Monday, April 28, 2008

Home sweet something.



Myself, Lindsay, and Alison
Surprise!
The best goodbye present!
Fondue!!!

Oh no!No problem!
Man I love ship people!
Crap!
Painted toes!

Joanna and I

Bye-Bye Room!

Good missionary girls!

Best date ever!

Bye-Bye White girls.

The view from the bridge into town.

Lindsay, Myself, and Joanna
I'm home!
Right now my heart is too torn to right much of a post. Honesty is to harsh right now, but lying isn't me, so I'll say that everything is in transition right now. It's not wrong to be here. Yesterday it was.
Wednesday was the hardest day of my life. Leaving. Wow! I don't cry, but man, inside I was bawling. The ride to the airport seemed to take forever, and each long moment took me further and further away.

The best part so far!
Sisters are reunited again!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

So I Sing ... lalala

There are some days in life that are simply good.
Sometimes it’s because we had amazing moments which made our days spectacular.
Other times it is because nothing bad happened.
Sometimes God blesses us with things that make our hearts smile.
Today was one of those days.
I woke up this morning filled with many emotions. It’s my last Saturday of course, so that just makes it interesting. I got up and thought over my day. I had so many things to do before the concert. I had to burn all the CD’s and write on all the cases, practise for the evening, and shower and get ready and somewhere find time to breathe.
As I started working on burning all the CD’s onto disks, it seemed to take forever. I had made around ten when I checked one and realized that for some reason – none of them had worked. I quickly fixed that problem! Needless to say by around 3:30 I was ready to go CD wise.
Then I had to get ready. That was quick. I’m pretty low-maintenance. I wanted to look good, but it was about glorifying God – not me.
At 4:30 I headed up to the International Lounge to set up. I went through my songs. A crew member Drew did sound and he did whatever funky stuff he needed to! That was good. An hour later I ate dinner and then just sat around for an hour. I wanted to be relaxed.
7:00 came! All of a sudden I was nervous. All week I have been unsure of this night. I feel funny making a big deal about myself, but I wanted to bless my friends and bless God. It has been such a blast to make the CD. I can not explain how fun it was. When I recorded at home it was so much more serious and that was fine but here it was so low-key. I was the one who was deciding everything. I would listen over and re-record the song or just let it go.
Music played throughout the room until about fifteen minutes later I headed up. I really was nervous and yet not at all. I played thirteen of my songs with some talking in between. It was fun. I told the crowd at one point that ‘just because I am not smiling does not mean I’m not having fun. I’m just nervous!’ and it was true!

It was incredible. I just wanted to laugh whenever people would clap, because it is so funny to me that people are hearing what I sing and liking it. In high school I never felt worthy to play my music and was never given big roles for anything, but now I see that God is using me. I only hope I can praise Him enough.
I do not quite remember how long it lasted, but afterwards I sold all twenty-five of the CD’s I had made and I have a list of people who want more. It was such an incredibly blessing. I did not know how many people would come, but the room held many people.
On the CD I wrote- All Glory to God. That is what I wanted. I have been taught in the last few months from God that it is all for Him. That is the truth. It is all for You my King!
I headed back to my room to put my music away and saw my friend Jenn, who was working on the ward. They had played my music live through to there so she had been able to hear.
I went to B-ward with her and seriously, that was the highlight of my day. Maybe even of my time here in Liberia. It summarized why I came.
I have spent so little time on the ward, but tonight was amazing.
There were kids going crazy. We took office chairs and sat in them and raced down the hallways. It reminded me of last year in student counsel at MEI when we would race our chairs down the hallway hoping not to get caught!
I held little kids who were beautiful. I was told that I was beautiful by funny Liberian men. I was told that I should marry one of the guys! It was just fun and lovely and yeah.

I had to sing to them because they had heard me on the TV and wanted to hear more. That was hilarious!
As it was late, almost ten when I left, they were having a devotional near the end. I stayed for that. They sang their amazing African songs and shared and it was such a blessing. To look around the room and glimpse people who are in awe of God and who love Him with everything that is in them.
As I walked away from there, they all said ‘goodbye’ and then as I looked back through the door before closing it, a little girl was looking at me and we blew kisses at each other for a minute.
God is so good!
Being in that room makes me want to be a nurse for the one purpose to come back here and love on these kids!
The pictures are from last outreach from our Communications Team.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

6-9 ... sorry Greg - I missed the day!





I hadn't realized until both of my sisters seemed to comment on the fact that they hadn't heard from me in ages that I hadn't posted in a while.



I think I'm not posting because it's the same as always.



Excitment to go home.



Fear to go home.



Sadness to leave.



Readiness to leave.



It's just a conflict of emotions.






For the past while there's a guy on the ship who's been recording with me. We have 9 of my songs recorded and in a little bit we're going to record some more. On Saturday night I'm playing a concert for whoever shows up of my songs and then selling the CD's. That's another thing to add to my plate! I want to do so many things in the next week! The next week! Oh wow! One week right now and I'll be almost landing in Ghana (or at least hopefully at least somewhere close to Ghana)!






A couple of nights ago my friend Sarah asked me if I feel like everything is my 'last' time to do things. At that point I still was in my second last week. But now it's the last week. My last lunch and dinner on the ship. My third last shift at the cafe. My fourth last day of work.






This group picture is from Friday night when we had a big game of group trouble/frustration/sorry (depending on where you're from). It was fun. My team made me captain and we were one roll away from winning!!! But that's alright! It was a whole lot of fun.








I figured that I should post a picture from the other week when I finally learned to ride the bike. My Dad and my brother and probably my sisters and Mom tried to no avail to get me to learn to ride bike, but it just never came. However now I am alright. I've only gone once, but now I know that I can. Turning is tough and stopping is still coming, but yeah, it was fun!







I leave you with a beautiful sign from in Monrovia here.


Saturday, April 5, 2008

17-21

This is daunting. I don't know exactly if that is the right word, but it fits all that I feel.

17 days, 19 hours, and 45 minutes from now (approximately-ha) I will leave this ship and a few hours later hopefully be in the air!

21 days, 1 hour, and 49 minutes from now (please be on time flight!!!) I will land in Vancouver, Beautiful British Columbia!

I feel like every single post I put up lately is me being afraid, but when I started this blog, and if you've read it consistently, you know - I'm honest here.

God's been telling me lots lately, and I think the ideas for Fall should stop coming because there is far too many! However, I think I potentially have it figured out (for 5 minutes at least) so I'm just waiting for God's confirmation, and then who knows! The world is my playground right?

Today I was out in town all day. I love Liberia. I think, no, I know full well, that I shall miss this place. There are so many things about Liberia that I do not love, but really, when I go out, I just chuckle inside because, well, I don't even really know why.

A couple prayer requests:

- My luggage. I have a baggage restriction from Monrovia to Accra of one bag. When I came I could have two bags, and so that is what I have. Please pray that somehow I will be allowed extra and that I won't have to spend a lot of money for my extra stuff.

- My heart. It's about to get broken and I will need all the comfort of God to leave this place.

- My flights. I am flying through Heathrow airport and I know that they've been having troubles lately with cancelling flights and people losing luggage. I know that as long as my luggage makes it to Accra then it can make it home, but it would be great if it can arrive with me. As well, that my flights will all be on time, safe, and that I will have patience. Flying in Africa was an experience last year, and I know it will be one again.

- My new life. Life as I've known it forever has changed since I came here. Life as I know it here is about to end. Pray that I can have peace.

I love you all and miss you and can't wait to see you.