If you're going to San Francisco. . .

It is official - I am headed back to San Francisco on December 21st - my year of living abroad is complete and so many of my dreams have come true! Thank you all for joining me on these adventures - you have been my constant companions over the 12 months and 3 continents! I am forever changed and will never forget all that has happened! Please continue to pray with me as I head out into the wild blue yonder of what comes next!

I leave you with the verse that I have learned and lived so well this year:

Philippians 4:10-14 (The Message)

Content Whatever the Circumstances

^10-14I'm glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you're again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don't mean that your help didn't mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.

Music is in the Air

Well, the past two months have been full of music. First of all in November, we had the Middle School Musical - Annie Jr. Pictured above is Angela Slaughter, one of the teachers that helped out directing the musical, Avery who played Grace Farell, Claire who played Annie, and Andy Slaughter, Angela's husband.

I can't tell you how blown away I was by this production - this was WAY better than any play I had ever been in and this was being done by middle schoolers!!!! I was so proud of them. Of course, I sat in the audience swaying and singing every song with the kids - "You're never fully dressed without a SMILE!" It was so awesome!

Then, this month was the Christmas Concert. I was excited to get to substitute teach in the Middle School Choir. I knew the Mrs. Mann, my music teacher growing up would be proud - as I helped the altos pick out their harmonies!!! It was really fun to help get them ready for their concert. Then, last night was the production and it made me excited to see the kids all lit up by the stage lights and singing their hearts out! I swear that I was as proud as any parent! Singing is just one of the many things I love about the holidays, but as you know - I always have a song on my lips!

Coffee House

Last night, ICSB sponsored a Coffee House for Teal Ribbons, and ovarian cancer charity. One of the former teachers here at ICSB, Libby Apel, died this year of ovarian cancer and it devastated the school. It was awesome to see all the people come out to honor this woman who had an impact on their lives through her teaching. We had a night of fun, hanging out and listening to an awesome hungarian jazz band! It was great to see the students, parents and staff come together to make a difference for other women never to have to go through what the Apels did. Please take the time to find a way to make a difference in someone's life this holiday season!

Cultural Heritage Week

November has been a super busy month - one of the many reasons I'm behind on my blog entries! One of the highlights of the month was November 9-13 was Cultural Heritage Week sponsored by Middle School Student Council. As most of you know, I am one of the Student Council Sponsors - so needless to say I was busy that week. The purpose of the week was to bring awareness to our cultural diversity within the middle school - we have kids from 12 different countries! We wanted everyone to understand what it truly means to be an "international" school and celebrate our uniqueness! So each day we had a homeroom devotional featuring two countries and the issues that are going on in each.

Then, on Wednesday for chapel time we had a special multi-lingual worship time. We sang songs in french, spanish, swahili, hungarian and english! It was a lot of fun because it was my first time to help lead worship in chapel! We also had displays from each of the countries that the kids were able to look at and pray over specific issues that those countries are facing! The picture above is of a group of kids praying over the America display.

Lastly, on Friday we had dress up day - of course I broke out my Congolese choir outfit and we had kids dress up in outfits from India, China, and American military. We finished the day with a international snack time at recess.

All in all, I thought it was a great week to just think about the many places in the world that we take for granted. It made me very grateful that I have been blessed to see a good part of the world and I recognize all the many things I need to be thankful for!

Imagine Me!

Music is the language of my soul! You can always tell what mood I'm in by what I'm listening to! My life verse is:

Zephaniah 3:17 (New International Version)

¹⁷ The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

He rejoices over me with singing! It is how God speaks to me - through song! I get songs in my head for people - I will sing it over them all day long!

All my favorite memories in life involve singing - road trips in the car with kent and my dad singing at the top of our lungs with the windows rolled down, kent and I dancing in our mom's living room listening to 70's albums, sitting in my sissy's bedroom singing "strawberry fields forever", kent and I driving home from college belting out "scenes from an italian restaurant" in 3 part harmony with Billy Joel, worship practice with bob & barbie at SCF, the Ebeneezer choir concert in the congo, our multi-language worship for cultural heritage week here at ICSB, and my last sunday in the africa - my fiancee' singing to me how I am his angel!

I was blessed this month with a great half-birthday treat - tickets to a Kirk Franklin concert!!!! For those of you who don't know who Kirk Franklin is - I'm sorry - he blesses my heart so much with his truth and joy. When I listen to a kirk album - I laugh, cry and dance!!! That is exactly what happened at the concert! It was the exact thing I needed at this time in my life!

I'm enclosing the words to the song that touched my heart the most at the concert - I am praying that these words will touch you as well:

"Imagine Me"

magine me
Loving what I see when the mirror looks at me cause I
I imagine me
In a place of no insecurities
And I'm finally happy cause
I imagine me

Letting go of all of the ones who hurt me
Cause they never did deserve me
Can you imagine me?
Saying no to thoughts that try to control me
Remembering all you told me
Lord, can you imagine me?
Over what my mama said
And healed from what my daddy did
And I wanna live and not read that page again

[Chorus:]
Imagine me, being free, trusting you totally finally I can...
Imagine me
I admit it was hard to see
You being in love with someone like me
But finally I can...
Imagine me

Being strong
And not letting people break me down
You won't get that joy this time around
Can you imagine me?
In a world (in a world) where nobody has to live afraid
Because of your love fears gone away
Can you imagine me?

[Bridge:]
Letting go of my past
And glad I have another chance
And my heart will dance
'Cause I don't have to read that page again

[Chorus x2]

[Vamp:]

This song is dedicated to people like me

Those that struggle with insecurities

acceptance and even self-esteem

you never felt good enough,

you never felt pretty enough,

but imagine God whispering in your ear

letting you know that everything that has happened is now. . .

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

it's all gone, every sadness

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

every mistake, every failure, it's all gone

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

depression, gone, bad faith, it's gone

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

low self-esteem, hallelujah, it's gone, it's all gone

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

it's gone, all my scars, all my pain

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

it's in the past, it's yesterday, it's all gone, ahhh

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

gone, what your mother did, gone, what your father did, hallelujah

Gone, gone, it's gone, all gone

It's gone

Bosnia

This is the eternal flame that is lit downtown to remind people of all of those lost in the war.

This past weekend was a holiday here in Hungary celebrating the revolution against the Russians in the 1950's. So we had an extra day off of school. I chose to go visit some friends living in Sarajevo, the Duerods. Malcolm is teaching at the American University there and Corah is working with Roma children to try and create a preschool for them! It's really a blessing to see how they love on the people of this hurting country trying to recover from a war that ended not that long ago!

We had a great time just catching up and hanging out. It was the first time I had gotten to see their beautiful daughter, Tikvah Joy, since she was born over a year ago! We also got to go walking around downtown so I could see old town Sarajevo. They took me on a driving tour of the city as well where I got to see the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics and the many large cemeteries from the war. It was extremely interesting to see buildings full of bullet holes and right next to them brand new mirrored sky scrapers going up! The old and the new trying to co-exist!

One of the funniest things that happened was one day we were driving through town and this guy gets behind us and starts flashing his lights and honking his horn. We think that maybe we have a flat tire or something wrong with our car - so we get over in the next lane to let him pass so he can tell us what is wrong. He passes us and waves and smiles and then drives up to the car in the lane ahead of us to curse him out! I couldn't believe it!!! He just wanted to pass us to get closer to the guy in front of us and curse him out! WOW! I'm glad that was so urgent - we caught up to him again at another light and he smiled and waved like a thank you. I just had to laugh!

The 12 hour train ride there and back gave me some time to really process through all that has happened in the past 3 months. In fact, I had my own private car for the last 9 hours on the way there. I just spent the time singing, dancing, journaling & praying. I know that I was definitely entertaining the ticket guy that kept walking by - at one point he stopped outside my door and just danced with me!!! The whole thing just helped me to feel refreshed, focused, and loved. Because of course, Corah & Malcolm spoiled me rotten while I was there. It was just nice to see some beloved friends from California!

Spreading the Love!

Most people I know don't know what it is like to be homeless. I can honestly say that I do. More than once in my life, I have either had to live on people's couches or sleep at the office or hide out in my car. So when I walked onto the former Russian Army base that is the living area for several Hungarian families, I was taken back to those periods in my life. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words - and the one above I feel is worth a million. This mom and daughter were blissed out because we took their picture and gave them a picture frame to hang it up in their small apartment. How simple is it to spread the love?

Last weekend, the Middle School here at ICSB did service projects. The 6th graders walked around Diosd, our city, picking up trash. The 7th graders went to visit a mental health facility to throw a Harvest Festival. I was with the 8th graders at this homeless ministry out in the middle of the Hungarian Countryside.

We arrived on Friday to do some much needed yard work. There were tons of thorn bushes and trees that needed to be taken out of the back yard so that these adorable children could have a place to play that was safe. So we took on some war wounds and rounded up the trees and yard waste and made them home more ascetically pleasing! Then, we had a good ole fashioned bonfire complete with sausages on sticks to roast! We had a round of worship with guitar around the fire and then followed it up with a movie night of Ratatouille in Hungarian with English Subtitles. We traveled to a hostel for the night's devotions and rest.

Saturday morning we got up nice and early to return for breakfast with the residents. They proceeded to give the students a tour of the facilities, while us chaperons set up the craft time. We had brought picture frames for the kids to decorate with paint, feathers, stickers, glitter, etc. They had a blast making them beautiful and we had fun communicating cross-culturally! The families got all dressed up and we took and printed up their pictures so that they would have something to keep! We had a communal dinner where they expressed their gratitude and then we headed out to catch the train ride back to Budapest. The students were excited because we got to ride on a "Harry Potter" Train - it had compartments instead of rows of seats!

All in all, we were supposed to make a difference in those families lives. However, I know that it made a difference in mine. Once again I am reminded of the many things God has carried me through in my life and how grateful I am to be blessed even with something most people take for granted - a place to live!