wouldn't it be cool....

call me dreamer, call me foolish, call me whatever fits your view of me, it doesn't matter what you think of me, I AM has called me loved.

tell me stories, dream up 'wisdom', guide me strictly to your mission for me, i will end up into elsewhere, i will end up where HE IS.

look down on me if you want to, talk bad about me if you need to, I will run the way of His commandments and delight myself in Christ.

That's just the way it is.

~~~~~

Wouldn't it be cool ... to have a huge house and adopt a ton of kids who were abandoned, neglected, unloved, not provided for ... to show them the love of Christ through family and set them on their feet to move on?

Or wouldn't it be cool to foster kids, to catch kids at that rough stage around puberty where life is crazy uncertain even in good families, and to influence them in a positive direction toward Christ by loving them well?

Wouldn't it be cool to have that house be on a ton of land, to have other outbuildings and cottage-type places and open it up as a hospitality center, a place where people can come and rest, receive wisdom and experience the peace and love of God, and be refreshed by fellowship to go back into the world?

Wouldn't it be cool ... to teach in this home and this hospitality center things like music, art, *spanish (I'm just trying to find a way to fit this in, lol), bible, and other things ... that it would be a place where people (the adopted/fostered kids as well as guests) could experiment within themselves and find their giftings?

Wouldn't it be cool to take the money that the government gives foster families for the kids care and put it away in a savings account for that child, so that they have something to help them through college?

Wouldn't it be cool to have a place where random people could feel perfectly at home on holidays when they don't have family to go home to?

Wouldn't it be cool, since I have been blessed to know God as my home, to reach out and be a home to others?

To me ... these things would be SO COOL. In some fashion I hope to walk through all of these cool things during my life: God is totally big enough for dreams!

Joachim, from Germany, worked as a piano builder,
29 years old:

"To see girls who have been through so much trauma
and abuse now with good self-esteem and dreaming again
about the future is one of the most beautiful things
I've ever seen."

a new era - general update on life

The small group I've belonged to for 3 years was also the fellowship group of my dear friend Sarah. Sarah and I have grown quite close in this past year especially, as God put us together when we each needed a Christ-following, female friend. Since we've become almost inseparable, people have taken to calling us "skara" (Sarah + Kara), and as much as we are each trying to follow God independently of each other, somehow at the end of this summer we both realized God was calling us out of this particular group a fellowship into something new.

Our last Tuesday with the Young Adult group was also the 'recognition' Tuesday for a set of new assistant leaders that Chris brought on, Mark and Tara. We all kind of laughed that with "Skara" leaving and Tara coming, it was a new "era" (-ara) in the life of the small group.

Play on words, I know. But I needed an opening story and I find it humorous.

Anyways, that is one season in life that has come to an end for me, the season being involved with that church. I've started going to my parents church in Lancaster, and am so enjoying the people and environment there, and waiting for God to show me how to get involved.

Also, school starts on Wednesday, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm taking Spanish 450 (my last pre-req!!!! praise God!), Hebrew 241 (not a language class, but a culture GEC), and English 202. Lord willing, this time next year I will be entering my last quarter of college.

This leads me to throw around options of how to do life for the next 15-16 months. Do I continue working where I've worked for over a year, a job that I love with people I'm quite fond of, where I've experienced God's favor in amazing ways? That would mean I continue to take only classes that fit my work schedule, vastly limiting my college experience. The other option is to find another job at the end of the year (a thought that is daunting, though a little exciting) that would let me work a few nights and Saturdays so that I could take morning classes? That would open up an entirely different world of options for my academic career, and it's what I'm leaning towards.

All of these new eras -- thinking about what to do post-graduation, thinking about how to spend time now, wanting to volunteer different places, meet new people, serve people in need, share the love of Christ: wanting to get out of myself and into the world and see what God does with me. I don't care if it's cleaning toilets or singing harmony, or teaching children, or smiling at strangers: I just want to be obedient, and to be useful.

This is a new era. All of this time since DTS has been quite introspective, trying to figure out what's still wrong with me that needs fixing, why my brain has been giving me grief, where God is leading me ... all very me-centered. God's bringing a new season into life, one I'm so thankful for! - I still don't know what it looks like but I'm stoked to move on.

So, in large part I wanted to write because I haven't written for some time, and there's a chance that someone still reads this (Sarah -- you don't count, you know me inside and out already!) ... if you're reading, hey! Welcome! And thanks. Shoot me an email and let me know how life is in your world....

in Christ,
Kara