In The Beginning

Day #1
Sunday, May 18th 2008

"We only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. What a crazy few weeks this has been...

Last night I broke down and just cried for 20 minutes. It's real now. I'm on a train to Seattle and Mom & Dad are moving to China in 1 week. Growing up could not have come more suddenly and simultaneously. Yet at the same time, I could not and probably have never been as excited as I am right now.

THE TRAIN...

My perspective changed on older people today. Indefinitely we should respect our elders; however, to love everyone recklessly and equally seems more accurate to some ideal of a state of "correctness"... All this venting sparked from a grumpy older woman that, when Ryan and I didn't see her behind us is the aisle said in an insistent or [obvious] tone "Yeeeeah...Hummmph!" when we finally noticed her and moved out of her way. I suppose what I actually realized is that NOT ALL OLD PEOPLE are sweet, innocent, and helpless...

I sit next to a 1-year-out-of-college theatre major named Tyler. He's really cool and went to Nebraska Wesleyan College. Maybe the Lord will bring opportunity in this short-lived relationship.

Ryan and I met a girl named 'Lily'. I first noticed her in line for our train back in Chicago because she was carrying what looked like a wooden spear. It turns out that Lily is carrying a well crafted longbow. She goes to some wilderness school in Albany, NY and is on her way out to the Olympic Mountains to do a "survival period". She's only taking a knife, her longbow, and several other items in her backpack. Lily taught Ryan & I how to make, essentially, rope out of the inner bark of a plant called dogbane (?!):
(1) Buffing period- to remove external bark. Methods: rolling in palm; segment twisting
(2) Seperate the buffed, slightly adhered strands into two sections.
(3) Make an -X- out of those strands...Twist to the right; lay over bottom strand; REPEAT

*I'm already craving a steak dinner, and it's the first day still. The powerbar and half-can of tuna will be well worth the wait..."

A New Start...

So I'm back...and with many crazy and amazing stories to tell.
All in all, I spent 54 days across the range of my time spent in Washington and California.
I've truly grown in incredibly amounts through this trip, but I'll tell you right now that it was not without a cost. As I read The Shack (I recommend this book to anyone and EVERYONE) this summer, I was able to come to somewhat of an understanding that more than not, God wants to take us through an experience and work with us to bring about change. Applying personally to me, the Lord met me in different situations that I felt like I almost was supposed to brought into in order to come to an understanding of what God wanted me to learn. This may all seem abstract, but I assure you that this summer has brought about important decisions, understandings, and changes in my life.

I want to share with any of you that may be still keeping with me some of my journal from this adventure of mine. Both Ryan and I kept a journal every day of this trip with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions, and for the next couple of weeks or so I will be posting different entries from my journal so that any joy or wisdom or comedy that I've experienced can in some way be passed on to you...

There are a great deal of personal things that were written in my journal that I will NOT include on here, but I think there is still enough material that can be shared that will be enjoyable.

So please, share what you think about some of the things, hopefully some of it will be a benefit. After most of my thoughts have been processed and put out there, I'll start actually blogging again...

So here goes...day number one coming up...

An Update...

So I don't have an enormous beard anymore. It's gone. Buzzed it. Cut it off...you get the point!

A whole lot of new things are happening. Thanks to the Lord, I sold my car to a friend without any effort at all. I was so worried that it was going to be incredibly difficult to start this "simplistic living" ideal...and then the first person that I asked [even a little bit facetiously I might add] was interested and we signed the title over last week! Thank the Lord....He is so good.

God is working in new ways in my life, too. He's showing up more real than ever in prayer...in my solitude...in my thoughts. He's even making the weather a little bit warmer outside to lighten the mood :)

My parents still aren't gone and you would think that's driving me crazy but....wait....no, it is driving me crazy...haha....i love you mom and dad, but just let me start missing you already will ya? 

Plans for Seattle are still in the making. Even though nothing at all is really ironed out yet, I know that Ryan and I are going to have an incredible summer!

Lot's more to come...just as soon as I'm done being attacked and having my time taken away from me by the evil one (Ssssatan! as we used to say in youth group)....

love,

s.francis.k

Ridiculous...that's what it is...

something I wrote for my cross cultural orientation class recently...we were supposed to respond with a couple descriptive paragraphs about an article involving Chicago and Religion (this is one of 5 online post assignments about various topics)...annnnd I may or may not have got a little carried away:) that's passion I guess, right? :)

I wrote this after reading an article about a church called the House of Hope in Chicago that seats 10,000 and costed over 53 million dollars to construct...

"Firstly, it's appropriate to start off with a summary of the article's content. The fifty million dollar "House of Hope", home to Chicago's Salem Baptist Church, can seat 10,000 people! Quoted stating, "In order for the world to see how big God is, the world is going to have see God's people doing God-sized things.", Salem's senior pastor James Meeks desires for this "House of Hope" to genuinely be a place in which people can find hope and protection from life's complexity. The Church's 203,000 square-foot, three-floor facility contains three regulation sized basketball courts, a drive-thru ticket box window, locker rooms, two 19'x11' projector screens and a 1.4 million dollar sound system. According to Meeks, "It's about rebuilding life, and rebuilding communities."

Practically bursting at my seems as I read this article, I cannot disagree more with a church of this magnitude. How can there be a justified way to spend almost one and one half million dollars on a sound system? How can fifty million dollars be spent on developing and constructing a building in Jesus' name? I believe that this church is an example of the lie that some modern culture has began to believe that somehow the building and draw of a church is as important as its purpose. What happened to the simplicity bled by Jesus that called for us to pray to heal others in Jesus' name, to go out to the people and share the Gospel, and to depend on the power of God Almighty to bring those opportunities into our lives? I'm sorry, but for people to see how big our Lord is, they need not be presented with unnecessary attraction to a facility. Hasn't God the Father showed up as only a whisper? I want to suggest that the God-sized things needed to show the nation God's majesty that Meeks presents are not consisted of buildings and a great worship band; rather, God wishes to show His glory to the world through us, his people that he's imparted the Holy Spirit onto for guidance and conviction.
In saying all of this, I must concede in some way by saying that the conviction of this church to draw a massive community together and crown Christ as Lord over all of them is amazing. The way that they will be used in the future in bringing people together for a united purpose is so incredibly honorable. My opinion remains that, the amount of money put into this church makes me cringe because how else could even thirty or forty million dollars of that been used to save lives? Meeks says that its all about rebuilding life and rebuilding community. I say that this church could have rebuilt life in other suffering nations, in OUR nation by not spending its money on so many unnecessary aspects of a ridiculously-sized BUILDING and giving it away. I say that its all about sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and surrender of our lives to God's purpose.
I have asked many questions within my article review, but I will pose one more: Is not the church US as a community together going forth on God's prompting, rather than a building to bring others into our way of life?"

Update 563

So I've been SOOOOO incredibly busy lately...

Life is going so incredibly well I can't even put a measure on it. If I had to put it as a phrase, though, it would probably be something like "stressedtothemaxbuttheLordholdsmeadoringmeandblessestheheckoutame"

:)

Coming soon...something I learned in Church the other week

Normally when I go to "church" I learn something completely unrelated to what the pastor is talking about...so you just wait and see!

All I know...

Your faithfullness endures always Where mountains fall and reason fails And You calm the raging seas And You calm the storms in me, again  

All I know is I find rest in You 

All I know is I find rest in You

-Rest In You-

Hillsong United

A Love[ing] Realization...

Spring Break was pretty dang good.

I actually spent (i feel this way at least...sometimes my mom throws in during a conversation something like "I feel like we've barely seen you since you've been home"...And then she kind of laughs a little tiny bit so as not to be sharp about it but to bring to attention that our time is a little limited so WHY AM I NOT SEEING THEM THAT MUCH. haha. She's normally right, but not always :) This time she didn't have to say that though) a considerable amount of break with my mom and dad. On Sunday our entire family went to a HUGE indoor waterpark and I had a blast with all of my nieces. 

...there's just something about my niece Lainey grabbing onto my neck for her dear little life when the huge waves from the wavepool came crawling towards us...made all of the exhaustion from phrases like "Uncle Seth! come to the slide with me! Uncle Seth! Uncle Seth? Wave pool? Uncle Seth?!" completely worth it and fine...My nieces, I've said this before, are such a huge blessing to me!

I spent the rest of break either talking with my parents or hanging out with friends from Ohio. It's always really meaningful to me to be able to see all of my friends among the different friend groups that I have; and I think that is why I let myself get stressed, because its worth it to be able to see each one. (Obviously there were definitely some that I missed out on, which is sad...but I made my rounds)

On Monday morning before I left to drive back to school with Austin, I had a very strong and significant realization about my parents and why I completely excited and supportive of them, but at the same time, really struggling with the anticipation and reality of them being gone for such a long time...

They were praying for me for all sorts of things before Austin and I took off. I was sitting in that chair, listening--agreeing--with the prayers that were lifted up and analyzing like I tend to do fairly often...and I realized why I possess such strong emotion about them. 

I realized this: my parents love me more than anyone other [person...human] loves me on this earth. I hear it in their prayers over me whenever we pray. I see it looking back on their disciplining me and sharing wisdom with me over the years. Such an amazing thing was it to realize that in that moment...to realize at least a glance of how they love me.  Their care for me...and actually now that I think about it, for those in the culture they're about to immerse themselves in and most people around me.... seeps out from them. I could go into more detail, but I think I'll keep that to myself. I just really wanted to share that with whoever is reading this right now. That my PARENTS love for me is overwhelming when I actually can catch a glimpse of its truth and reality. 

In the bible there are many verses that attempt to describe God's (the father) personality a little bit. IN doing this, there are several verses that end with "[...] and so how much more will the Lord God reward you" or "[...] how much more, then, does your heavenly Father love you"

This became at least partially evident to me this Spring Break. My parents' love for me is incredible and seemingly unconditional even. How much more does God, my creator, savior...desire me and love and care and seek after me? SO much more...we should all keep that in mind. 

The person that you feel loved by the most in this world does not possess even a tiny fraction of the amount of care and love that our God has for us... Believe it. Because this is true.

and if that's not encouraging to know then I don't know what is.

Love ya'll...

sfk