5 Days til Christmas
Oh yeah it is 5 days till Christmas!! I love Christmas but I also love all other holidays. I just loved getting together with my family and friends and celebrating what Gods has done. I am SO blessed to have a great family. Yes, we have our issues but at the end of the day we all know that we love each other, I am truly blessed. This Christmas however, will be especially great because it will be my niece's first.
It is still weird for me to look at her and think, wow this belong's to my sister. I think it is still weird for me to think that I am at the age where friends and my sister are having babies. My life is certainly not where I thought it would be at 25 years old. I always imagined myself married and maybe getting ready for a baby, but as God continues to show me, He only knows His plans He made for me, however I like to plan ahead of Him often.
Life in New Orleans is going ok. It will be completely different come January when more youth come back. This excites me but also scares me because I still feel overwhelmed with what God has called me to do here. I think I under-estimate myself a lot and especially under-estimate God's power to move through me. I jumble over my words a lot and that really effects my confidence when it comes to many things, especially sharing Jesus with others. That is so sad that my lack of confidence effects my sole purpose on earth, to know God and to make Him known. I just need to keep reminding myself that all I need to do is love these kids and remind them how much Jesus loves them.
One of the most exciting things for me when I accepted this position is thinking that God willing I could open these kids eyes to the unjustices around them, as I had been blessed with in college. New Orleans is such an impoverished city that is full of crappy politics and greed that in turn effects the poor. Some of the injustices include one of the worst public school systmes in America, a massive amount of inadquete housing, really bad public housing, and so on. This in turn breads an rapidly growing crime rate (pre-Katrina). And this in turns also resulted in the horrors that we saw on television on the days following the hurricane.
THat said GOd has opened many doors for me to do that. The kids, if their parents allowed, saw the horrors that were going on in their city. For those that did not know there was a whole other part of the city, many of the kids live in the Garden District bubble, they have now seen it. What an opportunity for this youth group to be a small part in rebuilding the city of NEw Orleans, not only physically but also emotionally and spirititually. I just pray that the kids hearts where softened and that we do not just get back into the daily routine and forget what we saw and what is happening around us. It is weird how your sort of get desensorized. I mean usually seeing a flooded house with everything inside it molded would totally take me aback. But now after being here for over 2 months and gutting many houses like that, I sort find myself just being like oh here we go again. Pretty scary!! I mean it is amazing our human survival and coping skills, but sometimes those skills can really block the true picture of what is happening around you and as a result prevent you from really empathizing and wanting to act to change it.
It is still weird for me to look at her and think, wow this belong's to my sister. I think it is still weird for me to think that I am at the age where friends and my sister are having babies. My life is certainly not where I thought it would be at 25 years old. I always imagined myself married and maybe getting ready for a baby, but as God continues to show me, He only knows His plans He made for me, however I like to plan ahead of Him often.
Life in New Orleans is going ok. It will be completely different come January when more youth come back. This excites me but also scares me because I still feel overwhelmed with what God has called me to do here. I think I under-estimate myself a lot and especially under-estimate God's power to move through me. I jumble over my words a lot and that really effects my confidence when it comes to many things, especially sharing Jesus with others. That is so sad that my lack of confidence effects my sole purpose on earth, to know God and to make Him known. I just need to keep reminding myself that all I need to do is love these kids and remind them how much Jesus loves them.
One of the most exciting things for me when I accepted this position is thinking that God willing I could open these kids eyes to the unjustices around them, as I had been blessed with in college. New Orleans is such an impoverished city that is full of crappy politics and greed that in turn effects the poor. Some of the injustices include one of the worst public school systmes in America, a massive amount of inadquete housing, really bad public housing, and so on. This in turn breads an rapidly growing crime rate (pre-Katrina). And this in turns also resulted in the horrors that we saw on television on the days following the hurricane.
THat said GOd has opened many doors for me to do that. The kids, if their parents allowed, saw the horrors that were going on in their city. For those that did not know there was a whole other part of the city, many of the kids live in the Garden District bubble, they have now seen it. What an opportunity for this youth group to be a small part in rebuilding the city of NEw Orleans, not only physically but also emotionally and spirititually. I just pray that the kids hearts where softened and that we do not just get back into the daily routine and forget what we saw and what is happening around us. It is weird how your sort of get desensorized. I mean usually seeing a flooded house with everything inside it molded would totally take me aback. But now after being here for over 2 months and gutting many houses like that, I sort find myself just being like oh here we go again. Pretty scary!! I mean it is amazing our human survival and coping skills, but sometimes those skills can really block the true picture of what is happening around you and as a result prevent you from really empathizing and wanting to act to change it.
posted by khwilly at 9:16 AM
2 Comments:
good stuff girl! i love it! Keep it comin!
You need some pics!! :) But your blog is great. I am glad you are blogging again. You inspire me. :)
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