How to survive in peru

Here are ten tips that I have collected from my lived experience about how to survive in Peru:

1. Have toilet paper on your person at ALL times
2. Rid yourself of personal space issues while using public transportation
3. Refuse as much food as you can politely (because you are served so much!)
4. Look around you in EVERY direction before crossing the street (even on one way streets)
5. Use earplugs for sleeping
6. Use earplugs for studying
7. Talk with Peruvians whenever possible
8. Do a celebratory dance when you see the sun (in Lima)
9. Bring warm clothing, lots of it
10. Comfortable walking shoes are a must

Those are all the tips that I can think of at the present moment. I´m enjoying my time in Peru very much so far. I am learning and experiencing much. Lima is a bustling, diverse, huge city that is experiencing much development and is full of beautiful people.

Peace

There are two things that I am certain of: uncertainty in life and the faithfulness of God.

I could write volumes about how God has guided me, been at work in my life, how I've changed, what I've learned, how I've grown and developed as an individual, etc. Instead I'll share with you some of the pieces that have helped me along in my journey:

Lamentations 3:19-24

"I remember my affliction and my wandering,
    the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
    and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind
    and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. 

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him."

2 Timothoy 2:11-13

"Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we died with him,
    we will also live with him;
if we endure,
    we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
    he will also disown us;
if we are faithless,
    he remains faithful,
    for he cannot disown himself."

Psalm 121:1-2

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth."

Generosity

My life has been marked by the generosity of others.

I recognize that everything that I have been entrusted with thus far in my life I could have never have achieved without the love, support, and generous giving from an amazing base of supporters who have believed in my over the years.

I acknowledge this and yet still I put my hope not in government, not in family, not in friends, not in money, wealth, resources, but in the Lord. I say in my heart as the psalmist wrote, 

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth." -Psalm 121:1-2

Thinking about all the opportunities I have been afforded and how I have been a recipient many gracious gifts over the years, my heart overflows with gratitude. I only hope that I am able to be a blessing to others in the same way that I have been so amply blessed.

This verse has been the one running through my brain like a broken record as this gratitude has been deeply resonating with me:

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth." -1 John 3:16-18

My friends joke about me having only one facial expression: a huge smile. Whether I'm happy, excited, sad, mad, injured, what you'll likely see is a smile. I smile when I frown, when I cry, even when I'm seriously injured (see photo below); I have come to realize that this can be a huge source of confusion. Though admittedly I sometimes use my smile to mask my sadness, fear, anxiety, or anger, I would say 96% of the time my facial expression is a true reflection of what my heart is feeling, even if the circumstance and my face don't match according to what it "should be". What my heart feels is joy from God, whose generosity I am most deeply grateful for above all else!

Photo credit: Anna? I smiled the entire night that I busted my head open, though I was in some serious pain and extremely sick.

The kingdom of heaven is like

I woke up with the parable of the pearl of great value in my mind one day last week. I got up and read the passage, which got me thinking. This blog post is a product of my pensive mood as I have been chewing on this. It's still raw, so be gentle with me.

The kingdom of heaven. Or as Jo-Ann Brant would be proud of me perhaps to have learned from her class, the reign of heaven/reign of God.

The kingdom of heaven is like…

There is such depth to Scripture. So the kingdom of heaven could mean: the literal place of heaven, the kingdom of God on earth, the presence of God, the value of a relationship with God, or perhaps elements of salvation, justification, sanctification, mercy, grace; or all these things wrapped up in one? Yes. And I don’t know. This is what Jesus says in a parable:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

-Matthew 13:44-46

The kingdom of heaven appears to you, comes upon you. When you find it and realize that there is nothing else like it, nothing else worthy of investing in, then you will sell all of your possessions literal and figurative so that you may obtain it.

The kingdom of heaven is sought out. There is nothing in this life worth living for. Not wealth, not fame, nothing. When you discover that heaven is the only thing of value in life, it is the treasure that you have always been looking for, you will be compelled to sell everything to have it.

Ironically, for the greatest and most valuable gift available, there are not enough resources that you could ever obtain to trade in for it. Thanks be to God for his son Jesus, the savior of the world, standing in the place as the pure payment so that I may receive the greatest gift without cost.

This makes me think of the following first few verses in Isaiah 55: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

And finally from Matthew 6:21, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

I have been thinking a lot lately about where my heart is and what motives lie within; my mind is swirling with thoughts, my own mingled with memorized snipits of Scripture.

You could win a pair of vibram fivefingers!

Alright friends, this is just a quick shout out for an awesome website I've stumbled across recently called MyFiveFingers.com. They give away a pair of Vibram FiveFingers every month! Check out this website for great tips, reviews on barefoot running stuff, deals on running gear, etc. Coolest of all, you can sign up for a chance to win a pair of Vibram FiveFingers! Or sign up and win a pair then gift them to me. :) Here's the site: http://www.myfivefingers.com/fivefingers-free/

Also, here are a few of my "trophies" or "prizes" as I like to see them as from some of my more recent runs.

A beautiful Catalpa tree flower (they smell amazing!)

A literal prize, a medal for placing first in my age category 20-29 in a 5K I ran May 26th

A beautiful sunset reflected in these clouds in the Eastern sky

 I don't have pictures for these next two, but some other little inspirational "trophies" that I recently found on my path, literally: 

• The verse John 7:38 written over and over again in sidewalk chalk, presumably by VBS kids outside the church I ran by.

"Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."

•  On a trail that I was running on written in sidewalk chalk were a bunch of phrases and pictures that were encouraging such as, "don't give up!", "almost there!" and "the gates of inspiration" along with a picture of grandiose gates, etc. On a hot, humid, pollen-laden run, these words got me through my last mile when I was tired, hot, and felt like I was breathing through straws. :)

Get out there and move! I hope you're having a fabulous summer!

Maple scholars: 20 questions edition

I have just completed the second of eight weeks of the Maple Scholars Program I am participating in this summer for my school, Goshen College. Time for an update!

So what is this program you're involved with anyway?

Maple Scholars is an interdisciplinary research program. There are fourteen scholars this year working on projects ranging from algal biomass production to fair allocation to piano pedagogy methods. Students apply to work under a faculty member on their particular project, and once accepted work in conjunction with them for eight weeks during the summer.

 What is your project?

I am doing social research with Bob Yoder, the campus pastor. The research question I am working with is " how to strengthen Goshen College as a faith mentoring environment". My research is part of a larger work Bob had originally started under the college's Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL); it is a mixed methods project, but I am primarily working with qualitative data.

So what do you do for forty hours a week?

For the first week I did some pre-research; I looked at two other national longitudinal studies that are related to our topic, I have read over transcripts and listened to interviews from the two previous years of research, and have generally became acquainted with the subject matter. This included looking at the quantitative data compiled from two years of survey results sent out to the entire student body as well as faculty, staff, and administrators. I have edited some transcriptions as was needed, emailed the list of possible interviewees, set up interviews, etc.

Week two has involved me conducting interviews. After I interview the fifteen to twenty students, I will then transcribe the interviews word for word. Once those are all transcribed I will be working with NVIVO software to organized the data I have collected and look for the themes that emerge.

 Friday mornings we gather for a symposium to share the progress on our projects with one another.

Are you enjoying yourself?

Yes! I love this stuff! The project is the perfect meld between my two passions in life and my two majors. God and people. Sociology and Bible & Religion. I love both the nerdy sociological coding aspect and am also deeply interested in finding ways to equip the campus to be the type of environment that is holistically meeting the needs of the community that it is comprised of.

Do you have a life outside of this program?

I'm also running, hanging out with friends, cooking/baking great food, and generally really enjoying myself and the summer so far. You can write me! Or email me, or call/text me, or send a message via facebook or carrier pigeon. I would love to hear from you about your summer updates!

Lessons learned

As I think back on this past year, my mind is reeling with all of the things that I have learned about leadership, friendship, relating to others, God, and the like. Below is one that is not new, but carries a deeper profoundness than before perhaps. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and wiser; in all reality it is probably more connected to the grace of God in my life, and his answering my desperate cries for the desire to be a more caring and understanding individual.

Listen to the stories of others - This is something that we did in my RA team this year. DaVonne made space for each of us to share our faith journeys with one another during our weekly meetings. I will speak for myself saying that it really helped me to see where my colleagues were coming from, the experiences that shaped them and brought them up until this moment. This gave me a deeper insight into the way they live, their gifts, struggles, etc. I really appreciated the vulnerability we shared as a group and I felt as though it helped us to get to know one another a lot better.

For me, this realization all boils down to this: everyone has a story; don't judge someone before you take the time to either listen to them or walk a mile in their shoes.

Yoder RAs for the 2011-12 school year, I love and appreciate each of you so much! I would like to say thanks you for great year of memories to Audrey, Austin, Julz, Justin, Luis, and Martin! And a huge shout out to our fearless leader, DaVonne. We couldn't have done it without you.