Thanksgiving - First Holiday Overseas
Thanksgiving in Ecuador Thanksgiving was very different this year. For as long as I can remember, I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and extended family. Even when I moved away for college, I always traveled back for our family’s celebrations. So by the beginning of November, I was already getting worried about the start of the holiday season. I was prepared for it to be a really sad day, but I was pleasantly surprised! While I was still very sad that I couldn’t spend Thanksgiving with my family, I was so very grateful for an invitation to a friends house for a traditional… Read more
The Beauty of Christmas: You are not alone.
For me, every donation and every prayer I receive from my support team is a message: 'You are not alone.' Through them and many other ways, God reminds me over and over again that I am not alone because I have Him, but also because He has gifted me each one of my family, friends, and financial/prayer partners. I am very grateful for the miraculous and quick provision of the Lord with the fundraising because I have needed to lean on that demonstration of His faithfulness time and time again to combat the many fears I have about moving to Ecuador and living there because of the current… Read more
Thanksgiving and Christmas Overseas
Thanksgiving week was filled to the brim with cooking and connection. We celebrated with American and Australian friends/coworkers on Thanksgiving day with an impressive spread of festive food. The next day, teammates and I hosted a “Friendsgiving” at a team couple's house (a team tradition) with 4 Arab friends. We ate, voted on favorite dishes, shared what we’re thankful for, listened to the Thanksgiving story in Arabic and played games. Friendsgiving was encouraging to see how far I’ve come. Last year I was barely 6 weeks in, a month into Arabic, and getting maybe 5% (not to mention… Read more
Learning About Weakness
Leading up to Christmas, I ended up reading a lot of advent devotions by an artist named Scott Erickson that focused on the incarnation: God as a human, God with us. He is Creator and King, Alpha and Omega, King of Kings and Prince of Peace, and also was a human being. He was born as a helpless baby, bloody and gooey, and placed in a feeding trough. He had his diaper changed and, as an adult, probably had dirty, calloused feet. He cried at his friend’s funeral and prayed for God to take the cross from him, and he died naked, bleeding, and mocked. The theme I saw over and over again through… Read moreMy First Trip Home
Finishing Strong The first two weeks of July were spent wrapping everything up and preparing to come home for two weeks! It was a wonderful (albeit slightly stressful) time. The other North American on our team left a week early, so I was on my own using Spanish in a business context. It was difficult, but it was another testament to how the Lord has blessed me in the process of language learning! Sharing my New Home I had the wonderful opportunity to share my new home with my cousin in July! It was so amazing to be able to experience Ecuador with her as though it was the first time again. I… Read moreCelebrating my Birthday in a New Country
Annual Team Conference It has been a crazy month, March 3rd marked my first full month in Ecuador! That same weekend, I also went to my first ATC (Annual Team Conference). I got to meet everyone who works for Youth World that weekend which was both exciting and overwhelming. The weekend consisted of four main sessions (all Spanish!) and two break out sessions (options in English thankfully). I was really nervous going into this weekend because I had only been in language school for less than a month, but I ended up being able to understand and didn’t need a translator for the main sessions!… Read moreFirst Month in a New Country
Ending January The first month of this year was absolutely crazy. From going away parties to last minute shopping trips – January was nonstop. What a perfect ending to my time in the States. I was worried about mourning wasted time, but I can honestly say that I don’t think there was much extra time for me to grieve not utilizing. Beginning February On February 3rd I officially left the States to begin this adventure. After a whole day of traveling I got to my host family’s house a little after 10pm, so I didn’t know just how beautiful this city is! Quito is HUGE and is completely surrounded… Read moreThe Statue that Needed Water
During my second week of language school in Bangkok, Thailand, a small Buddha statue sat decorated in the lobby of my school. For Songkran, the Thai New Year that is celebrated from April 13th to 15th, people pour water over a Buddha statue's head as a gesture of honor to cool the Buddha off from the brutal Bangkok heat. All of the students milling around in the lobby during class break lined up to do it. I stood there, smiling politely, but something in my spirit said, not you. My turn came, and a teacher tried to usher me to the Buddha and gestured that I should pour water over its head,… Read more
My First Ramadan
In case you aren’t familiar: Ramadan is a month of fasting practiced by the majority religion here. People will not eat or drink anything (including water) from sunrise to sunset, and in my country, it’s illegal to eat or drink in public during this time. Many businesses, my Arabic school included, will modify their hours or be closed during the day to accommodate the fasting. After the call to prayer at sunset, most people break the fast with a large, celebratory meal, usually with family. If you’d like to know more about Ramadan, this 4 minute Youtube video might be helpful! Most of March… Read more