Hello from Miami

Well the Colombia team is finally in the final part of the journey. We are spending the weekend in Miami and it has been a blast! We went to the beach today. We went to an island called Key Biscayne and it is one of the islands that starts the Florida Keys. It was gorgous and here are some pictures. The first is of downtown Miami, the second is of a coconut in a palm tree and the third is Rachel holding a coconut

my host dad and brother

I, the Lord of sea and sky
I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save:

I who made the stars and night
I will make the darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go Lord
If you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

I the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my people's pain,
I have wept for love of them,
They turn away...

I will break their hearts of stone
Fill their hearts with love alone
I will speak my word to them
Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go Lord
If you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

I, the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame
I will set a feast for them
My hand will save:

Finest bread I will provide
Till their hearts be satisfied
I will give my life to them
Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go Lord
If you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart

last week in Chicago

I am currently in my last week here and it seems to be going slow. It has been a week out of our routine and I found I had a lot of down time. I seem to have slept in more since I am not waking up at 7 three mornings a week to go to the nursing home. We have been preparing to leave on our assignments but it will be nice to have 5 days of vacation at home to spend with friends and family and relaxing. I might take a trip to Washington DC or Baltimore one day. We shall see. It will also be nice to spend time with Nanen as well as church Sunday, tuesday and thursday. I am definately making it a goal to be at church at least 2 times this week. But definately Thursday as it will be my last time there until June. I am excited for Colombia and to see how God will work in me. I have learned this past year to expect the unexpected also a quote that Nanen keeps reminding me of is God calls things that aren't as if they are. So sometimes we are absolutely sure something is not going to happen but then it does. I am not thinking of any specific situation at the moment but I am sure there has been times in my life when that has been the case. I have really enjoyed living in the city these past months and it just confirmed my love for the city. I don't live in the nicest section (as I have said before the average annual income here is 15,000) but it is not the worst either and I have seen some drug trades but I never seen any violence in this part unlike some of the other parts of the city where violence is more prevalent. There are also sections of the city that are alot nicer and wealthier than where I live but all in all this my section is good. I enjoy it.

reflection

So I thought I would give an update of my last few days. I have been very busy. It started out with Nanen arriving after driving 11 hours in a car from Lancaster. He came out to see me and we had a blast. We went down by the lake, spent time with another couple that are good friends of ours (they live in Chicago), went to church, and just enjoyed the city and being together. This is also our last week at our service assignments. I have really enjoyed working at the nursing home and buffing floors but most of all enjoyed seeing the looks of happiness on the residents faces. I have been greatly challenged in many ways and most of my fears have been dealt with. I feel more confident and more prepared for this next stage in life. Well that is all I have for tonight.

host family info

I found out a little bit about my host family in Colombia. Here is the description of my family.
Pastor Jaime Guevara. He is married to Mitzie and they
have three children, Natalia (9), Isabela (7) and Samuel (2). They
are pastors of the La Mesa Mennonite Church. They live very close to
the school and church

I will write more later.

Yesterday at work I had an interesting conversation with one of the ladies that lives in the retirement home. Through conversations with her it became obvious that she is a very religious Catholic. She is constantly praying the rosary, and kept saying over and over that there are some priests in Wisconsin who are praying for her soul and will pray for her when she dies. She also said she does not want instant death because she wants time to ask for forgiveness. She is also very paranoid. So much so that when we moved her into another room so that we could strip and re wax her floor, there was an abstract painting in the room that this lady claims she saw a face of a women in it and that this women was evil. When we got done with her room and moved her back into it she was so happy because she said she would not have been able to sleep due to the women looking down at her. She also has accused others of taking money and precious jewelry among other things. I hope I am not like that when I am elderly. It is sad to see someone like that.

a hello from chicago

Well I have 20 minutes before our group gets together to watch the TV show House. I have only seen it once but it seems to be a show that many of my group mates enjoy so I have decided to see what all the hype is about and watch it with them. Today (as we do every Tuesday)we had a hospitality meal for lunch. The pastor (Megan Reamer) of the Chicago Community Mennonite Church and the pastor (Orlando Reddakopp) of the First Church of the Brethern came over for lunch. We have a very good relationship with Megan and Orlando due to the fact that their churches are right next door to our house. I find Megan very interesting for several reasons. One is that she is they only female Menonite pastor that I have seen who has her nose pierced! And secondly at age 32 she just recently became engaged but yet she doesn't wear an engagement ring. When asked about that her responses were 1.) It was either both her and her finance wear engagement rings or none of them do and 2.) Her and her finance decided they would take the money that they would invest in a ring and use it towards a digital camara to take pictures of special moments and memories and the idea of memories lasting forever. I thought that way of looking at it was interesting. Well this show is about to start so I will go now.

hmmmm

When I joined RAD I felt good about joining it because there was a certain sense of security about an issue that is extremely important to me. Recently however, that security has (through circumstances that are out of anyone's control) been compromised. (Yes I am still ok and loving chicago and the people that I am with and the program is wonderful.) However there are 2 ways of how I could answer this. Choice A would be letting down a whole bunch of people and choice B would be me doing something that would be letting myself down. One of the things I love about this program is that RAD allows us to explore issues like this.......anyway back to my real reason for this blog. Being an extrovert I sometimes find it easier to talk about things. Though I am not going to say what that issue was I will say that I am struggling with being ok with doing what I feel is best for me even if others don't understand my reasoning. Does this make any sense? Is it ok for me to want to do what is best for me even if others don't understand it? Life..........it's all about questions and answers.

time flies

Wow I can't believe that there is only 3 weeks left of my time in Chicago. This time has gone by really fast. The biggest thing I have learned during my time here is that it is ok to follow my heart even though people don't understand. I also am learning that I don't have to please everyone. I am learning to be comfortable making decisions based on what my heart feels and what makes me happy and not worry about what others might think. For me this is a huge step because I have always been concerned about what others thought and made my decisions based on others opinions and not necessarly where my heart really is. Well I have class now but I will write more tonight.