I had a friend in my small-group at North Park first semester who has been blogging for a couple of years. She has amassed well over 500 blog posts in that short time. We are friends on Facebook and it seems that every time I scroll down my newsfeed I am assaulted (okay, that may be a grievous misuse of the word) by her contemplative, imaginative, beautifully ordinary writing. To this end, I am a horrible blogger. I fail massively at keeping my readers (another possible grievous misuse of the word) updated on my comings-and-goings. I complained about this to my friend Ethan over the summer and...

     As the sun rises over the earth, darkness fades.  Rays of light penetrate the shadows; they will not last. The blanket of black that had once covered the city now hides in the alleys, under bricks; it hides behind my small frame, clinging to my feet.       My sin is like this feeble shadow, struggling for a place to hide amongst the glory of my precious Savior. This can either lead me to crouch with my sin, frantically trying to cover it, or I can stand tall and let every trace of it be burned off by the light.      At night, shadows...

"Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp." Psalm 149:3 As we approached the gate I felt the heaviness, but we went onward. As we entered the smoke from the incense was nearly suffocating. I saw a man throwing water all over his body and then scrubbing it all with much force. The idols were exalted with flowers, fruit and people. But then I saw the dancers. People could bring an offering to their gods and the dancers would dance for their gods. I watched them do their routine with such sadness and emptiness in their eyes.   I immediately...

A couple weeks ago Abby, Juliette and I returned from a 2 day visa run to Laos. The good side of Laos included Laos t-shirts, new passport stamps and Thai visas…the bad side included a 12 hour roller coaster van ride, expensive not so good food, and no seven elevens on that side of the border. Oh and when we got back at 5 am Wednesday morning we were locked out of Zion for about 4 hours until they opened up the café.  I won’t lie-coming home to be locked out of our comfy beds was rough…I was not a happy camper. But I am beyond thankful it happened. Because we ...

How does one begin to write a blog about the last two months living overseas? Good Question. Its been three weeks since my team and I have said our "see you laters" in Atlanta airport and quite honestly, I have had a range of different emotions since I've been back. Seems normal, since I was away from what was familiar for 2 months. Crazy to think that 2 months filled with tears, laughter, screams, bugs, bug bits, iced wawees, Zion pad Thai, feed back, songtauws, thai friends, prayer walks, ministry, and journaling seems like a dream. Although our team leaders went over re-entry...

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Signing up to lead, I didn’t know which country I’d go to, who’d be on my team, or if I would actually be able to do it well.  Praise God, there’s grace for that. At training camp, The Lord gave me a word for the summer: “Surplus of Grace” Ever since, I’ve clung to that promise, especially in the moments when I needed it most. There’s grace for saying goodbye to your family, friends, and all that is uncomfortable and embarking on a journey full of unknowns. There’s grace for the moment...