Proposal

Tuesday was the last day of school before Christmas break, so of course nothing academic happened at all whatsoever. However, there were a lot of parties, sweets, christmas cards, and gifts being handed out. About halfway through the day a boy in 4th grade burst through the door of my classroom with a Christmas card and ornament in hand. I don't know this particular student very well, but I did run into him at Goodwill (a place I frequently shop) several weeks back and we had a lengthy discussion about remote control airplanes. That must have really made an impression on him because after he handed me the gift and said, "Here you go, Pastor Anna. I got this for you. Merry Christmas!", he proceeded to ask me if I would marry him! I just laughed and told him I was a little too old for him. He replied, "Aw,but come on -- you're so cute!"

Just precious!

A Glimpse of My Life

Wow it's been a long time since I updated this thing. I feel like some kind of prodigal. A lot has happened in the past few months, so in order to catch us all up I'll give a little update on each area of my life.
How does that sound? :o)

_____________________________________

Family

We've had two new additions to our family this fall. On Sept 14th my sister gave birth to her baby boy, Jacob Jr.

We call him Coby. Look how much he's grown!

And of course, the twins are getting cuter every second.

On November 2nd my sister-in-law gave birth to a baby girl,
Olivia Joy.

Andrew and Carissa are totally in love with her.
____________________________________

Work & Ministry

I have a great job! I'm on staff at Evergreen Christian Community in Olympia, WA, where I serve as the Chaplain of the K-8th grade school that is based out of the church. My job description entails a lot of different things, but most of my time is spent preparing the two weekly chapel services, preaching, and teaching. I teach an elective class for Jr. High students. It's a spiritual formation class, so for the first half of the semester I taught them about the spiritual disciplines and how they could incorporate those into their lives. This second half of the semester I'm teaching them about Christian doctrine and theology. I have had to write or at least piece together from several places the curriculum for this class, so that has been both challenging and rewarding. I couldn't ask for a better set of co-workers, pastoral staff, or a better boss! This is an exceptional community of people, and I'm really blessed to be a part of it. Plus, my brother works here as the youth pastor. So awesome!

Some really cute 2nd graders that like to come eat lunch with me.
_________________________________
Future Plans

I feel like God just handed me my future on a silver platter. In the past week I have really been seeing how God has positioned me in a place of incredible blessing, favor, and opportunity. I think I knew that before....sort of....but it's become very real this past week. I love where I work, I'm surrounded by wonderfully supportive and encouraging people, and my living expenses are next to nothing. When it's time to start Graduate school, I'll have enough money saved to pay for my entire degree, and most of my living expenses while I study. Unbelievable, right? I am really excited for the future. I love where I'm at and God is doing a lot here, so I'm looking forward to being a part of that. But I'm also anticipating what is beyond this.

I keep getting this picture in my head...it's hard to describe, but it's like God has asked me to close my eyes, then taken me to the very tip of a high mountain. I open my eyes to see a valley that stretches beyond my vision. It is beautiful. I look and look but I cannot see the end of it, nor can my senses fully comprehend what He is presenting to me. I am overwhelmed with the beauty -- no spoken language could possibly even begin to describe the wonder. It's like He's saying, "Anna, you can do whatever you want. This is your furture." Not that I should do what I want because He doesn't have a course mapped for me; rather I can do whatever I want because the desires in my heart were put there by Him. I can sense His delight and excitement...and it's contagious :o)

__________________________________
Friends and such

Like I said before, God has set me among a really great group of people. I miss my friends in Scotland and Missouri, but God has put a lot of quality people in close proximity to me. I'm really enjoying my growing friendships with fellow pastors and youth staff workers especially.
I also joined a soccer team. Yep. One of the pastors at my church played through college so every year he puts together a team to play in the city league. We had our first game last Thursday and got creamed. It was super fun/demoralizing. Seriously, though, it is really fun to play and it's great exercise -- although I am realizing I need to run more if I want to compete with the Latinos that play year-round :o)

Just As I Am

I wondered how to come to You
I did not dare believe it true
That You regard the orphaned ones
As beloved daughters, worthy sons

The broken and the barren, too
I heard could find some rest in You
What kind of Love, in injuries place
Would leave instead, the stain of grace?

I come in sorrow, I come in shame
I come to the cross with my pain
Just as I am without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bids me come to thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

The pardon that I found from sin
Spilled out from where the nails went in
My heart will ever more proclaim
I had not lived until that day

And I know there is a crown for me
Beyond where mortal eyes can see
And I owe not to any man
But offer me just as I am

So I come rejoicing
With hands held high
I come singing words of new life
Just as I am without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bids me come to Thee
O Lamb of God...

-Just as I am, Nichole Nordeman

I always think about grace at Christmastime. It's the message of Christmas -- God incarnate to redeem what was lost. It's a story that I never get tired of hearing. We are so blessed.

You're still reading this?

Hey cool people -- Cheers to those of you who actually still read my blog, seeing as my schedule this summer has not afforded me the extra time to write about what I'm learning and thinking. I've missed this very much! So here's a little update on what's gone on since I got back from Scotland 2 1/2 months ago...

• Right after I got home to Oregon, my sister/brother-in-law/twin nieces came for a two week visit...
• Then my aunt/uncle/cousins visited for several days...
• Then I drove up to Olympia, WA and interviewed for the Associate Pastor/Chaplin position open at Evergreen Christian School...
• Then I wrote the article for Soul Purpose...
• Then spent an intense week car shopping and finally bought a car (it was crazy, I never knew car shopping was so time consuming)...
• Then I flew to Springfield, MO and spent two weeks there catching up with old friends and packing up all my stuff that was in storage and mailing it back to Oregon...
• I got home from Missouri on a Wednesday night and left the next morning at 6am to drive 6 hrs to Vancouver, BC to visit Andy and check out Regent, the grad school where I want to get my Masters Degree next year...
• I spent 4 days there, had a blast, met with an admissions counselor, sat in on a class and a few chapels, etc, etc...
• Then I drove from Vancouver to Olympia, WA immediately after that to help my brother with his youth summer camp (he's a youth pastor at the church where I interviewed), which was totally awesome but really tiring...
• While I was in Olympia I also had my 2nd interview for the Chaplin position at the Christian school that is a part of the church where my brother is a youth pastor...
• After all that I drove three hours back home to Oregon, and on the way got a phone call saying they were offering me the job as Chaplin..
• SO, I had 1 day to pack all my stuff in my car and drive/move back up to Olympia...
• I had no place to live so for the first week I lived with my brother and sister-in-law, half my stuff still shoved in my car, and half my stuff kind of moved into their baby's room...
• I started work the day after I got to Olympia, and that same week my laptop battery and adaptor died, so I was without a computer (so frustrating!!)...
• Plus, I was horribly sick cause I got a really, really bad cold right after summer camp. It was the worst cold I've ever had (no exaggeration), and probably the worst timing as well...
• I worked for a week, then Andy came down for a visit that we'd planned before I got the job in Olympia (bad timing again, but what can ya do? We'd had this visit planned all summer)...
• Took Andy home to meet my parents in Oregon, then back up to Olympia to help me move into the house I'll be living at this year, then back down to Oregon to spend more time with my paretns...
• I dropped Andy off at the Portland airport on the drive back up to Olympia Monday morning, then had two full days of teacher/staff orientation at the school, followed by a very busy week of planning and prepping for the students' return to school this week!

If that sounds insane, it's because it is. Needless to say, it's been a really busy summer (not exactly the restful transition time I thought it would be), but it's been really great as well. I've had to opportunity to see lot of friends and family that I missed very much while I was in Scotland last year. Now I'm just missing my peeps in Scotland...too bad it's not as easy to visit them. Now that I've fully moved to Olympia and am settling into my new job, I'm getting back into a normal routine -- which I LOVE.

Thanks to those of you who have kept in touch through this crazy transition time. I plan to continue writing here about the things God is teaching me this new season of life, and I'd love your company on the journey :o)

Published

At the beginning of this summer my good friend (Hamish) asked me to write an article for his magazine, Soul Purpose, -- a Christian youth magazine based out of New Zealand. Of course I was delighted to write for them and thrilled that Hamish would even consider asking me to contribute to this wonderful magazine. What an honor! Writing the article was both a great challenge and a great joy. But, it's done and now it's published, so you can read up here:

my article

Most, if not all of what I wrote, I learned while I was in Scotland -- either from the direct teaching of Sarah, Joe, and Jayne, or from observing their lives. They have taught me a great deal about relationships, the spiritual transformation of the human soul, and walking with people on the journey from darkness to light.

What's the difference?

When I arrived in Scotland, one of the first things I noticed that marked a difference between me and the Scottish people were their accents. Everyone I talked to, passed on the street, stood next to in line, or interacted with in some other way was different from me -- and it was obvious the moment they started to speak. After a while I was able to distinguish between and English, Irish, and Scottish accents. A desirable skill, yes, but the accents where still there as a constant reminder that we were different. But as time creeped on, and more importantly, as I started establishing relationships and getting to know people, I stopped hearing accents.

Insead, I began to recognize voices. That person sounds just like Naomi. He has the same laugh as Allastair. Martha just walked in the room. Hey, that's Phil....I haven't seen Phil in ages. I can remember the first time I stopped hearing accents. I was sitting on the bus with Naomi, on my way to her universtiy where we were going to work on a video for Radiate together. I can't even remember what we were talking about, but I remember being amazed that I could no longer distinguish between her accent and mine. I just kept thinking to myself, "Do we really sound different?" And trust me, it wasn't because I was speaking with a Scottish accent. She didn't sound Scottish anymore. She just sounded like Naomi.

The same thing has happened with my nieces. Taylor and Chloe have been a part of our family since Christmas when my sister and brother-in-law found out the adoption in Vietnam had been approved. I was in Scotland for the babies' arrival in America, so my first time meeting them was a couple weeks ago after I arrived home.

At first, they looked really asian to me. They probably look asian to you. That's not a bad thing. They are vietnamese, after all. I had the pleasure of spending nearly two solid weeks hugging, kissing, changing diapers, playing with, feeding, and watching them sleep. Somewhere around the 10 day mark I realized they didn't look asian anymore. They looked like Taylor and Chloe. When I look at the one on the left I think, "Aw, Taylor. She has waaay too much attitude for someone who's only 18 inches tall. She just started crawling, doesn't like to take naps or drink her bottle, and she refuses to eat baby food anymore. She'd rather play with my laptop or digital camera than anything you can buy in Toys R Us." And when I see Chloe I think, "She's probably wondering how she can get mommy to give her more rice cakes. She's more concerned with the people who are in the room than the toys she's playing with. And if you put something on her head she'll start laughing hysterically."

The first thing I notice isn't that our skin and eyes are not the same. In fact, I don't notice that at all anymore. Taylor and Chloe are now defined by my relationship with them. I'm not saying that the differences are bad. On the conarary, the array of dissimilarities between me and the rest of the world testify to our magnificently creative God. I've just realized that after I get to know someone who is different than me in one way or another, what defines them is their unique personality and the relationship we have formed. I see what brings us together, not the things that separate and make us unlike each other.

It makes me wonder about racism and predjudice. Illegal immagrants, homosexuals, african-americans, native-americans, the elderly, germans, jews, laywers, policemen.........who do you have a problem with? I wonder what would happen if you actually befriended one of them and got to know the person behind the sterotype.

Coming Home

It's been a little while since I've had time to update this blog. The past couple weeks have been fun but a bit crazy -- jam packed with moving back home and trying to settle back into life in the States. I arrived home in Oregon late Wednesday night (June 6), spent most of Thursday unpacking and running around town with my mom, trying to get everything we needed for a visit from my baby nieces. Friday morning my sister and brother-in-law flew out with their twins for a two week visit in Oregon. This is my first time meeting the girls so it's been awesome to finally hug and kiss them and play with them in person. It took a couple days for them to get used to me, but now I'm definitely Chloe's favorite human. My life feels a little bit scattered right now and I have a feeling it's going to take a while to re-adjust and settle back in. Right now I'm living with my parents in Oregon, looking at a couple job opportunities up in

Washington, and most of my stuff is still in Missouri because that's where I was living before I went to Scotland. I'm looking to get my Masters Degree before I settle into a career, but before I can do that I need to work for about a year and save some money. Finding a job is the first thing on my agenda.....

1. Find a job.

2. Buy a car.

3. Get a cell phone.

4. Fly out to Missouri to get all my stuff.

5. Move to (Washington?) wherever my job is.

6. Find an apartment, a roommate, and other life essentials.

Saying Goodbye

I feel like there are a thousand things I need to pen out right now. My heart is full to the point of breaking with all the thoughts and emotions that come with this transition and the many vital lessons I've learned this year. As my time in Scotland is drawing to a close, these past couple weeks have been full of preparations for returning home - mainly packing and a lot of coffees and meals with people I love as we grasp to make the most of our rapidly disappearing time together.
One such event was last friday night - a surprise going away party that my wonderful colleagues threw for me. It was so much fun! By the end of the night my face hurt from smiling and laughing so much. I really felt so, so loved and appreciated. The high point was probably when they showed a video they'd made of all the students saying goodbye and why they love and will miss me. SO PRECIOUS!
Although it aches to say goodbye, I'm finding a sweetness amongst the bitter parts. The pain we feel in this separation is a testimony to the depth of our relationships and the love that we foster for one another. If we didn't care so much about each other, then it really wouldn't hurt to say goodbye. I've found a great community in Radiate and I'm going to miss these people very much. I'm thankful for the opportunity to share life with them and I feel honored that God would allow me to be a part of their spiritual journey.

_______________________________________

To see all the photos from my party clicky here

My Babies

I have the cutest nieces in the world!!

End of Semester Elation

Sarah and her crazies!

Lots more photos here.
____________________________________________

Last night we had our end of the year party for Radiate - a BBQ and bonfire at the beach. It was a little cold but a lot of fun. There's a really lovely beach right outside of Aberdeen in a small community called Balmeadie. The only draw back was that the barbeques are one side of the sand dunes and the shore is on the other. So we flipped some burgers, scarfed them down, then ran over the sand dunes where we'd built a nice toasty bonfire. We were a little chilly while barbequeing but managed to stay warm by playing tag (a game I'll never outgrow) and taking jumping pictures. It was seriously fun times. I'm really going to miss these people!

Getting ready to barbeque. So much food!

Sarah and her midget.

"Give us food......NOW"

Or maybe everyone was just trying to stay warm?

Joe, Nathan, and Jackie

A few brave souls went in the water even though it was freezing!

Grace turned Christine into a mermaid.

And a bitta rugby of course.

Adios Home Group :o(

Last night was the last of our home group bible studies until next fall. Aww! It's kinda hard to say goodbye for a while to these weekly meeting, a little bittersweet ya know?.........nah, it's mostly just bitter ;o) I did have such a wonderful time being a discipleship leader to these girls this year and last night was no exception. I will miss them all very much. Since it was the last meeting I made them all dinner - chicken tikka and chicken korma curry, rice, and rhubarb crumble for dessert (classic British meal, aye). After consuming a large amount of food we spent some time studying and discussing Romans 12:1-2. We talked about what God requires of us and whether or not He could really change us - change the really rough and bad parts of who we are, and how the fact that He is unconditionally patient and compassionate plays into that whole process. It was a good discussion. Below are posted some photos for your viewing pleasure....

Really silly Sarah, Christine, and Laura.

I know this isn't the most appetizing picture, but seriously people - this rhubard crumble was AH-mazing! Joe and Jessica Hippey (a couple of our student leaders) gave me a bunch of rhubarb this week that they'd grown in their garden. Apparently rhubarb is a totally British thing so they didn't want me to leave with out experiencing it. I'd never eaten or cooked with rhubarb so I was just kinda like, "Uhhh.......thanks, I think." But I found a recipe on the internet and it was brilliant. Who knew rhubarb could taste so scrumptulicious? Not I, said the Anna. Don't worry Mom, I'll be bringing this one home!

Yeah, of course we took jumping pictures in my living room. The people who live below me loved it.

Open Mic Night

Last night we had another outreach hosted at Starbucks - this time an open mic night. It was amazing! I honestly don't have words. There were over 50 people there and at one point I counted 25 new students. That is incredible! Five of the students who preformed were first timers who had been invited by a friend to the outreach. I felt overwhelmed, almost to tears at one point, when I looked around and saw all the students that God has entrusted to us, and thought about the brilliant relationship He's given us with the Starbucks staff. He has been so good to us. Our next outreach is an end of the year PARTY on May 11. It's gonna be an end of semester elation extravaganza! Please pray that the relationships we've started building with these new students will continue to deepen and that the life of God, in us, will draw them to Him.

___________________________________________

There was quite a variety of creativity expressed: short stories, poems, music (both original and cover songs), and comedy.

Sarah and Natasha started out the night with a short story they'd written about superheros.....

...and they had volunteers act it out. Very amusing!

Some of the first time guests singing away.

Natasha has been writing poetry for years. She read two poems, one she'd written before she was saved and one she wrote just recently, to show the contrast between what her life used to be and what it is now.

Students enjoying themselves

The very talented Nathan played the guitar and harmonica (at the same time) and sang (when his mouth wasn't full of harmonica).

Music by David Karon read poetry he had written, and a couple from his favorite books. He's from Trinidad and speaks with a lot of rhythem. It was brilliant.

And of course, the hilarious Rachel and Andy had everyone in stitches with their corney jokes and comedy routine. What a laugh!