Photo Adventure

I know my adventures are over as a student at FLI, but the last several weeks I fell hopelessly behind in documenting them for memories sake, so now I’m going to try to catch up in several posts. However, I can’t promise they will be in order, or the most detailed. Oh well, I know what I mean, and as I’ve said before, I see this blog as a personal journal that you get a peek into :-) now aren’t you privileged?

Photo Adventure:
For months a sign up sheet had been posted in the communications room (a room where we can post info of events, we have boxes where the professors return our papers, give us handouts, etc.) asking who would be interested in a photo adventure. I was excited to do something like that, especially with so many talented photographers in our class. About halfway through the semester Chris let everyone know that he’d found a place a few hours away called Bishops Castle. Turns out it’s a castle some guy (who may or may not be insane) is building with his own two hands, and he opens to the public. So, six of us piled into Meg’s car and headed out for our adventure.
It’s hard to explain what the castle was like, imagine a middle age castle, tall, narrow, and cold. Rickety and unstable are to words that come to mind as well, forbearing, full of mystery, and of course, adventure. The whole thing was made of rock the man had taken from the land, and it wore many skirts of wrought iron balcony, which encircled it on many levels. We climbed the tall, narrow stone stairs, which led up to the main part of the castle, where you could just imagine a ball of knights and ladies being held. Today we were the knights and the ladies, and instead of dancing, we would be posing, and instead of candlelight, it would be our flashing cameras that lighted the grand hall.
We took several pictures there, the sunlight danced in rainbows through the wall and ceiling of mishmash stained glass. Soon our adventurous thirst drew us to attempt the wrought iron balcony just outside. It was a rush to navigate around the building as the mesh of iron beneath our feet swayed and creaked with each step. There were signs all over the castle proclaiming the visitors own risk, the owner warned that he was not responsible for anything, thus should the floor fall out from under us (as it certainly felt capable of doing at any given moment) the responsibility would be all our own.
We posed for many more pictures out there, stepping in and out of broken windows, glass strewn at random.
Next we endeavored to explore higher. We climbed through narrow and twisted stone and iron steps, leading to the tops of unfinished towers. It was windy, but the whoosh of it was sweet and thrilling.
Finally, Chris, Ciera and I chose to climb to the ultimate top. The giant iron globe balancing at the highest point of the castle. We discovered upon entering the globe that the mesh iron floor was only connected at the center, where the stairs descended, and not to the outer cage, allowing the floor to rock and wiggle precariously, especially in the wind. And I loved it. If I had a hammock, I would have hung it in that cage and slept right there, on top of the world.
We took many photos up there, one with all of us defying gravity and jumping (yes, I do believe the insanity of the castle and her builder was rubbing off on us) and we played tricks with the sun, creating an E.T. esque shot as the sun shown through Ciera and Chris’s touching fingers.
Finally we climbed down to solid ground, but the fun wasn’t over yet! Before we piled back in for the long ride home, we played in the street for a bit.
Finally, weary and all photoed out, we drove home, as knights and ladies traveling home after a long and memorable quest.

Symposium

Today and yesterday the students of FLI have been giving ten minute presentations about what we've learned this semester. It was not without tears and laughter, as each of my brothers and sisters opened their hearts to us.
For my presentation, I decided to write two letters to myself. Letters have always had a huge impact on my life, especially since having been pen pals with Rachel for six years.
The first letter for my symposium was addressed to me at the beginning of the semester. In it I talk about all the things I learned over the course of the semester. The second is written to me now, as I'm leaving, in it I talk about the different things I hope to do upon returning to "the real world".
For me to truly talk about everything I learned and all the things I want to do with this knowledge, I would need at least 4 hours, but this is what I had for the ten minutes I was given:


September 2010

Dear Ashley,
What can I tell you, as you stand at the beginning of the semester in a room of 43 strangers in blue shirts, desperately trying to understand what's going on in your life. You’re finally here! But now what?
Something I know you’ve already realized is that this year is an important one for your story. It’s been downright insane the way things have been happening, where your standing you're a totally different person than you were last December, God has been doing things in your life and you don’t know why. Take a deep breath, collect your thoughts, because now might be the most calm time of your semester.
God has been writing your story, and you’ve been confused as to why He’s writing all these different plots, where is He going with this? Well, don’t be surprised if everyday you're sitting in class and whatever is being talked about connects with one or more of the issues you’ve faced this past year. I can’t even explain to you how crazy it will connect. Just sit back and let Him keep writing.
As you're sitting there, eating pizza looking around that room wondering who in the world these people are, one of the first things you will be challenged with is the thought that your name may be changed over the time of this semester. At first you will think this is strange and, eh, probably wont happen. Well, be ready, because even though your physical name wont change, you will gain a deeper meaning and understanding of your name, which will be the first step to discovering who you are and who you want to become.
Do you remember that Brio article written several years ago about the meaning behind the name “Ashley”? You’re going to enter into a journey to rediscover that article and it will inspire you to dig deeper into what your name means, and what defines you.
The definition you have always been less than satisfied with is “beautiful meadow” which is lovely, but what does it mean? The definition given in the article, based on research of the ash tree is “she who rests in a place of sustenance, where she is spared from the famine, a place filled with resilient trees that produce manna and rain honey on God’s people”. Which is so much more meaningful, but still, it isn’t quite you. you will discover your own definition of your name as you discover what it is you are defined by, and how you want to grow and mature in that definition.
You're also going to learn so much about faith this semester. It’s something else God has been preparing you for all year. Think back to all the times you’ve had to just fall back on God, and have faith that He will catch you. how many times have you cried out this year “what's gonna happen!?” do you know yet? Well, don’t get too excited, because I don’t know too much more than you do, but I do know that God’s got some crazy plans for you, but you have to move. A verse God’s going to give you later on in the semester is Isaiah 30:21, “whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it.’” pay attention the first time that verse comes up in morning devo’s, because it’s going to keep popping up the rest of the semester. This is a year of faith for you, more so than any before, don’t just sit around waiting for God to reveal His plan to you, because if you’re just sitting around, it’s going to be harder to hear His voice, but rather be walking, keep moving, and be ever listening for that still small whisper guiding you in the way you should go. Often the path is dark and you are blind, but just taking it one step at a time and keep listening, He’ll get ya there.
Oh the many other things I could tell you about that you're going to learn this semester! But alas, I cant give it all away! Just know that you're preconceived notions about people who struggle with addictions and homosexuality will be destroyed and you will learn to have a broken heart for these people and long to help them find refuge. Your heart will also be broken as you struggle through tears as you talk people who seem to have no value for the life of a human baby. You will also be challenged to understand what it means to be a biblical man or woman, and you will meet people who will challenge you with their own thoughts and convictions, learn from them.
Also, embrace spontaneity at this time of your life. Time is deceptive and minutes are fleeting, but memories last for a lifetime. So, take many memory photographs, live the semester with no regrets. Find every opportunity to be invested in by the people around you. Don’t worry, give it a week and these strangers will be your friends, and by the end of three months they will be your life long brothers and sisters.
Be who you are, and who you are becoming. You have no idea where this semester is taking you, just know, it is good.
Sincerely,
Ashley



December, 2010

Dear Ashley (or Shley as you have come to be known)
I think back to all those years as I dreamed of coming here. I hung the magazine page advertising the institute on my wall for five years, I taped the picture from the promotional cd on the cover of each of my school notebooks every semester of my two years at collage, as a constant reminder of my goal and aspiration. I’d be filled with so much excitement when I heard the radio spot for the institute that played during Odyssey, and the echoed question “what will you do with your life?...your life…your life…” ran through my mind again and again. well, here I am, my dreams have come true and have been so much better then I could have ever hoped. But now, with the semester over and I am going back, it’s time to answer that question, “what will you do with your life?”
If I had been returning to Michigan that answer would be easy, and probably something mundane like “go back to normal, and maybe something a little bit out of my comfort zone.” well, that’s not an option, and praise the Lord that He has moved me to a new place at a time when He knew my deepest fear is falling back into complacency, and my desire is to return to wherever it is that I’m going and make a difference and to be a difference.
This year has been a journey of leaving home to go home. I first left my house in Detroit, the home I’d grown up in, to go home to my camp, the place which was my home away from home. meanwhile, the house in Detroit was sold and my family moved, so when I left the home of camp, I was returning to the home of the Detroit area, even if I was deprived of the physical house. After a week at home in Detroit, I left to go home to a home I had never seen in Maryland, where I was for two weeks before leaving that home to come home here, the home that would become more home than any other. Now I am packing up for one last time and will leave this home and the family that has surrounded me for these months, to go back home to the most unknown of places. What will I do there? I don’t even know what there is to do!!
A verse that has continued to pop up in my life is Isaiah 43:18-19 “forget the former things, do not dwell on the past, see, I am doing a new thing, do you not perceive it?” well, it’d be pretty hard not to perceive it when it’s a blazing fire right in front of you all the time! But what is the new thing and how can I use all the things I’ve learned this semester in it?
Well, I don’t know any for sures, but I definitely have goals I will strive to accomplish. I want to grow, I want to commit to spending time reading God’s letter to me every day, and praying for my life and others.
I don’t know what the community in Maryland looks like, I didn’t really pay too much attention while I was there. but I want to get involved there, especially within my new home church there. I want to use the Truth Project as a way to start getting involved in the people’s lives there, and as a way to establish hospitality. Hospitality is also a long term goal, my dream is to be able to one day open my own home to students much in the same way the professors and staff have opened here have opened their homes and used them to minister to us in so many ways.
I also want to become a mentor to a younger believer. Having been a camp counselor for the past six years, I have been able to speak into younger girls lives and been blessed so much through that. But it’s so hard to continue that mentorship after the camp week ends. I don’t know when this will happen, since I don’t know anyone in Maryland I don’t think it will be right away, but it’s something I will be praying about.
For the long term goals we established for ourselves in our last gender and leadership class, I left the box empty. I haven’t the slightest clue how God will fill it, but as soon as I get back I want to start looking for ways to fill that empty space.
That first week, we were asked the question “what breaks your heart and baffles your mind?” and for weeks that question haunted me, and brought tears to my eyes. My immediate answer was simply “people”, not a certain aspect about people or something people do, just, people. They break my heart when they do and say things contrary to God’s design for them. And my heart breaks for people when their hearts break from confusion and difficulties. People baffle my mind with just how complex each one is! I LOVE to see how different people act and think, what makes them who they are and make the choices they do. There are 16 personality types, but there are billions and billons of personalities! I could go on forever about the topic of people. But the reason that question frustrated me so much is because I knew the answer, but I didn’t know what to do with it. How do I take that passion for people and apply it to my life and my goals? Those questions have been answered this semester, and that frustration and confusion have been replaced with excitement and zeal to go out and use the things I’ve learned.
My greatest fear about leaving this place is that I’ll fall back into the routine of who I was before, someone I didn’t understand nor did I particularly want to be. but then God reminded me of my chapter of the year (again) Romans 12. all the verses apply (no surprise there) but specifically verse eleven “never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” I was joking the other day that when I go back to Maryland, since no one knows me there, I can be whoever I want to be. at the time I meant it as a joke, but in a way that fact makes it easier to go to a place where no one knows me. I have often committed to “being the real me” after times of great growth, but when I get back around my friends and family, people who are accustomed to the old me, I slid right back into that expectation. But now, since no one has any expectations of who I “should be”, I can more easily be the me I want to be, and keep that fervor.
In my first letter to you, Ashley, I wrote about you discovering your name, and who you are. I wrote a new definition for you, it includes the strengths you learned about yourself this semester as well as some of the Bible verses that have impacted you. “Ashley: one whose soul finds rest in God alone, she shall never be shaken. She is able to adapt with peace, and through ideation she finds faith that God will do immeasurably more than all she can imagine. She strategically creates adventure, and finds joy in gathering people around her and empathizing with both their joys and their sorrows, bringing them to be refreshed by God’s sweet rain.” That is who I want you to be, Ashley. That is what you have learned about yourself this semester and what I hope you will be to the people you meet in this new place God is taking you to.
This journey is over, and it’s time to begin the next. Don’t forget the words of your penpal in the last letter you received from her, this same week four years ago: “life is a journey, and I don’t know where it is taking me, but I know I want to remember it.”
Travel well,
Sincerely,
Ashley

This Is The Way...

“Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’” ….. Isaiah 30:21

Have you ever had a time when God gave you a verse, and then for days (or weeks, or years…) after it keeps popping up in totally random ways? Maybe you’re having a conversation with someone and they start talking about something and suddenly you remember that verse and realize it applies perfectly to the conversation. Or maybe your sitting in church and the preacher says “turn to such and such” and low and behold, it’s that verse again. Or maybe your in Bible study and the teacher says “does anyone know any verses that go along with this topic?” um, yes teacher, in fact I do. Or maybe your friend calls you and needs some encouragement; no need to rack your brain long, because you just happen to have one in the forefront of your mind.
These “coincidences” are like getting a sticky note from God, a reminder. This week I’ve gotten sticky notes from God in each of the ways mentioned above about the verse Isaiah 30:21 and it’s been the best encouragement.
Something I’ve been learning and thinking about this semester (slash, the whole year) is faith. There have been countless times I've had to step out in faith into a dark place and just know that God’s going to lead me. And I know when I leave this place I’m going to be in another of those unknown times of my life…this journey of faith does not end with the Institute. There are so many uncertainties that will try to blow me down the moment I step off that stage after graduation, I’ll be going to an unknown place, full of unknown people, doing unknown things. And don’t worry, I’m not. In fact, I am filled with excited anticipation to discover the adventure God had mapped out for me. But what He has been showing me this whole year, especially this semester, this week in particular, is that, even when I’m uncertain where I should step, God wants me to move in prayer. If I’m in constant conversation with Him, He’ll shut me down if I’m going the wrong way, and He’ll take my hand to bring me the right way. This Isaiah verse reminds me (daily, no joke, it’s been absolutely a God thing the way this keeps showing up in my life) that He is always with me, and as long as I listen, He’ll be whispering directions to me…how's that for a GPS?

Look At The Stars, See How They Shine For You

The making of a memory is never a waste of time, and everyday brings about 1440 memorable minutes, they are moments I would never trade for anything. This past week has been one of those weeks so full of memories that I can’t even keep them all straight in my head. I want to start this post by apologizing to you, because these are truly “ya had to be there” moments of my life, and as much as I wish you could experience them as well, all I have are words with which to paint these pictures. So bear with me, you’ll have to use your imaginations to really have any understanding of just how good and rich and full of life these moments were. :-)

A few weeks ago, Meghan and Cierra told us about a park they found that would be ideal for stargazing, but with the cold weather coming in we weren’t sure if we’d ever make it. then, God blessed us with a warm snap this week so a group of us piled into our cars and headed out.
I don’t know if we ever got around to really stargazing…but we did everything else, and that’s all that matters.
As soon as we got there we made a dash for the swings. As I was swinging with Meghan she exclaimed “this is a mix of so many of my favorite things!” we began listing all the favorites that was that night, swings, friends, hair down, wind, night, starts, Colorado, laughter, fun, that church steeple all lit up in the distance, God, life…
After the swings we did a parkour style game on the jungle gym. One person would do a move, the next would do that move and add a move, the next those two moves and add another, ect, until the last person had to do all eight moves plus a move of his own. It was so good.
After all that someone suggested we finally go to the field to stargaze, so all nine of us linked hands and ran into the darkness, screaming and laughing. When we got to the middle of the field we did a whole lot of nothing and everything, just about everything except stargaze. We played games like Indian Leg Wrestling, Finger Fencing, and we played the HA game until the count was around 50 or so (the HA game is when you all lay in a circle with you heads on each others stomach and the first person says “HA!” the next “HAHA” then “HAHAHA” and so on. But we got tired of just HA-ing, so it turned into many other sounds.
Then we went star tripping, then you look at one star and spin around really, really fast and then it feels like the world is on hyper speed! Chris added a new level and when we stopped spinning he’d run up and flash his flashlight in our eyes, so suddenly we’re blind AND dizzy!
We also just frolicked and ran, Cierra and I ran to the edge of the field, to where the darkness of the field sloped into the darkness of the world, and in the distance were the lights of the city. “how far can we run until we run off the edge of the world!” Cierra asked as we frolicked.
After that we went back up to the jungle gym. To escape the wind, which was howling, we decided to build a fort with our assorted blankets. After many tied knots and fail attempts to secure the blankets, we all finally crowded in. it was story time with Chris. Chris had many stories of his adventures in Europe when he was backpacking with his brother, stories that make us legitly creeped out. Half way through his second story, just as there was a crazy European man walking around Chris and his brothers tent, all of a sudden we hear a voice from outside our tent. “Police” it said. We looked at each other in confusion, police? Is that what they said? “um, did you say ‘police’?” Chris asked calmly, we were more confused than scared that the police would be interested in us in any way. “yeah, this is the police.” The voice answered, “what are you doing in there?”
Chris answered mater of factly, “story time.”
“um, ok, how many people do you have in there?”
We all counted out loud “uh, one…two…three…four…five…we have eight.”
“ok, is everyone alright in there?”
“oh yeah, we’re all fine” we all answered.
“ok, well, you know the park closes at 11:00, thanks in about 15 minutes, just so you know.”
“alright, thank you.”
“have a good night.”
And they walked away, they never looked inside and we never saw them. It wasn’t until after they left that we started talking about just how sketchy this set up did look!
Fifteen minutes and about three stories later, we packed up our fort and headed back to the cars, another memory made, one to be cherished. <3

I'm Published!!! (Well, Sort'a)

So, one of my jobs with Adventures in Odyssey has been to write devotionals to go along with a few of the new episodes...and the first three are now (finally!) officially posted! so check it out! haha, i'm excited about it :-) these are the first two of the six i wrote:

http://whitsendblog.org/category/devotional/

This Is MY Life?? (Am I Who I Wanna Be?)

It’s pretty much guaranteed that at some point every day God whispers in my ear “look around at the life I have given you, you are so blessed.” Blessed nothin’, I’m spoiled rotten! Everyday I think “how could tomorrow be any better than today?” and everyday God takes that question and laughs and says “you think this is great? Just wait till tomorrow.” Everyday is a lifetime of it’s own….observe:

Typical day at FLI through the eyes of Ashley Padgett:

7:00 AM. Beep! Beep! Beep! Snooze till (hopefully) 7:20ish. Crawl outta bed, throw some waffles in the toaster, commence the morning regime.

7:45 AM. Christine announces she is leaving, if I’m on time I ride and/or drive with her. I make it my goal every morning to be ready when Christine is, since she is our most prompt roommate, because then I know I’m being productive. :-)

8:10 AM. Class begins. We always start the day with some kind of devotion, whether it’s reading and reflecting on a passage from the Bible or talking through a collection of verses.

8:30ish AM. Class officially starts. For the next four hours our professors pour their knowledge on us. I keep forgetting this is school, I get so caught up in the things we are being taught and am so interested and have such a desire to learn it all. Which, by the way, is not a bad thing by any means whatsoever. Anyways, so we have class for these four hours, during which we will learn enough to explode a mind. We also get to have small group discussions with our Life Groups most days. I LOVE these times more than I could tell you, because I LOVE the five other people in my Life Group #3 more than should even be possible! In my group I’ve got Sarah, be ready to vote for her for something huge someday :-) she’s very involved in D.C. and knows here stuff. Kensi, if you think cute, classy, confident and caring, you got Kensi :-) I appreciate Kensi’s focus and being sure to keep things going smoothly. Anne Marie is pretty much amazing. Standing at maybe just over five feet she’s the shortest in our class, she’s got a lot of surprises up her sleeve, when she thinks about something she really thinks about it, and she’s gonna figure out exactly where she stands. Cody is our musical man, he helps lead worship for us every Thursday, he’s also got a lot of silliness too him, but when it’s time to be serious he’s sure to think deeply about what we’re talking bout and give great insight. Chris is the jack-of-all-trades…seriously, he does everything! But most prominent is his art, his photography is beyond professional and creative, and he’s always doodling something. He also brings a lot of outside the box ideas to discussions and, just like everyone else, adds a whole new dynamic to our group.

11:30 AM. Schools out! (well actually it’s a little more like “aww, schools out already!?” collectively we head to the chapelteria for lunch. As we walk in to get our food we greet Pete at the cash register, then we grab a pink lunch tray and decide is we’re gonna have a hot meal, a salad, or a sandwich. After that decision it’s time to pick to have a cakey dessert, cookies, or ice cream (mmhm, they spoil us :-) then we check out with Pete. We tell him our student number and he checks us off the list. I’m convinced Pete was Wooton in another life :-)

Heres where my days differ depending on the day of the week….

Monday: most likely after lunch I’ll end up going home and studying, if it’s sunny out I’ll join the group that’s pretty standardly sitting out on the lawn outside our apartments, pretending to read (and we do get reading done, but it often ends up we just talk a lot). Then Monday nights a group of us head to Ryan and Rachel's (Ryan is one of the staff with FLI and Rachel works with Compassion International) they invite any of us who want to come hang out and study or play games or whatever (one guy painted while he was there). It’s a lot of fun and very chill.

Tuesday: about the same as Mondays, but instead of Ryan and Rachel's we either have dessert night at Kjersten’s (the RD) or was have koinonia dinner at one of the professor’s homes. These dinners are themed dinners planed by the life groups. So far we’ve had a thanksgiving theme, full thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey and green bean casserole (turns out it’s next to impossible to find turkey when it’s not truly thanksgiving time, and as for the green bean casserole, Annalee made that and it was quite her pride and joy :-) we also had a study break hosted by a life group, tourist themed. I found a great outfit at the thrift store and we pretty much just hung out and played games and hoola hooped the night away. Next week is my life groups turn to host the koinonia, and our theme is superheros…so if you know any superhero themed-ish food, lemme know!

Wednesday: after class I have practicum at 1:00. mostly what I’ve been doing is sitting in a cubical and reading, writing and listening. Which has been amazing and I'm so blessed by it all, but I have a hard time sitting for four hours straight in a quiet office not talking to anyone! But it is a lot of fun despite the silence. So far me and Bethany (Bethany is the other intern with me in Odyssey) have been privileged to listen to not yet released episodes, read scripts for the currently being recorded episodes, and write discussion questions for the album and devotionals for the website! Also, the other day we got to sit in on foley, that’s when they go into a room FULL of every surface and sound effect imaginable and they act out the episode and capture the sounds. After that, we still had time to sit in on the podcast recording where (da dada DA!) they were recording the podcasts that WE (me and Bethany) WROTE the SCRIPTS!! I got to see them record all of the script I wrote and they even asked my opinion on how to deliver a line! Haha, I was quite happy, I think I find much more interest in the actual producing side of things.

Thursday: Thursday’s look a lot like Wednesday’s, in the way I have practicum after class. But, after practicum is family dinner, when all the staff and students get together and eat! (and in agreement with the average college student, we learn never to say no to offered food!) after dinner we gather in the Ogden Lounge and have a time of worship. After all that I head to the home of one of the professors. About ten of us girls meet there and the topic is learning about the Proverbs 31 woman and how we can be like her. The thing I love bout this topic is that we are learning how we, as 20-somthings, can aspire to be a woman of virtue without falling into the cookie cutter expectations the proverbs 31 woman is often portrayed as. It’s an amazing group of girls and I love them so much and I love learning about them and this topic all together, and sharing the trials of waking up with the sun and everything else that comes with it.

Friday/Saturday: The weekend!! Adventure beckons! Ok, I have done more adventurous exciting things then ever before on there weekends, they are always packed to exploding! Here’s a list of a few of the things I’ve been doing…

Rock Climbing: reason number one for coming to FLI: work with Odyssey. Reason number two: learn amazing things and meet amazing-er people. Reason number three: climb a real life, legit, God-made ROCK! Check. Check. And, oh! CHECK! A few weeks ago a group of us went out and climbed a rock. We didn’t get to go very high, but it was God made and beautiful and thrilling! :-D

Baseball Game: one of the first weekends here we all went to a Rockies baseball game. It was so much fun and idk if I've ever laughed so much in my life! I don’t think I watched more that three seconds of the game, and I couldn’t tell you where the score was at any point. The only time I watched the screen was when Scott was trying desperately to get the camera’s attention and make it to the big screen (obviously the camera men thought that it wouldn't be fare to put Scott up there though, since it would just be too discouraging to all the rest of the people there since they could never add up to Scott’s amazingness…that’s what we told him anyways :-) we also tried to get the wave started…didn’t go too far. But the stands were full of dancing and candid cameras and laughing where we were.

Dancing – Barn and Swing: we decided to go to this barn dance club place. We drove in (barely survived that!) and when we arrived we 20 or us marched right in and quickly realized that besides us no one there was under 50! Little worries, we joined right in and had a blast and were perhaps a bit noisy, but we danced until they kicked us out (well, actually we just realized that everyone else had left so we figured it was time to skedaddle. The next week though, Dusten and Katie hosted a swing dance in the work out room at Focus, they taught us some moves and we tried to keep up. However the ratio of boy to girl was greatly outweighed by the girls, so we had many a girl/girl partnership, but we had fun anyways. :-)

Dance Partay!: the other night we got home from Family Dinner, and Christine put on a song that was in our heads…before you knew it me, Joy and Christine were dancing the building down to whatever songs we could find with a strong beat…soon there was a knock on our door, “can we come dance with you?” asked Hannah, Ciera and Meghan, they had seen us through our window and couldn’t stay away. So that made six of us dancing like mad women on the third floor. Then we hear another knock on the door, this time it’s two of the guys from down stairs wondering what all the pounding was. They joined in for a few minutes before heading to a movie. The party ended with a ballet interpretive of “Only Hope”.

Climbing a Mountain: get up before sunrise. Go eat doughnuts. Drive to a mountain. Climb it. we hiked up Mount Princeton, it took about all day to do, but it was so worth it, every second. There's so much to say about this trip! Hiking too far and having to turn around, but because of that getting the chance to see a Chateau. Climbing through a foot of snow on the side of a steep mountain. Getting to the top and seeing that GLORY! (p.s. dear people of the world, if you ever have the chance to see this view, please DO NOT give it up, I wish that everyone on earth could have that chance). Booking it back down due to the snow filled clouds at the top. Sweet, refreshing sleep in the car ride home. And it was good.

Compassion International: my roommate, Christine and I went to tour Compassion the other day. It was very interesting, we got to see this insane machine that sorts the checks that come in. we also got to se a few rooms they had set up to show the living conditions of kids in the program, one was a hut like one they would live in, the other was set up to look like what the school building is like. It was so good to be able to see what is happening with that ministry and the way I’m being used to help those kids. It was truly a blessing.

Whit’s End!: after going to Compassion we still had a lot of time left in the day, so we decided to FINALLY get to the one and only Whit’s End! We arrived in style, the only way it’s done…by sliding down the three story slide, A-Bend-A-Go! As we were standing in line on the stairs kids kept cutting in front of us! (I think they didn’t get that two college students would actually want to ride a slide :-) but finally one little boy caught on that this was Christine’s first time down and he started telling her everything about how it’s done “you have to have the socks on your arms and fold your arms like this and you have to put your feet in Michigan” (wait what!? Lol, as I was typing Christine asked how to spell Michigan and I got confused so I had to visualize it so I typed it, then I read her how the sentence read and she begged me to keep it :-) anyways, back to what the kid said…) “put your feet in this sack here’s one for you…” and so on, then when he got on the slide he made SURE we were watching so we’d know exactly how to do it. it was adorable! After the slide we did all the Whit’s End things, playing in the Little Theatre, running up and down the halls exploring every room, traveling to Narnia through the Wardrobe, scavenger hunt, ect. (p.s. apparently there's a geo cache in there under the plane from Last Chance Detectives…we just need to find it!)

Pikes Peak: well, I drove up to the top of Pikes Peak in my faithful Ruby (my car) and survived! We packed the car with five or us girls and took off. At the beginning of the road the woman at the toll booth told us it was snowman day or something, and as an extra challenge we could build a small snow man and prop him on our windshield and see how long he’ll stay up there on the drive down. We had also heard roomers that the doughnuts the make up there are special because of the altitude and if you bring it down the mountain it will deflate. So we had our challenges for coming down. Just before we left we built Clarence, a sweet little innocent snowman about a foot tall and laid him on our windshield, we also got a doughnut, named Dunkin, and placed him on the dashboard. Well, Dunkin never deflated and Clarence was destroyed by some passing kids when we stopped halfway down, so we had to build George for the rest of the ride, and he survived all the way down the mountain and halfway home.

Sunday: I’ve been going to different churches every week, most of them have been so big I just feel overwhelmed, personally, I don’t like churches that are so big that no one knows anyone and you could go for weeks before anyone so much as greets you, and there's more lights and bling then not. But, my roommates found one they like and I’ve been going to that one with them for now, it’s still too big for me, but it’s smaller then most of the others and the music is good (though a bit loud for me sometimes) and the preaching is legit.

So, that is my week in a nutshell (I know, if THAT’S a nutshell imagine what the whole nut TREE looks like it (except peanuts, for as my roommate Emily just informed me they grow underground) all I can say is, I love life and life is good!

P.S. so I also wanted to talk about my Strengths, we took a test called StrengthFinders and it identified our top five out of thirty-four…mine are:

Adaptability:
People who are especially talented in the Adaptability theme prefer to “go with the flow.” They tend to be “now” people who take things as they come and discover the future one day at a time.

Ideation:
People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

Strategic:
People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

Woo:
People who are especially talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person. (or as I like to call it: Instant friendship…and apparently people with Woo get a lot of free stuff??)

Empathy:
People who are especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others’ lives or others’ situations. (or in other words “I know how you felt when that hammer hit your thumb because I’ve also had a hammer hit my thumb…I feel. Empathy. For. You…)

Tears Fall…Justice for All Training

I have seen the same dream
Many times, it haunts my mind
It starts with a light
But it ends every time
Oh, so many faces that the world
Will never see
A reason for your life
But your heart will never beat

May the tears fall down
Let them soften this ground
May our hearts be found
God forgive us now

Oh, what have we lost because we chose
We’ll never know
And loving you is better than feeling alone
And all our claims to freedom
Have become these heavy chains
And in the name of rights
We keep filling nameless graves

…..”Tears Fall” by BarlowGirl

What am I supposed to say to someone when I stand there next to him in the shadow of a twenty foot picture of an aborted baby, and he says in disgust, “why do we have to look at this? This is offensive. If a woman wants to have an abortion, that’s her choice, we have no right to stop her.”? How am I supposed to respond when a girl insists that “it’s not a human, it’s nothing more than a clump of cells.”? Or the people who ask “what about underage pregnancies? Or women who are too poor to raise the child? Or when a child is simply unwanted?”

Today an organization called Justice for All (JFA) came to FLI and we had an intense, daylong training on how to address these questions. All week we’ve been anticipating today, we were warned about the graphic pictures we’d be shown, and last night we read a whole book about the issues we would be addressing today. It was with nervous hearts we entered the classroom together, unsure how we would handle the information we were about to receive.
The pictures would break your heart; I pray they break the hearts of those who don’t understand the value of the human life destroyed. I just can’t fathom how someone can look at those pictures and say “yeah, that’s not a human.” Or worse, “it may be human, but it’s unwanted.”
It was an intense day, the longer it went on the more overwhelmed I felt. We did a lot of role playing, and whenever I was in the role of Pro-Choice I never knew how to respond after the points of the Pro-Lifer. I agreed with them! Knew where they were going because of my own beliefs, even after a full day of learning what to expect people to say didn’t prepare me for arguing against my own personal views. Plus, the more the day wore on, the thicker my emotions became, by the last hour of the day I was fighting tears and I couldn’t even think clearly due to the thoughts of the tragedy that is abortion. At one point, we were again split into pairs to role play, and I almost asked the guy I was paired with how he felt about crying girls, because there was a good chance he might have one on his hands in the next few minutes! (don’t worry, I didn’t actually tell him that, didn’t want to freak him out, :-) and I didn’t really cry, just inside). I feel so overwhelmed by the buckets of information given to us today, I praise the Lord we have the weekend to process it all. But it doesn’t stop here.
Next week, early Tuesday morning, we will be loading up a bus and heading to Colorado State University. Justice For All will have their twenty foot, four sided display set up in the center of campus and we will all be there to talk to the students about it. I’m very scared and very excited at the same time. I have no idea what to expect, they told us so much today, but even so the unknown is frightening. I don’t know exactly what kind of conversations I’ll be having; I can only pray that we’ll all know how to respond to each person in love and gentleness (something I struggle with due to my debating nature).
Today was a hard day, I came away feeling heavy hearted for the lives lost and changed because of abortion. Yet, however hard and draining today was, it’s nothing compared to how I expect Tuesday to be. Please be praying for us as we address this with those collage students. Pray that they will have open hearts and minds, and that we will be given the words to touch them and lead them to understand the tragedy of taking a human life through abortion. Also pray that we will have clear minds and that we may perceive how it is that God wants to use this exhibit and us on Tuesday.
Today, as we sat in the Ogden Lounge, facing the nine foot version of the exhibit, listening as the JFA people laid information on top of information of all the things we need to know before Tuesday, we were all blessed by a ray of sunshine through Lindy’s baby daughter Lorien. Lindy is one of the women who work here, and today she had Lorien with her, just crawling around and saying “hi” to whoever would listen to her. It was so precious and refreshing to look from the disfigured and bloodied pictures of aborted babies, to be able to turn to the joyful, healthy, smiling child there in the room with us. During one of the breaks I went up to Lindy and thanked her for bringing Lorien today, I needed to touch a baby after the weight of the things we were being shown and told. Lorien is a reminder to us of why it’s so important to do what we’re going to do on Tuesday, to protect the children of the future and allow them to have life.
The mission of Justice For All is to train thousands to make abortion unthinkable for millions, one person at a time. If you want to know more about the exhibit of Justice For All, here’s their website http://www.jfaweb.org/