to the park...which i do a lot!

all 4 of my housemates have now moved in so it's becoming more active & lively at the big yellow house! also it has a lot more stuff in it, useful things like sharp knives (i had been eating my cucumber without cutting it up, just taking bites out of it every so often), pots, loads of mugs, & so much more! we played dutch blitz (takes my back to cluster days in dykstra freshman year at Hope!), watch the IT Crowd (i think it's a british show...), & chat about our days. it's such a blessing to have people to chat with about how things are going & laugh & joke around! praise the Lord for clare, grace, emma & amy! :)

my housemate, clare, & i grocery shopping! 

we made our first fire in our fireplace (it's pretty chilly here!)
and i ate my first irish chocolate which was delicious!

pray requests:

• patience, patience, patience with learning things & getting to know the ropes
• discernment as i meet people to speak and/or listen as the Lord guides
• confidence in the areas the Lord has gifted me
• reminder to slow down & take time with people, with eating, with prayer, with everything as life can become hectic & out of control as i get settled
• continual awareness of the Lord's provision & how He is at work