Coming Soon…

http://adventuringabroad.wordpress.com/

Here I come Argentina.

For nine months.

Wow.

God is good.

Here begins the story of a young girl – age ten – who wants to be a missionary.  At age ten, missionary = a crazy adult person who goes to Africa, in the middle of nowhere, to tribes of cannibals, where the missionary is captured and nearly eaten alive, and yet still somehow tells the people about Jesus.

And that’s what I wanted to be – at age 10.

Needless to say, my definition of a missionary has drastically changed since then. And I, also, have changed. The process of my pursuit in becoming a missionary has been an interesting one. By the time high school came around I came to realize that a missionary is someone who tells people about Jesus anywhere at anytime – whether that be work or school or church or to an African tribe and whether that be now or then. Another thing I realized is that all Christians are called by Christ to be missionaries of some sort at all times.

My head understood these things but it wasn’t until college that my life slowly began to reflect what my head knew so well.

And I am still learning this…

So now, I am going to Argentina to minister to children and teens who may not know Christ.

My greatest fear is that I will not be a good ambassador for Christ – that I will not represent Him well. I know that I can’t represent him perfectly because I am not yet made perfect – but I do pray God would do a work in me and use me to glorify Him while I am working in this place and with these people where He is already using others to minister and where He is already working in the hearts of the lost. I thank God that a person’s salvation is not up to me, but up to God – since He is the only one who can represent Himself perfectly. But on that same note:

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I do pray that as a new creature – having been entrusted with the message of reconciliation – God will make an appeal through me to these people in Argentina and to the people in my life even now.

Josh and I went to Forest Falls a few weekends back. But first we  went up the mountain about 8000 ft too far before we realized we were lost. It was well worth it though once we finally made it! Beautiful day!

Thanks to Wesley and Naomi, we also took an adventure to Anza Borrego late one night and enjoyed the brilliance of the stars.

*http://www.weskimphoto.com/

In other news, Noelle and I both got new hair cuts…

…Josh and I finally got a picture taken of us together…

…and things are finally coming together in regards to the 9 month mission trip that I will be taking…but more on that later.

…

But not tonight.

Thanks to my wonderful Sunday School teacher I had an epiphany this morning! [I love epiphany's - it's such a marvelous thing when the light bulb shines so brightly above my head and my eyes get so wide in excitement that I freak my teacher out!] We were talking about the incarnation and how Christ was %100 God and 100% man [Excited? I sure am!]. And I had never really known what to think about Christ as man…was he just God in a man suit? Did he act as a man or did he act as God? I always assumed Christ not only had full access to the Father but also that he acted as God throughout his time on earth.

My Sunday School teacher, HOWEVER, stated that he believed that Christ never acted as God except on the mount of transfiguration. [What? That's crazy...he was God but he didn't act as God?] It was a constant choice Christ made to not only conceal his Godness but also to refrain from using the power he had as God. For instance, God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient as is Christ. But Christ chose to refrain from using those powers which he had. This has huge implications! [Here comes the REALLY exciting part so don't stop reading yet!]

For one, it makes far more sense in light of the scripture that says Christ grew in wisdom. If Christ were omniscient like God, then he would not be able to grow in wisdom. However, if Christ did not use that power – then that portion of scripture makes a lot more sense.

In addition, it also gives me great hope. If Christ performed miracles because he acted as God – I have no hope that I would be able to perform them because I am not God.  If Christ conquered temptation because he acted as God – then I doubt that I will be able to conquer temptation. However, if Christ did these things through the power of the Father but not as the Father, then there is great hope within me that if I strive to grow closer to Christ, He will give me the power to be like Christ!

One rebuttal I have been attacked with already is that Christ “knew” what the Pharisee’s were thinking so he must have used his omniscience. But that can easily be explained because Christ was in constant communion with God and God could have told Jesus and most certainly did tell Jesus many things.

You’re probably all thnking one of two things right now:

Either you’re thinking that this is the most insane idea you have ever heard and that I’m foolosh to fall for such poppycock!

or

You are thinking – gosh Sarah, you are sooo dumb…I’ve known that since like 3rd grade!

Well if you are either of these two people, please do not respond –  I would like to bask in my excitement for just a little while longer…

I’ve been cooking quite a bit lately – every Wednesday, in fact.

A few weekends ago I made some awesome Enchiladas with Ope. We made a modified version of a receipe we found on Allrecipes.com. They were some of the best I’ve ever had!

I’ve been changing my diet a bit and eating more veggies so I’ve been experimenting with vegetarian recipes. I made a Marinated Mushroom Salad which is now one of my favorite dishes.

This week I made a Penne pasta dish,

I also made Rosemary bread from scratch with a garlic olive oil dip (it was phenomenal, I’ll be making it again!)

and I made garlic broccoli which was a little salty but still good enough that I couldn’t stop eating it!

Why I think Noelle even ate everything I served which is a miracle indeed!

But for man with a deep-rooted faith in the value and meaning of life, every experience holds a new promise, every encounter carries a new insight, and every event brings a new message. But these promises, insights, and messages have to be discovered and made visible. A Christian leader is not a leader because he announced a new idea and tries to convince others of its worth; he is a leader because he faces the world with eyes full of expectation, with the expertise to take away the veil that covers its hidden potential. Christian leadership is called ministry precisely to express that in the service of others new life can be brought about. It is this service which gives eyes to see the flower breaking through the cracks in the street, ears to hear a word of forgiveness muted by hatred and hostility, and hands to feel new life under the cover of death and destruction.

—Henri J.M. Nouwen in The Wounded Healer

Over the last few weeks and even more profoundly over the last few days as I have been implementing worship throughout my week and also at church on Sunday’s, I have experienced great joy. With that joy comes optimism and great rejoicing in all things. Being a natural pessimist, this is very different for me. Of course, I cannot say I am a complete optimist in all life situations quite yet, however, I would say that God is slowly bringing me to a place where my joy in Him is so overwhelming that it is becoming increasingly hard to be a pessimist. Being in this state of mind is rather relieving.

Being a pessimist, however, I find it hard to believe that optimism can be good for you at all times since it can be a rather unrealistic mindset. For those of you who do read this blog,

What are your thoughts on having an optimistic mindset, can it be dangerous at times or is it simply a godly way to look upon life?

There are two authors who I believe answer this question quite remarkably well. They also answer many other questions like why we worship and how we worship.

According to Donald Whitney, in his book entitled: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, he states that worship is “focusing on and responding to God.” Thus, “regardless of what else we are doing we are not worshiping if we are not thinking about God” (88).  Whitney goes on to say that we need to be sincere in our acts of worship because if we come before God with insincerity while singing or praying, it is not worship but hypocrisy (89). Another point Whitney makes is that we must worship privately every day. If we do not worship privately on a daily basis, how can we expect to worship Him publicly once a week? (93).

(I am putting this sentence here in order to hopefully, prevent the format of this next paragraph from going crazy).

While I like Witney’s take on worship, Richard Foster in The Celebration of Discipline does a phenomenal job of creating the spark within you that will cause you to worship from your entire being. It’s so amazing – the way he explains it, that it is certainly better to read the chapter yourself. However, since many of you may be unable to do this, I shall quote some passages from his work.

“A striking feature of worship in the Bible is that people gathered in what we could only call a ‘holy expectancy.’ They believed they would actually hear the Kol Yahweh, the voice of God. When Moses when into the Tabernacle, he knew he was entering the presence of God. The same is true of the early Church. It was not surprising to them that the building in which they met shook with the power of God. The same was true of the early church. It had happened before. When some dropped dead and others were raised from the dead by the word of the Lord, the people knew that God was in their midst” (161).

Foster also puts a rather practical handle on worship:

“Live throughout the week…listening for His voice, obeying His word. Since you have heard his voice as you gather during the week, you know that you will hear his voice as you gather for public worship…Enter the service ten minutes early…Invite the real Presence to be manifest. Next, lift into the light of Christ the pastor and other worship leaders. Picture the Shekinah of God’s radiance surrounding them. Inwardly release them to speak the truth boldly in the power of the Lord. When people begin to enter the room, glance around until you see someone who needs your intercessory work…Hold them as a special intention throughout the service” (163).

The Shekinah which Foster speaks of “means the glory or radiance of God dwelling in the midst of his people.”

He says so much more but I feel you will not read this post if it is any longer. I would highly recommend reading Foster’s book. I have certainly not done him justice in this horribly written blog. He not only gives the reader the motivation and the reasoning behind the discipline of worship, he also gives very practical steps by which to make this possible.

Friday I took my sister, Noelle, and her friend Amy and Mikaija to Ontario Mills where we enjoyed trying on odd looking hats.

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And more hats that were too big:

And sophisticated hats:

And also slightly insane hats that resemble Medusa:

We also tried on prom dresses…and pretended to try on other random outfits:

And we throughly enjoyed the Lego store as always:

After that we enjoyed dinner at the Rainforest Cafe where the Alligator tried to eat our pennies (luckily he failed miserably), Amy and the Gorilla had a stare-down (Amy won), and Noelle was kidnapped by a Tiger (or maybe it was the other way around).

On Saturday I got up really really early and made some Muffuletta bread from scratch and then enjoyed the first round of Muffuletta sandwiches which were fantastic! I thought they were better than the ones I had in New Orleans.

The bread turned out great. The dressing turned out great. All in all, I would say it was a success. Thanks to all who were willing to try this weird sandwich and thank you once again to Aunt Michelle for making it all possible!

Saturday afternoon my friend Josh and I went to the California Science Center.

It was fun but we finished in an hour and it was definitely geared more towards Kindergarten than post college age. Nonetheless, we enjoyed walking around the area which was just gorgeous on that fine afternoon. The squirrels looked quite delicious as well but I did not give in and I refrained from eating them.

On Sunday Phillip, Erin, and I were supposed to practice our skit for Awana but Phillip informed me a few hours before Awana that he was sick with a fever and would be unable to do the skit. (Pray he gets better quickly). So, the majority of my afternoon I quickly tried to find something to do for the kids. I did the story of Joshua and the Walls of Jericho and how it was by faith that the walls fell down. It turned out really well. The kids really loved it. I think they really enjoyed seeing me act like an idiot on stage as I marched around a brick building blowing my pretend horn and shouting…but if that’s what it takes. I thank God that He answers prayer and allowed me to do it with so little prep time and also no nervousness while I was doing it.

After our club things were over, the kids got to throw pies at their leaders…I got one right on the forehead – tasted quite yummy!

So that was my weekend and it was quite enjoyable all the way through.