Moving, and reading, and coffee, Oh my!

Hello! This is the first time I have blogged since the end of my YAV year, but since I am staying in Nashville for the time being, and hopefully still serving God and others with my spiritual gifts, I have decided to keep the blog title.  Maybe it will be a force, albeit and small one, that keeps me intentional about service after a year when it was every day and inevitable.

As I mentioned, I am back in Nashville.  I packed up my room at the Shed (leaving only the dust bunnies and brown recluse spiders), said goodbye to my intentional community (who have become such an important part of my life over this year), loaded my AC-less wagon, and headed to SC for a week of family, rest, and re-connection.  South Carolina was wonderful.  I was able to spend some quality time with my parents and grandparents.  Even my city slicker brother came home from the Nation’s capital for part of my visit.  I was also able to be present to watch a dear friend of mine get married. It was a beautiful service with a loving, family atmosphere.

On my way back to Nashville, I took my time and made several stops to visit people that I hadn’t seen is a while.  Visiting friends is always good for the soul.

Well, I made it back to Nashville just in time to unload my car in the horrific heat and get ready for Rally Day at my church.  One of the responsibilities I have picked up for this year is being Sunday School Superintendent, so needless to say, many hours were put in for our Rally Day festivities. I also had a couple interviews with a family that I will be nannying for this year and did all of the paperwork and pre-job training for my job as a part time preschool assistant.  In case you are keeping track, that is three part time jobs that we are up to.  It may sound crazy, but with these past two weeks of having very little to do, I am very excited to be busy again.

So now that I am done moving and am awaiting my next steps of my jobs a week from today, I am spending a week reading, blogging, and being trendy by spending tons of time in coffee houses.  Luckily for my very patient friends, this means that I have FINALLY finished the book for our traveling book club and will be putting it into the mail as soon as I finish this post and head to the library.  I have tons of books that I am in the middle of, but I am always open for book and blog suggestions.

Peace!

SC, GA, and FL, oh my

I have my third load of laundry in the machine, bug bites, cuts, and bruises covering my body, and my only goal is to stay awake until 10…If you guessed that I just got home tonight from a week long mission trip, you would be right on.

After spending a weekend with my parents and attending the wedding of the amazing Erin Boland and Taylor Rigot, I met 36 of my favorite people from my little church at a mall south of Atlanta.  We traveled the rest of the way to Jacksonville, FL and got set up for our week of service.

The jobs over the week included serving food at a mission, helping at summer camps, playing baseball, sorting and mending clothes, and helping get HeadStart classes ready for the fall.  The work that we did was good, but there were times when all I could think is that we could be doing this same work in Nashville.

For me, the best part of this trip was the time I got to spend together with the youth and other adults.  Our nights were not as overbooked as they are on some trips, so we had time to really hang out and get to have good fun and great conversations.  My favorite memories were hanging out on the beach on Wednesday and getting to hang out with the devo group I was leading and then spending a long time walking with a group of guys that I hadnt had an opportunity to hang out with much.

Throughout this week I was reminded how truly blessed I am.  I am blessed to have had a youth group when I was in middle school and high school who supported me and got me so interested in service work and the church.  I am also blessed to be a part of such a great church family here in Nashville.  This church always gives me the chance to lead and take on as much responsibility as I want, but is also intentional to help me and minister to what I need and how I need to grow.

I am in a waiting game with a job I am interested in.  I promise to say more when I know more.  Looking forward to a low key day tomorrow to help me recover from this crazy week and get me ready for my last two weeks of work.

PEACE!!

ps. proof that our mission trip was super cool, we hit up the Harry Potter midnight premiere…with several people in costumes and after a few of us played a good bit of HP trivia

July aready?

I really didn’t mean to go this long without posting.  I just kept waiting to know what my next step was so there could be a dramatic reveal.  Unfortunately, that is not yet the case.  I am still in the searching process for whatever sort of job I am going to get.  I can say that I feel like I am much closer than I have been before, so thats a good feeling.

What is not as of a feeling is knowing that my YAV year is quickly drawing to an end.  Next week I will be on my church’s senior high mission trip and then I will come back to just two more short weeks.  I cannot believe that this year is already so close to finished!  I think the hardest part of my job to leave will be my kids.  I am trying to think of something I can make with all their pictures on it.  I would appreciate any suggestions.  I will also miss the rest of our clients and the volunteers and people I work with.

Alright, no more sappy.  Let me tell you how excited I am for the next week.  On Thursday, I am jetting home to South Carolina.  While there, I will see my Grandparents, my parents, my Aunt Tricia and my cousin Catherine.  I am very excited to be going home!  It will be a short visit though, because on Saturday, my mom and I are road tripping to Augusta, GA so I can witness and celebrate the marriage of two of my favorite PC people!   Sunday morning, Cathy and I will again load up into the Prius and meet my youth from Nashville on the road to Jacksonville, FL where we are heading on our mission trip.

I am thankful for all the amazing, wonderful, and supportive people in my life.

peace,

beth

Opportunity to Help

Hey!

My office is currently competing for a Pepsi Refresh Grant to buy a new van to transport our kids to and from tutoring.  If you would like to help here is how to vote:

Everyday-

go to the Pepsi website and either make an account or sign in with your facebook info and vote for us.

text 107399 to the number 73774

when you go to the grocery store:

buy the Pepsi products with the yellow lids or that say “power voting”, then use the code on the package and type the code into the same website where you voted.  Once you type it in, it will tell you how many power votes that product has earned you.  Use them all on us please!

 

Thanks and here is the website:

http://www.refresheverything.com/vanforrefugeekids

 

So I Send You

A few months ago, we were asked to write and submit something about being sent to put out when the Pentecost offering was being taken up.  Mine didn’t get published, but here is what I wrote:

Until this year I realized that I never really gave the Old Testament Prophets enough credit.  I had always read their stories of being called and sent into the world and become frustrated with them.  I mean, here they are hearing the actual voice of God and all they seemed to bring to the table were excuses.  “Oh, I can’t do this, I am only a child” or “I come from people with unclean lips”.  Did I mention that they were saying this to the voice of God?

Then I started feeling sent into service.  Wanna guess my first reaction?  Excuses.  I used a couple that I had read, “I am pretty young and inexperienced” or “there has got to be someone out there more qualified”.  I also had a few that the people of Bible times didn’t have, such as, “I have an awful lot of student debt to be spending a year living simply and not pulling in an actual income” and “Are you sure you really want this girl who has always lived within two hours of where she was born to ‘go out in service’”?

Then things began to click.  It started off in a small way, but the fitting of pieces together eventually pushed me into my state of feeling as though being sent was a gift from God and not some Herculean task.  I was in Minneapolis when this began.

I went to Minneapolis as a student of the General Assembly.  I arrived two days before the meetings began and I learned more than I ever imagined being able to fit in my head, post college graduation.  Half way through my time there, I was running from a class to a dinner, in the pouring (and cold) rain.  My wet feet were sliding across the marble floors and I was late for this dinner.  Then I got there.  I got there, dried off, and sat down to eat dinner with four complete strangers who were going through the same thing I was going through.

We were all about to begin our YAV years.  We were all worrying about the new things to come, our qualifications, and whether or not we were going to be able to scrape together the money we needed to support ourselves.  While it started seeming more manageable, surrounded by peers, I didn’t feel at peace with being sent out in service until we started noticing the people all around us.  During our meal, we were sitting with some of the greatest and most well know missionaries of our denomination.  They were there to be rewarded for their combine 222 years of service and we were there, as were others, beginning our first.

After dinner, we all got up and introduced ourselves.  The next morning we would be officially sent by the Presbyterian Church during worship, but for me, being sent by the very people who have been out there was the most powerful moment.

Shake it Up!

I would like to offer you all a tour of what has quite possibly been the most exhausting week of my life.

Now that the kids in all the local schools are done for summer, my church had our VBS, or as it is called here, Camp Harpeth!  I have been the assistant director for Camp this year and it has gone really well and I have loved working on it.  What I hadn’t gotten myself siked up for is being the assistant director at Camp Harpeth and working all week.  I am pooped.

One of the most rewarding parts of this week has been the presence of the Service Squad at my office.  During Camp Harpeth, the high schoolers help out at the church as leaders, and the middle schoolers are sent out to do service.  In the past few years, the squad has headed to a different nonprofit around town each day.  This year (mainly since yours truly was on the leadership team), they spent Monday through Thursday at my office helping and leading preschool for my students.

While I watched them work with my kids and fall in love with them in such a short time, I was reminded of how strong my grew on trips as a middle and high schooler.  I cannot explain how much I have been changed as a person though service to others, especially in a church setting.  It felt like such a blessing to be able to be the person providing the youth of my church that opportunity to serve and grow.

Still working on plans for next year.  Prayers for discernment are always appreciated.

Love and Peace from Nashville!

-Beth

Interfaith Dialouge

So, since January, I have set out into uncharted territory. I have began attending Adult Sunday School at my church. As a teacher, it is much easier for me sometimes to be around people much younger and smaller than me. To be honest, adults intimidate me. Even though I now qualify as an adult (even though I can’t yet rent a car…and I am holding onto that as a sign that I am not an adult yet), I am still not as sure of my voice around people my own age or older.

So, adult Sunday School. We are doing a series called “Christianity Today”. Our first book was all about Creation Care. Now we are talking about Islam. Now, if you just got a little worried that there is talk at church about Islam that is not run by anyone who knows a single thing about Islam…you are on the same page as I was.
So our Islam series began. We take turn leading classes and I, the brave soul (or maybe fool), volunteered to lead the first day. Well, it went as well as one would expect. As in any group of people discussing a hot topic, there were many different opinions. And things get heated. At the end of the class, we all prayed together and left in peace, but I wasn’t always feeling the love of God in our convo.

So then I get to work. I am sure I have mentioned this before, but I have two Iraqi preschoolers. The minute these two (a four year old boy and girl) saw each other, it was instant friendship. They are basically the closest you can be to boyfriend and girlfriend in the world of preschool. Now, when they became friends, I was a little worried. You see, the little boy is from a Muslim family and his new best friend is Caldean Christian (it is like Eastern Catholicism…google it for more info). We introduced the parents, and watched carefully. Boy were we wrong. These families became very close almost instantly. All the worrying I did about their differences, I forgot to look at the crucial similarities. They were all new to America and craving friendships that do not require translating in your head to speak. They all have children who need to be taken care of sometimes. They all need people that can help them with the problems that come up only when you are a refugee.

When we focus on the differences or the “ick factors” about people in groups we have had little experience with, we lose the big picture. We are all here together on this Earth with the same basics goal of surviving and thriving, and the same need for community and compassion.

I am going to try to remember this the next time we have our Sunday School discussion and more importantly, the next time I begin noticing differences when I could be looking for common ground and chances for community and compassion.

Peace!