Ash & Evergreens

One: I've been selected to go back to Haiti and I'm soooooo excited. I'm coming hack; heat, smells, and dust. I'm coming back; rags, poverty, and disease. I'm coming back; no schedule, roosters, and sunrise/sunsets. I'm coming back; blue skies, beautiful terrain, and thunderstorms. I'm coming back; bugs, dirty water, and vendors. In coming back; hugs, smiles, language barrier. I'm coming back; Haitians, my boys, the children. I'm coming back; home. Two: I'm not one to think of myself in a very haughty way. I don't think I'm better than anyone else, honestly. But I'm having a mental lapse and a tough time realizing that there's another legitimate basketball player on the court with me. She gives me good competition.. But it's getting to my head and messing up my game. Yes, she's passed me in amount of points in one game already this season and she's in 8th grade. She's played AAU. And that helped a lot. But, ...

I left my heart in Haiti. When I went last summer. And I definitely wouldn't mind going back to Nicaragua. I know that I have a great life here and I have a lot of things and people going for me. I have a pretty strong relationship with my Savior, a great family, make good grades, play multiple different sports, good youth group, and awesome friends. But there's just something missing. Now, I don't go throughout the day in a slum or thinking about it constantly. But that missing thing continually crosses my mind. You know how we go to camps and get totally on fire for God and our falling world and we stay that way for like a week or two after? I'm guilty of that. And then it just ends and we go back to living the way we did before. No second thought really. Well, this time it's different. It's been 6 months since Haiti and I'm still on fire. My relationships are stronger, I have a different view on life, and God has my complete life in His ...

Who would have thought that as soon as I got back from an awesome mission trip to Nicaragua, life would hit some big bumps in the road. Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) my mom informed me that Tuesday was full of tragedy. SOMEWHERE mutual friend of ours' husband took his own life Monday night. The weird part is, he was supposed to be with us on our trip to Nicaragua, but pulled out last minute. He's a local doctor here in town. So, that was hard to take. And then, my aunt and uncle's old neighbors (before my a&u moved) are really close family friends. We always had the best parties when we'd visit. Cause they had the pool and my aunt and uncle had the food and decked out garage. Well, come to find out, Margaret, the wife, hydroplaned Tuesday and got hit by a truck. And now she's no longer with us. Extremely sad day. Well, today, I was eating an afternoon snack at home and my mom tells me of all that's going on with Micah. Micah can be frustrating...

    Once you meet someone, they are in your life forever, whether you see them all the time or not. That can go a lot of ways, but in this particular instance, it goes to my boys in Haiti; Wilma and Iglesias. :) Mwe Amo Ou.      I can remember that as the week went on, it got harder and harder to go inside the compound...even to eat dinner. We were supposed to have Siestas (naps/rest time) every day to gice us the energy we needed. But by Wednesday, and definitely Thursday, we were literally not tasting our food or making PB&J's (something quick) so we could get back outside before it was time to move on to do something else, or come in for the evening.      Our leaders, some days, had to literally force us inside. I didn't feel drained at all, the kids and people and God were giving me the energy I needed. I remember that, on Wednesday, it was a forced Siesta time, so I tried to rest and be still. I hung out wi...

Well, I don't exactly know what all I want this post to say. I guess it'd be what I'm going for this year.      I don't want to call them resolutions...but new ways to think about/approach/live/go through life. First are the little things: Put my clean clothes awat right away, keeping my room clean, work harder on my sports games (esp. bball) etc. Second are the little bit bigger things: Listening to more christian music than secular, Diving more into scripture and really understanding it, making sure I have no late assignments (not being lazy), keep strong friendships, etc Third are the things that might have most impact: Really start to understand my relationship with God and His purpose for my life, Really learning to listen and encourage day to day with ease, be kind and have patience with those who will push my last button, try to understand my brother better and form a better relationship with him, work on my ability to articulate better (my brain thin...