Normal? Not.

 The past few weeks have been a blur of activity here.  The evening I returned home from my trip to NIBS, two friends from Indiana drove here to spend a week with me!  That week was a work week on campus, followed by FBS's Anniversary Day, and then a cold but thrilling fall festival.  After that came a week of sickness, followed by a catch-up week, and then ten days of revival services, one of which included quartet pictures and a lively election party!  It seems that every Monday morning, I sigh and tell myself, "Now, maybe we can have a normal week!"  But then something crazy happens, and there goes my hopes and dreams of normalcy!

I am reaching the conclusion that normal here is strange, and it's about time to get used to it!  It's not just my schedule that's odd, either.  My lifestyle here is simply very different from my lifestyle in Indiana.  Here are some things that I'm accepting as normal and wonderful that may seem odd to you!

1.  Coming back to my house after church or class to discover more than one young person running out of my front door with the cookies or baked goods they knew they'd find on my counter.

2.  Having young people walk in my front door without knocking or texting first.

3.  Cooking a meal for two people -- and serving it to four or five.  Or alternatively, having someone come for dinner, and stay the night instead of going home.  Or alternatively, inviting four people and having ten show up.  

4.  Having a young person ask me for help with a school project, and ending up with four or five young people studying around my table with drinks and snacks I whipped up.

5.  Bribing Encouraging young people with coffee. Time to study?  Whoever wins the quiet game gets a coffee!  Need to organize an event?  Whoever responds to this text message with the needed information gets a coffee.  Asking a group to commit to an extra hour of rehearsals?  Coffee.  Help me clean my basement?  Coffee.  Very effective.  

6.  Singing in a men's quartet.  I know.  Strange.  But I've pretty much learned all their parts because I've been teaching them their parts.  It's a good thing too, since I'll actually be singing with them in an upcoming service.  

7.  Speaking for chapel or church with little to no notice (four times now, y'all.  I need to just learn to have something ready to go.)

8.  Squeezing a more than comfortable amount of people in my living room.  My record is 21, which happened at the election party this past week.  (Yes, I fed them.)

Ministry here looks different than I ever thought it would, but I'm absolutely loving this.  Come visit me!  You can experience my new normal with me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2025 Recap

While I regularly have thought about updating my blog, but I regularly have not listened to myself.  It's been more than a year since my last post, and too much has happened to detail.  The stories that are truly worth remembering can be expected to come soon! (and not a year-from-now soon) Buckle up.  I've got a lot to share, and the ride you're on will be chaotic. The past year was full of missions!  In January, I traveled to Chiapas and Oaxaca in Mexico to visit two missionary families our church supports.  In February, I stayed home, and the missionaries came to visit us!  Our church held a missions rally to encourage and connect with the Native American missionaries in our region.  The dormitories were packed, and I enjoyed meeting and learning from several new missionaries. In March, I toured with our school's quartet.  (We jokingly called ourselves the "Alpha and Omega Quartet," because we figured it would be the first and last time the sch...
Read more

Kingston VBS '25, pt 2

 Friday, July 4 th , I hit the number I needed in order to make the trip to Canada. My plan was to take Saturday easy, and on Monday, to do several more deliveries to have a buffer. That weekend, I was dog-sitting. I stretched out in the grass to read a book while the dog raced back and forth across the yard, letting out his energy. He was so happy to be out of his pen. Unfortunately, one time that he raced by me, he got too close, and his head collided with mine. I was a little dazed, but the poor dog seemed to be more disoriented than I. I went about my day as usual. On Sunday, I was inexplicably tired. By the evening, I was developing a headache and feeling dizzy and nauseated. I joined the Albertsons for a snack, but continued feeling worse. One of them ended up driving me home, because my vision was becoming distorted. By Monday, I couldn’t check my car’s side mirrors because it was making me black out. Wednesday, I visited the chiropractor, who told me that I h...
Read more

Kingston VBS '25, pt 1

For the past three years, I have traveled each summer to Kingston, ON, to hold VBS for my friends, Andrew and Suzie Manley.  Each trip has been a unique experience, and each time, I have left with interesting stories to tell.  This year's experience was far beyond unique and interesting:  it was possibly the most impactful experience of my life. The story begins in early June.  I wanted to organize a group of young people to join me for the trip because having extra hands is a tremendous blessing for VBSes, and because I love involving young people in outreach.  It's so fun to watch them learn to do new things!  The previous year, I had brought along Janna, a young lady from Indiana.  So I reached out to her and made plans to pick her up along my route. Although I had prayed and asked around, I could not find anyone else to go who was both willing and had a passport.  James (from my church here) wanted to go, but he and his parents weren't convinc...
Read more