I'm back

hey everyone. Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I was out of town from Sept. 24th until the 28th and then my computer has been busted since I've been back. It won't even turn on now so I've figured it has completey crashed. These posts might be kind of sporadic until I get a new laptop.

Our Young Adult Volunteer national orientation retreat was so much fun. It was great to meet and get to know the other YAV's across the country. It was encouraging to hear each other's (oftentimes similar) stories. Even though we were only together 5 days, by the end, Katie and I noted that we felt like we had known the other YAV's for much longer. I don't know if it's because we were all kind of in the same boat and understand where one another were coming from (usually) or what but It was sad to say goodbye to everyone. I think everyone had a lot of fun there, and we definitely have a lot of inside jokes about funny things that happened.

The other YAV's were great people and I had some good conversations while I was there. I was talking with a couple of them about how I was thinking about going to seminary but I really didn't feel cut out to be a minister. One of them, a Tucson YAV, asked if I had ever thought about Christian counseling, because she thought I ws a really god listener and really easy to talk to. That is something I have thought about somewhat. The fact that she could see me being good at that really made me hard about it. This sounds really bad, but I have always been skeptical abou Christian counseling. I've always wondered if those who go into this field are really fit to be counselors. And maybe this makes me a bad Christian, but I dont think pyschology-based counseling is bad like so many Biblical/Christian counselors seem to. So I'm just not sure what to make of that insight.

Getting back to "real life" this week has been a bit hard because Ghost Ranch was so nice. Whereas Ghost Ranch was serene and laid-back, life back at the Campus completely the opposite. This week has been a bit draining for me because it has been so busy and I've felt like I've hardly had any me time for myself/reflection.

On a positive note,I'm learning to stand up for myself working at the Campus. I'm not naturally a very confrontational person and standing up to people is hard for me, especially when they are intimdating people (as many of the men at the Campus tend to be). They are often inappropriate when many of us young women who work there. I haven't really had anything overtly offensive said to me but I have had several comments that were inappropriate/flirty.

Please pray that I could continue to gain courage and learn how to respectfully stand up for myself.

This morning for Vocational discernment we started to share our spiritual journey(s). We ran out of time so I didn't get to share mine but I wrote it out last night so I wouldn't forget anything. One of the people who helped lead the vocational discernment at Ghost Ranch said something like "Spiritual life is usually understoin retrospect."

I've written out my faith story before but I always seem to forget things or add new things so it was good to do it again. As I looked back on my story this time, I could really see parallels and connections I hadn't seen before, so that was interesting.

Katie and I had a "revisiting the Covenant/ Community-building" meeting last night that I think was really helpful for each of us to say things we had been to afraid to say. I created a format of questions that I think we're going to use in the future and which I think are good go-to questions for building a Christian community or when there are tensions in any community.

Question 1: I appreciate it when [you] ________________________.
Question 2: I feel most supported when _______________________.
Questions 3: I feel least supported when _____________________.
Question 4: It bothers me when ______________________________.
Question 5: I feel _________________ when _____________.

Please pray that we could continue to learn to say what we really feel and what bothers us in our community--- in a respectful way, of coarse.


Thanks! I'll write again as soon as I can.