Thinking Back

I was flipping through my old planner the other day and as I had some precious time to use at my leisure, I decided to take a look at the past 18 months…back to August 2010. I had the same birthdays marked that I do every year – that was not unusual. But there were other notes made that I will always remember…one was a departure date.

August 15:  a very special British gel, a “Gem”, really, who forced me to drink my tea “the proper way”, perfectly steeped and sugarless. She taught me how to make sticky toffee pudding (which I now equate with heaven) and she ruined my earphones…they still have scars from “the incident”. Hahaha…I miss you. 

August 17: The Summer Interns left, some farther than others…some stayed ;)

Miss you and Love you All!!

August 30: Stern-O! and Aaron join the force as interns at the Chalet.

September 1: My new apartment buddy gets a job AND moves in to our new apt!

September 2: The lovely Ginger comes to the Chalet for a visit! Good day…

Sept 3-5:The staff retreat at Timberline!! Hot tubbing and V-ball!

Sept 8: The Students arrived for the first day of school!

The rest of the month was full of fellowships, good byes, and my last day on staff at RC.

October was a time for new adventures. With a visit from my Idaho BFI, we got lost in Austen with strawberries and vanilla rum. And an interview led to a new job at Dillard’s where I spent most of my time in the next 10 months of my life – and I got to meet a Dillard. Then our apt was challenged to host 2 German girls, a MO girl, her James, and a Dilly Bear! We celebrated our victory with breakfast and then I got my jacket back. ;)

I think the greatest thing I did in November was send my graphing calculator to ID; December to August involved barely anything else other than work. 

Though, there were visits to my Momma and Daddy’s,

This was on their anniversary! 

 time with my sister, 

a few Sundays at church (and the IHOP), a Friday night at Meno, the day-to-day things. 

But there are a definitely things I wrote down:

January 14: a friend went on a blind date. Haha. (you know who you are)

February 6: Packers win the Superbowl XLV

My dad was too busy crying AT the game...

Feb. 11-12: the Friesens came to Denver for a weekend! =)

February 17: I called A. Peterman…love that girl.

March 1: Went to the Olive Garden with “Aunt” Sally

March 11-13: stayed with Chris and Bonnie!

April 14-17: Bethany came for a CO visit!

April 16: Rachel’s bday bash at CPK in Boulder

May 18: Met up with Al from work for coffee! =)

May 28: Gemmel, Becky, and (surprise!)Sarah came to the apt to chill

May 29: A.F in town for K.and J’s wedding!

About to enjoy Thai 

July 16: Catherine’s bday party! At the Butterfly Pavilion!

July 18: went to Estes with Sarah and her parents!

August 5-7: RC Retreat with Kendra, Pmanda, Becky, Hay-Hay, (and Bri)

The Sunrise

August 13: Julie comes to stay!!!

August 20: Nat and Michael’s wedding shower!

August 27: Going Away Party! Thank you Meno!!

Party was on a ridge in Daniel's Park

August 28: Chili’s with the Dillard’s girls

August 29: Coffee with Tammy!!!! (and Shannon via phone) =)

August 30: Bryan and Caroline came over for dinner!

September 2 (part 1): Allegra and Brad go up with us to Estes!

A favorite shot

Brad playing at Lily

September 2 (part 2): James and Stacey got married in Estes!!!!

September 4: Prayerful send-off…my family FINALLY meets Rachel’s family…via skype. Thanks 4 the prayers, everyone! (you know who ya are!)

September 6: Left the States

September 8: Arrived in India

How many of you recognize this?

It is nice to look back over all the memories of the past year and a half…

I remember the conversations and the times – and I can’t help but praise God for all the wonderful things He has blessed me with. After all, there would be no memories if it were not for the people who helped to make them. Thank you all for being a part of His great way of doing life. It is a blessing to know each and every one of you! Of all the prayers I have, my biggest is one of thankfulness for His Spirit in His people to bring Himself glory! You are all doing such a wonderful job! I am very proud to call you my family and friends.

From, Through, and To Him,

steph

Transit Time

Happy New Year, Everybody!

So, I didn’t make it till midnight on New Year’s Eve. While the world (this half of it) was getting ready to celebrate the transition into a new twelve-month with eagerness, I was not.

Oh, I do not mean that I was not preparing for a transition. I was, just not with the typical hype and partying associated with the First. And it wasn’t the transition I planned for…

Susan, the Impact staff member responsible for the studies of the Girls Home, left on the 31st to move back to Ooty and pursue school. I have now transitioned from the daily two-hour tutoring sessions of one fourth grader to being fully responsible for the studies of all 22 girls until her replacement is found or I leave in March, whichever happens to come first.

Here is my new schedule:

5:00am – Wake Up

5:30am – Worship & Devo Time (w/ the girls or alone)

6:00 - Study Hour (if the electricity is on)

7:00am – Bath Time (for the girls)

7:30am – Breakfast (for the girls) 

                             I drink a cup of tea

8:00am – Off on a Prayer and to the Bus

8:30am – Breakfast for the Aunties

10:00am-1:00pm – Prep Time (for evening studies, etc.)

1:00pm – Lunch

2:00pm – I read and usually fall asleep until 4:00pm

4:15pm – Girls arrive Home

5:15pm – Homework/ Study Time

7:15pm – Dinner

8:00pm – Worship & Devo Time (w/ the girls and the 30 other children)

8:30pm – Bedtime (for the girls)

*I don’t really have too much to report thus far, but here’s a mini-recap:

Sunday night: I was up till 11pm doing data entry of their half-yearly exam scores and signing papers.

Monday: I taught 8 fourth graders and 1 fifth grader fractions (part of that lesson included how to say, “Denominator”).

Tuesday: After a review of 4^th grade fractions and a overseeing the completion of 4 3^rd graders, I explained the Trinity (and where all the Persons were now), who Darth Vader was, who the Anti-Christ was and that he was NOT the suspect in a Washington murder investigation, that we were waiting for the Second Coming and not the First Coming… (“No, girl. I don’t know when He’s coming back. God only knows.”) And what Hell was and where it is. All in a total time of 5 minutes. ;)

Wednesday: Planning a music class??? (I’ll let you know how it goes…)

Saftey Pin

“Miss Stephanie, my skirt is too big!” I turned around and could not help but smile at Naveen as he said this to me. I looked at the khaki skirt he was wearing to complete his Roman soldier outfit. He was already intent on finding his helmet and sword (his pride and joy), but was his intentions were inconveniently being interrupted by the fact that he was now holding his pleated apparel at his waist with both hands…

Sometimes, I feel like that – too preoccupied with keeping myself together and finding I am unable to do the things I really want to do because of the inconvenience of being a present mess. 

“I have a safety pin. Just a minute. Stay still.”

“Stay still.” Those last words must have been the most difficult to hear when all he probably wanted to do was move. The adrenaline from knowing the Christmas program was in an hour and his shining moment fast approaching coupled with the fact that his parents were in the audience was a stark contrast against his statue impression. It could have been the interest of watching exactly how I pinned that made him stay still. But I think that although he watched with unwavering eyes, he was really intent on staying still because he knew what would happen if he moved. He was not watching the skirt’s pinning. He was watching how close the pin was to him and how still he was being. 

But I was watching all three. My work. His proximity. His obedience.

Safety pin. “Safety” - protection, security. “Pin” – to fasten, fix, join. What are the safety pins in your life? (a petty analogy, I know). But really…what are they? Those seemingly small, insignificant things that He places so carefully in our lives for our good – to “keep our skirts on”? The things that are intentionally and perfectly placed to “fasten, fix and join” us to Himself? The things that are for our “protection, security”? The things that we look so worryingly on because we think there is even the remotest chance that He will be careless and we will suffer for it?

But He is aware of all three. His work. His proximity. Our obedience.

Naveen’s parents watched in pride and he threw his lines out before the audience with pleasure. Apparel properly pinned. Props placed. Prepared. And unpricked.

*the program and events of Dec.17^th went wonderfully according to expectation! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! Due to the private nature of those in attendance and at the request of Impact, no pictures will be posted on this blog. However, if you would like pictures, I will be most happy to email them to you!!!! Hope you all enjoyed the holidays! Blessings from India!

Loose Teeth and Hand-Me-Downs

Yesterday marked the halfway point of this trip for me. What?! Has it really been three months since that departure from DIA?? Honestly, nothing has passed by quicker than my days here and I worry that I will not be able to keep up at this rate! I do not want to miss a moment of my time here. I want to be aware of the Lord’s work in my life and the lives of others.

My question: How do we know if we have grown spiritually?! Is there even growth at all to even assess? What evidence is there?

I had been out due to a nasty head/ chest cold, so when I went into the Children’s Home a week later and crossed the entryway, I see a wall of girls coming at me, all yelling, “Miss Stephanieeeee!!!”

Instantly, I have three girls on my left arm – one at my shoulder, another holding my forearm, and one grasping my wrist. My right side is matched, save for the fourth girl trying to get a hold of my pinky while jostling a sister or two. The smallest girl has buried her face into my stomach and laughing as she embraces me with her tiny arms. Trying to stay there while I walk forward makes her loose her grip; then, realizing I’m moving, she tries to walk backwards, which makes her giggle even more.

When they disperse a bit, I see that some have undergone changes. Some are missing teeth. Same smiles and just as expressive, but less “toothy”. And some of them were not in their normal dress. The smaller ones were now dressed in their older sisters’ clothing and so on. They were growing right before my eyes – and I’d only been out a week! Such changes were so quick and effortless! But there they were, just being themselves and living day-to-day…They had not done a thing – and still they grew! Even in looking at pictures from the first week here, three months ago, the growth is obvious.

Children grow naturally. It just happens. They eat, exercise, sleep, and repeat. And then one day you notice the simultaneous growth that has been happening the entire time…

And so it is spiritually. To feed on the Word, to exercise faith, to rest, and to make it a lifestyle causes growth. I have been yet again reminded of the Lord’s promise that “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6).

If you could take a snapshot of your heart from three months ago and compare it to your heart currently, what changes would you see? What differences would you notice? 

So, here’s to loose teeth and hand-me-downs!

“…Our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).

"Day-du"

Hello, All!

First off, have I ever said “thank you”? No? Well then, "thank you"! (Or as my little sister says, "day-du! oh, day-du!"). Thank you for taking time out of your busy life to read this. Hmmm, speaking of thanks, as it is nearing that wonderful, fallish season of family, friends, and FOOD =), let me just say, “Happy Thanksgiving”! We have so much to praise the Lord for! The past couple weeks have been ones of reminiscing for me lately. I was thinking back to last year and where I was…where were you a year ago?

Well, about this time last November, I had just finished finding a recipe for baking a perfect pumpkin pie (lo and behold the one on the Safeway can). Work was about to get crazier as all department stores pull out the décor and turn up the Christmas music for Black Friday and guard themselves against the massive, mad, mayhem of consumerism. The aspens had turned over and the weather was pleasantly cooler in comparison to a smokin’ summer. I was with my family at my parents’ house, probably talking with my grandma, laughing with my aunt, and chasing my sister for stealing my dessert. That was what I remember of last season…

This year, things are a little different: I’m not employed! Hooray! Haha, it’s actually a relief. (Those of you who have been or are in the corporate world will understand the lack of pressure.) Besides living on a tight budget until the spring, I am having to come to terms with a hot November…because this is southern India. There is no “Fall Season”, no Thanksgiving, and hence no snow or pumpkin pie. And for me, there is no family, no friends (excluding you, Rach), and no comfort foods (well, I consider rice MY comfort food, but to the rest of the world it’s just a staple). 

It is strange to be in a country where there the predominant religions are Hinduism and Islam. Very sporadically there is a Catholic influence out of a hand-me-down mentality. So many devote themselves to pray to figures of what they call “life”, or “hope”, or “prosperity”…but there is only emptiness met with a greater void. If they only knew what “life” really was, what “hope” looked like, or what “prosperity” means to the everlasting. But they know not what these blessings are. And worse yet, they know not even the One who is able to bless. So, there is no thanks to be given.

And after an insufferable existence, disappointment, and poverty with tinges of hunger and leprosy, why would they even know how to comprehend a blessing? The injustice of female infanticide continues to grow because on a practical level, girls are expensive: another mouth to feed, a significant dowry payment to have her married, society’s cultural demands, etc.  Beggars are beggars because it is the only life they know of and it was the only life their parents knew. And now there are parts of the world that have been lowered into a class of being a “fourth world” country. 

Living expenses in the state of Tamil Nadu have over the weekend, doubled. Everything from cabbage to bus fares to petrol has all been doubled. It is expensive to live and for those who already struggle to exist, the cost is now even higher. Please pray that this center in Coimbatore as well as the other Impact centers would continue to live in the faith of the love of a risen Lord, One who blesses, One who cares. May the children who were once rag-pickers and beggars, the preachers and students who were once Godless, (and the two American girls who were once orphans) be epicenters for love and thanksgiving like the Tenth Leper (Luke 17).

“Happy Thanksgiving” to you all! I am so thankful for YOU.

-S