The 5 people i met in Nepal/Thailand

Date: May 1, 2009
Time: Noonish
Location: Bangkok, Thailand Airport waiting for check-in to open.



There is a man in the Kathmandu, Nepal Airport who every day, all day, goes around the airport collecting and returning luggage carts. That is his job, his livelyhood. That is how he fills his day and feeds his family. He does it with speed, efficientcy, and skill. Yes, pushing carts does entail skill.


(current thought...there is always a lesson and a skill to be learned, even in the most degrading or ridiculous job. God always has a purpose. It is up to us to look for it and embrace it.)



There is a child in Bangkok, Thailand who everyday, makes his way to the same bridge to lay on the sidewalk, in the humidity and heat, with a cup in front of him. Yesterday someone gave him a toy truck. Today he wasn't laying on the ground, he was playing.



(Current thought - people are just waiting for us to pull our heads out of the clouds, they are waiting for us.)

There is a girl my age in Dhorpani, Nepal who spends her day cooking. Squatting on the floor of a dimly-lit, but emaculate kitchen, (or as emaculate as a dirt floor kitchen can be in a remote mountain village of Nepal.) she cooks and cleans, fetches water, washes clothes, and then cooks until either everyone is done eating or until she can no longer see. Yet, each time she greets me there is a smile filled with true joy.


(She was a born again Christian. Because of her I am newly challenged to find joy in any situation.)

There is a woman somewhere along the Nepali trail who was carrying a calf on her back, all day, because it was too young to walk along the rugged, cliff-side trails. Maybe now she just walks behind it and watches her heard grow.

(Current thought - God often causes us to really work and carry the burden of our future. We have to wait and feed it and care for it, and then in His perfect timing, we will see the result of our toil. But sometimes it is just time to carry.)

There is a young man in Dhorpatan who had never heard of Jesus before we came and now is walking in the freedom of Christ. I watched him take down his family's Buddist prayer flags that same day. Minutes later in fact.

(Current thought - immediate responses are powerful. Being the first to represent Jesus to people was an amazing experience.)

There is a woman who still feels like a girl. She struggled her way through Nepal, its mountains, cities, villages, and weather. She has made it through and now has experienced Thailand and its charms and materialism. Now she is on her wa home to a distant world more familier that seems oh so far away.

....I am ready to go home...

Alaska's mountians, my mountains, never looked small before. Until i went to Nepal. Standing on a pass @ 10,000ft looking up at the Himalayas looming above me and looking bigger than anything i'd seen.

One never feels so small then when one is surrounded by the Himalayas painted green with rice patties dotted with brightly colored punjabis. Strings of donkey trains making their way down the cliffside-trails who you can hear coming because of their bells.

to lose control and sucumb to the God of the volcano

it's amazing what God can use to teach us how to let go of the precious little control we have in our lives or to teach us to not be consumed by fear.

Recently with the volcano erupting there has been so many aspects of life effected. the biggest for me has been my trip to Nepal. I have been schedualed to fly out this saturday. this whole week has been a back and forth dance of should we drive to seattle? should we risk it and try and fly? cause is we do and we miss it, we're done for. so life has been a little wobbily all week. one minute we're driving the next we're not. i started getting really stressed out about this, losing sleep, rearranging my schedual just in case i pack up and leave the next day. it's been an interesting way of being.

fortunatly today i just decide once waking up at 6 am to check the status on the raging beast, i am going to trust my God that He is in control and will get me to Nepal. He is the God of that volcano so He can close it's mouth with one word. what do i have to worry about? so i am sticking to the plan, fly out on saturday for one of the biggest adventures of my life! hiking through the hymalayas!

but now that i'm really thinking about the way i've been living this week it parallels something we have been instructed to do.

Matthew 24:42-44
42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

see i've learned from these past few days that we are called to wait on the edge of our seats, preparing, making sure we have done all we need to, and all the while resting in the peace God has promised us.

Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

so now i'm all curious...how different will my life be now that i know how to live in a constant state of readiness and excitment wrapped up in peace? will i suddenly stop focusing on the small insignifcant worries of my everyday life and start focusing on the things God has called me to do? i sure hope so.

so don't let the volcano grip you with fear, or the mountain set before you to climb. our God is bigger, our God is able, and our God is ALWAYS with us. pretty cool i think.


p.s. i attached some cool pics of Mount Redoubt and the website with updates, i find it interesting and helpful :)

on the brink of 23

By the time i actually click "post" a new age for me will have come. but i have a long standing tradition of staying up late the night before and recounting my last year. so here we go! enjoy the ride!

my 22 birthday was rung in soon after getting my job with State Farm secured. i went to Beni Hana's with a group of girls and had a blast. April was filled with work work work and getting to know a certain wonderful someone! :)

may first hit and we officially opened at work! hurrah! took a very memorable trip to hope with a few friends. then towards the middle of may jordan and i got even closer and decided to keep in touch over the summer as he went home.

honestly the summer was a blur. i spent most of my time working and hanging with the girls, the d-group, and waiting for phone calls :D

my only regrets from that summer was never going swimming or camping..not once! i didn't even get farther then willow...pah! i will not repeat that this summer!

but i did get to go on a few memorble hikes, enjoy God's amazing creation. but of course it was one of the rainiest summers i can remember. maybe a week total of days in the 70's.

fall came and with it came jordan, back to alaska. :) i was a very happy girl. soon after i went to minnesota and was reunited with my family and spent a week watching hockey, spending time with realtives and catching up. i formed an incredible new bond with my uncle gene. i think i can say i am a favorite! :) haah! that was such an incredibly fun trip! i had a blast!

end of september coming home and soon after starting to "officially" date jordan. *sigh* again the months tend to blur with work, jordan, youth, church, family, friends... i got to experience some incredible changes in myself through work, some incredible accomplishments and victories, as well as intense challenges. but i have turned out! :)

november, thanksgiving with jordan, mom, and kerrie G. small crowd but memorable..and enough food for a family of 10! :)

Dad had been working for an engineering firm and was gone alot this past winter, so anytime he was around was a blessing. jake had moved to minnesota earlier and jeremiah was also gone. i think in illinois at that point. either way, christmas time!!

december was so full of joy for me. it saw all my brothers home, my sister in laws, uncle nose, and my amazing jordan. it was a christmas we will never forget. i could go on and on about that time together, it meant the world to me and will always remain priceless!

january and february were a challenge to say the least. mom and dad were gone, miah was back home and we were fending for ourselves. now through a second job, reffing basketball 2 days a week, worship team, church on sundays, etc. etc. and i was one stressed out individual! but i made it through. God faithfully saw me through and Jordan was there helping and encouraging along the way. it was such a blessing to have jeremiah back home, this is big and lonely house when u are alone! but when jeremiah's here, the house seems to kind of bough out, like ont he cartoons when the houses are so full the bulge! yea, all he has to do is walk in the door and the house feels full, loud, and humorous. :)

it seems that everytime i stop and think about it, family means more to me than it ever has. i can't imagine what my life would be without my incredible family.

march, end of my insanity of life, the shortlived return of my parents, and my trip to mexico. whew! and now we are here my friends.

i wish i could truly convey to you the work God has done in me the last year. it's an incredible thing to behold as i look back on it. His work in my life has been so stunning. His timing perfect, His choicest people that He has brought in and out of my life. the stratigic challenges and mountains for me to climb and conquer. I could never ask for a more loving and adventurous God.

I hope that you can find the time to stop and think back, maybe the last year or maybe 2 or maybe in even 5 and see where God has brought you and the amazing path that He walked with you... it is sure to take your breath away and prove to you that even though the road may be hard right now, even though it may feel that you are in a rut, at a dead end or overwhelmed. maybe life is perfect and happy. it is all part of a bigger grander plan that you just happen to be what it's all about.

so here is to another year full of God's grace and His incredible plan! thanks everybody for being part of it!

and on the 30th day of the 3rd month of the 1986th year, God brought forth Rachel. and she was grrrrrrrreat!!

Ha!



What an odd feeling, 23 yrs old. now don't think i am complaining or whining, but it's a weird feeling to get older. only 1 more day!! ahh!

it's odd to stop and think where thought i would be at this point. where i am is deffinately not where i thought i would be. so where i am i?

I am still living at home with my wonderful family. i love them all dearly and it is just working out staying at home.

I am in love with my amazing boyfriend Jordan. we have been dating for almost 7 months now. It has been an incredible experience getting to know him and just seeing how God can put two people together and make them fit. it's awesome! he is from missouri (totally butchered that...yikes), he moved up here after a year in a discipleship program and now is interning at our church. He is an amazing man of God and blows me away consistantly.

i am working selling insurance for State Farm now. and by no means do i or will i represent the ideas or opinions of State Farm in any shape or form. :P i've been working here for a little over a year now! craziness i tell you! but it's good, my co-workers and boss are amazing and have become like family to me.

i am back working with the youth group. i forgot how much fun those crazy teens can be! jordan and i head up the 11th and 12th grade discipleship group once a week and it is such a blessing. the kids have become so precious to me, i want to see them succeed and dream big. i love it!

recently jordan and i got back from a week long missions trip with a team of 15 total youth and leaders to build houses in tiajuana, mexico. as far as drug lords go, very uneventful, except for the chinook (helicoptor) with a spotlight scanning the area. no gun fights or anything. instead we built 2 houses in 4 days!! can you believe it! such an awesome experience and i loved it. God really used this trip to remind me how capable i am and that if i rely on Him i can do so much more.

this next week i am taking off on another adventure. i will be heading to Nepal with a group of 7 total to go hiking through the mountains to the tibetian border to minister to villages along the way and ultimately make it to the refuge camps on the border. apparently we will be going to places few if any white people have been before. how amazing is that! i am so excited and intimedated all at once. but God has promised over and over again to be with me and equip me. i know i will not be on this trekk alone.

Jordan will be going as well and i am so excited to continue building our relationship, especially on the mission field. how many people get to do that! it should be an amazing trip!

but of course we come to the volcano. it erupted again tonight, surprise surprise, but this time it has brought us a light dusting/blanket. so now our plans are to road trip down to seattle in order to make our flight to asia! talk about an adventure. i am still praying that volcano will sshhhhh! and we'll be able to fly out as planned, but i am trusting God.

it is so much fun learning how to be flexible and then excersising that as twists come along the way. i am excited to see what else God will do along this trip!

signing off for now,

cheerio!!