school is almost over!

Yay! I have an Arabic test tomorrow, and then only one more week until we leave for Minnesota. I am skipping the whole last week of school, haha.

It's a little weird to be completely done with school for the first time ever. I have my Associates degree now, and of course I want to go back to school after Mission Year, but still... I'm done. For real done. And I'm such an adult now... haha, not. I'm going to miss my Arabic class buddies. We've been hanging out and studying together since last fall, and now only one more week together... I am hoping to be able to get some contact info from them and get back in touch when I return to Wash after MY. We'll see.

Btw, mewithoutYou's new cd is awesome. Yes.

Peace.

waiting

For us 09-10 MY-ers, last month was mostly made up of waiting for our city assignments. I think that every day one of us would comment on our facebook group and say something like,“Everyday that passes where I don’t receive an email telling me what city I’m in causes the suspense to kill a little piece of me inside" (thanks for that little gem, Hassan). April 31st we complained and commiserated all day…. Some of us stayed up past midnight waiting to receive an email telling us where we would be spending the next year (I went to sleep, content to find out in the morning. Haha). I’m sure the rest of my fellow 09-10 team members that I wasn’t corresponding with on facebook also felt the same anticipation.

And now we finally know!! I am placed in Atlanta, which I could not be happier about! When I read that line in the email, I literally felt jittery with excitement. My hands were shaking and it was really funny.

And now we have to wait some more. Waiting is really hard.

I really need to try and focus on what is going on here at home and not give everything a halfhearted effort because I am looking forward to the future so much… But it’s hard. I keep thinking, “I’ll just be leaving in a few months, so why…(fill in the blank).” I’m trying to think of Mission Year as already starting and trying to live out the commitment to “Love God. Love people. Nothing else matters” now, before I move to Atlanta.. And not doing so great a job of it, honestly! It’s also hard not really knowing what to prepare myself for, or how to even prepare at all.

I’m trying to wait patiently… and failing.

Mission Year intro

If you’re reading this blog you probably already know something about my plans for 2009-2010. Last September as I approached the last few quarters of my time at Bellevue Community College and started making plans about what I would do next, I came across the website for Mission Year. The idea of spending a year in service to some of the poorest communities in the US immediately caught my interest and I think I read every single page of the website in one sitting.. and then again the next day. Long story short: I am doing Mission Year 09-10 and am crazy excited. (if you don't know what Mission Year is, look it up because I am tired of explaining it... www.missionyear.org)

I hope to learn how to live in community with other believers, understand the viewpoint of the poor, and be able to translate my love for Jesus into purposefully living to serve others. I want to be challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone. I have become so dissatisfied with our culture and the way I see myself conform to its ideas of consumerism and individualism. I know that isn’t the way Jesus wants me to live and I think Mission Year is a great way to learn how to start living the way I need to. I can’t wait for this fall and all the things I will learn as I go through this year, and I hope any of you who read this will enjoy going through them with me!