Summer Sun 2013

Summer has flown by. And according to my online persona of facebook or this blog, my summer has been quite monotonous, with little happening. Thankfully, my lack of online presence indicates that reality is very much full and changing. Here are highlights that stand out to me.

• I fully commit to camping with a hammock. My family camped for 3 nights on a small, sparsely inhabited island in the Exuma Cays. From spearing our dinner 1/2 hour before cooking it, snorkeling in a land and sea park, and locating old natural cisterns, the best part was climbing a tree, wiggling into a hammock, and being gently rocked to sleep without any tree roots, stones, or crabs burrowing underneath!

  

  One to sit during day, One to sleep in at night

  

  Exuma Land and Sea Park

  

  Dinner -at least for some night in the future

  
  
  
  
• I do believe in sea-horses! I DO believe in sea-horses! I do, I Do, I DO! Though growing up on an island and knowing many of the natural attractions, we had missed this one. An old friend directed us to a specific pond that was home to seahorses and octopus. The feeling of dry yet sticky, smooth, yet strong skin of octopus on my hands and arms will not be forgotten quickly. Neither the sight of an itty-bitty 2 inch sea-horse, holding onto seaweed with its tail on the pond floor, blending in perfectly with the surroundings. What a gift to behold God's wonderfully and quirkily created animals. Added bonuses: watching pea-sized lizard eggs hatch and a Cicada bug molt!
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Hatched lizards with eggs in a quart-sized ziplock

  

  Cicada

  

  Cicada bug molting

  
  
  
  
• I am a student of Trinity  Evangelical Seminary, as I begin the road to licensure as a counselor. I dream of working among children and young adults who have faced or are facing multiple transitions in their lives, specifically cultural moves between cities, regions, and countries. Lord willing, my classroom studies will be done in 2-3 years, and after internships and enough hours of experience, I will be a licensed counselor. 
  

• I continue to be a Starbucks barista several days a week, and have taken a second job at Lawry's The Prime Rib as a host and server. God, my Provider carefully weaved this position/schedule, and has grown my faith in many ways as He has smoothed over detail after detail in multiple areas. 

If God provides for 2 feet long Iguanas, only found on 2 tiny islands,
Then I and the world, have nothing to fear.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

One Year Ago

One year ago last night, my high hopes of  teaching art, PE, and possibly coaching, were utterly and unexpectedly destroyed. I had five precious minutes to process alone, before joining the others to organize, distribute and pack for our month long bike trip, going to bed after 2am.

One year ago this morning I woke up at 4:30 am and at 6am, took off biking with Natalie and Nathaniel. Everything that we'd need for the next 32 days was on our bikes: clothes, camping gear, camp-cooking equipment and dishes, food (which we replenished along the way), first aid, bike repair tools, cameras and much anticipation for what the month would hold!

One year ago this afternoon, we biked until it was 100 degrees at 11am, and took a siesta while the temp soared to 105. At 5pm, it dropped back under 100 degrees and we took off again. Vineyards, orchards, and olive groves lined the way. Rocky, mediterranean hills/mountains rose before and around us. The glory of the world God has made was shouting from the vast display of ever-rising hills and stretched out cultivated land.

One year ago today, I knew I would spend another year in Chicago, internally aching for the loss of the life in Haiti, and also internally rejoicing to continue digging my home-roots into Chicago. Such pain and joy at the same time, about the same thing -it is beyond words. I held it in. But God knew.

One year ago, I did not see the friendships that would deepen as those relationships crossed the 1-year threshold. I've learned that not everyone moves after 1-2 year in the United States. My church has become a dear family to me, as God's given this extra time here. I have real "family" to spend Thanksgivings and Easters and random days with, when a bit over a year ago, they were only names and faces, and nothing more. But God saw them.

One year ago, I didn't know my Monday Sisters. It hadn't been formed. We hadn't bonded. We were not close friends. We did not hold each other accountable. But God knew. And I know He basked in the joy of what He had in store for me and all of us!

One year ago I started on a specific journey to lean on God, the great Provider, Protector, and Healer. And I will be on this journey forever. Learning to lean on Him is not easy. But it is good, as I'm reminded often when I listen to this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehkg7-SVByk

One year ago, I didn't know what it would hold. But God did. And WOW. He has blown my mind. He is good, what He does is good, and when He closes a door, He opens up the gate to something Waaaaay better, since it brings us closer to Him.

A Typical Biking Day

"What was a typical day for you on the trip?"

By far, this is the most common question.... right before "What did you eat?" and "Where did you stay?" Answering those succinctly is as easy as making thanksgiving dinner in under an hour! Despite the differences, there were similarities, and I'm pretty sure that it is this that people were referring to ...the 2-D picture... of the basics.

How'd you sleep last night?
Stretched across a dried up creek!

8:00 am: After an intense mental battle to get out of a toasty sleeping bag and pull on wet, 50 degree socks onto dry, warm toes, those now shivering toes, who know they won't be warm for another four hours, slink into wet, 50 degree shoes in order to tear down our camp site before breakfast.

8:40 am: Water boils on our camp burner. Breakfast time! Oatmeal, coffee, and fruit fill our bowls. Finish packing, and hop on packed bikes -1.5 hours after that awful, wet-footted wake-up.

11:30am: Bike for two hours, before the first 5-minute break at the top of a long uphill climb.
DOWNHILL!!!!  55km/hr! WEEE!!!!! BRRRRRRRRRRR!!!  The morning dampness is  very present in the mountains!

In a village, see a fruit stand. Stop! Freshly picked apricots, apples, cucumber, or melon soon became bungee-corded onto someone's paniers.

2pm: Find a quiet spot, away from people, and it's lunch time. Leftovers from supper, a baguette from the boulangerie in the last village, plus whatever we bought earlier makes up lunch. Ahhh! Stretch out for a much needed nap until 3pm

It's gotta fit in or on there somehow!

4:00 pm: Peddle, peddle, peddle. Hmmm. Need food for tonight before 6pm, when shops closed. "What are we hungry for??!!"  Success! There's a Carrefour (French supermarket). Soon "steak" (aka ground hamburger), an onion, a 1k box of rice, garlic,  butter, another baguette, and 2 bars of chocolate are spread around and bungee'd onto our bikes.

7 pm: Nathaniel: "Alright. We'll be going through a forest in the next hour. We're only at 90 km (of our 100km/day goal) but lets get water in the next town, and start looking for a good camping spot."

Side note: A "good camping spot" is not a camp-ground, but actually found each night along the road and met the following specifications. 

1) Be completely invisible from anyone. EVERYONE. 

2) Have big trees close together to hang hammocks.

3) Have a flat area for Natalie to sleep on the ground.

4) Be completely hidden from ALL angles. :) No unwanted visitors!

8:00-8:30 pm: Site found, after 45 minutes of looking. While Natalie and Nathaniel set up sleeping arrangements, I begin cooking. Tonight's menu...Italian hamburger sautee over rice...2.5 cups of it, or half the box. We're talking an 8" pot, filled to an 1.5" of the top with rice!!! And we downed most of that thing!

10:00-11:00 pm We'd be cozy, warm, and dry in our sleeping bags in hammocks, under tarps, knowing  that the little bit of leftovers, safe in a ziplock for tomorrow's lunch and the clean dishes are safe from the many roaming slugs.

Think of all the things that could have, and did happen within that basic outline. Rain; cold, drizzly rain. Wind.  Stores about to close before we got food. People taking us into their garages or houses. All the traffic that wizzed past us. Finding places to camp. Getting lost or confused with bad maps. Finding fresh drinking water. God met each of our needs. He protected us, provided food and shelter when needed. He gave us positive attitudes as the rain seeped into our shoes and down our necks. He provided support from within, from each other, from friends, and from complete strangers. He PROVIDES. He provides what we NEED, and in inconceivable ways.