Designed to Be Here

"Be happy, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgement. So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless."

- Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

2 people have pointed out that I look happier now than I have in months. A third person agreed. I am now humming and singing throughout my day- I haven't done that in probably 3 years! (Ask my roomie- she was the one that pointed out how I used to do that regularly and had at some point just ceased.) I even caught myself dancing in my kitchen on a Monday morning before going to work.

For some reason, I've just really felt blessed by God these past few weeks and feel happier and more joyful than I have in an extraordinarily long time. And that's not to say that my life is perfect or better. I just see God's blessings now and what He had in store for me. There was no reason to worry or be anxious. God had the perfect idea in mind for me... better than what I ever would have thought of with this dream job, great new town and hospitable church. I feel as if He designed me to be put here! It's like a great fog that was around me just instantaneously dissipated. Or like I just woke up from a deep sleep, now refreshed.

Grace doesn't happen just before meals.

Something I'm learning every day and I wish others tried too.

On a side note: Ever since I went to 2 churches on one Sunday, every time my host family and I eat dinner, about halfway through dinner, Momma T decides the whole family should say grace now. I don't think they have ever said it before I came along. It's a very awkward mid-point in the meal but I love it lol

Church Shopping and God's Answers

God is funny. Or rather, He's funny and He sure has impeccable timing. My prayer since before I knew where i was going to be moving and working was that He would lead me to a family of believers and a strong community. After moving and not really finding that community in the first 3 churches I went to I was getting discouraged.

I was discouraged because I was so hungry for a faithful community. I know that it takes time to find these things, that it took me over 2 years to find one back at UD, but my soul needed nourishment. So yesterday, as I was sad because none of my friends were available to play or hangout, God and I had a big talk. And God told me to use the internet.

What? Yes, yes He did tell me to use technology. What I had been doing was asking anyone for recommendations on churches. Usually, if people's personal experiences are good, I'll check out the church. I never even thought about googling churches in these towns since I thought it would be so easy to portray a church looking 'nice' on a website versus hearing past experiences. Therefore, I hadn't just searched for churches.

But God told me to so I did. And I found a Vineyard church in Chester Springs which is 20 mins from Phoenixville (where I'm trying to find an apt) and Downingtown (where I am currently based)!! (Don't ask why I hadn't instinctively thought to look up Vineyard churches, I just flat out didn't think of it.) And usually I would wait until I can sweet-talk a friend into coming with me because I am very shy and I dislike going to new places by myself for the first time. I like to have some backup. So I was going to wait until next week when hopefully Patty could come.

But then God and I talked again. He told me to go today. I told God that I'd love it if this church actually made me feel welcome because I'm tired of not feeling welcome or not feeling at home. I also told God that I knew I was not being fed spiritually from the churches I had been to recently so I requested that from Him. (Let's be honest though, He knew that too and why would He argue with that request? Isn't that request a good thing?)

This morning rolls around and I got up and went to a new church today. But I got there 15 minutes early and there were only about 8 cars in the parking lot so I sat in my car 'til 2 minutes of. I'm pretty sure that it's a trend in Vineyard churches to have people flock in like 5 minutes after the service starts. This lady sat next to me with her daughter. Everything felt right, which I usually don't like trusting those instincts or saying that, but it's true.

After the service, the lady turns to me and says, 'I don't think I've met you. Have you been coming here long?' and of course I say, 'no i'm a first timer and I am trying to move to this area.' Of course she had heard of the Barn and loves it. As we were talking though I actually saw someone I knew!! Go figure, her daughter is best friends with the girl I'm living with currently who also goes to UD. And go figure that her daughter with her jaw-dropped comes over and is like, "HOW did you find this place?!"

While we were flabbergasted at this coincidence (I never knew this girl was a church goer and apparently she's looking for a church in Newark, hint, hint), another girl runs over and says, "HI I haven't seen you two here before but you are young and we have a young adults group and you should come... but we're not meeting in the summer, drat" or something very upbeat like that. I felt bad for that new girl because Rachel and I were still just in shock of seeing each other that I don't think we got as many details out of her as we should have.

But anyway, God was laughing at me because I was so nervous and worried the day before about finding a new church and telling Him what I desired and He just gave it to me the next day. I love Him. He's the best. This definitely made my week, if not month. Yay!

Tomorrow, Catherine is driving up and after work we're going to look at an apartment. I really hope this one works out because I really want to find something soon.

Suburbs, family and handymen

There were 3 things I was reminded of today:

1. I never, ever want to live in a suburban development. Ever. I'll pay more to live in a town, city or in the 'country' but never the suburbs. No one should ever feel the need to invest in green grass during August in this region or during a drought. And no one should ever get their driveway repaved every year to keep up the appearances. I find both of these things superficial and foolish.

2. I am very blessed to have been raised by my parents. They love and accept without seeing blemishes. Not all parents are like that.

3. I am very blessed to have men in my family who know how to fix everything. They can do woodworking, mechanical and motor repairs, electrical work, construction, etc. Not all men these days know how to do that. Unfortunately, that also means I'm spoiled and expect a lot out of boys.

The Road Trip: Vermont and Back

After leaving Montreal, we typed my friend Kelsey's address into the GPS and headed back to America. After buying souvenirs, we crossed the border. At the border, they pulled us over and interrogated us and searched our car. But we we passed and they let us into America where we then mailed postcards to our friends and hosts.

KELSEY!!! 

Vermont's lakes were flooded. A lot. It was unbelievable how close the lake waterline in all the lakes we passed were to the road. Apparently, they are having extreme floodings due to all the snow melting from the rain they had after the crazy winter. So driving was cool because the water was really close to where the road began.

We got to Burlington around 1 and since Kelsey was at work we decided to visit the Magic Hat Brewery. You can give yourself a self-guided tour or you can wait for a guide to give it. We waited since we showed up right before one started. They also give you unlimited free beer samples (omnomnom). The tour we could have just done by ourselves without the guide. They didn't say much (Sam Adams was much better with their tour) that was really important besides their history. But their gift shop was fun and they had crazy artwork and Magic Hat is delicious and super cool and they love music and arts so I like them too (: Also I loved our tour guide's beard. He was a hipster to the max and I loved him. I wanted to touch his beard but I didn't.

The Steamboat.

After Magic Hat, the next stop was the Shelbourne Museum where Kelsey works. It appears I had neglected to inform my fellow roadie how awesome it was. (Basically, when I suggest a place to visit, there's an 89% chance it will be amazing and 100% chance that we can make it be amazing so no more doubt and skepticism please.) The Shelbourne Museum is a super cool, former estate of this rich lady who loved collecting things and art. They have lots of really old buildings from the estate in addition to the ones they moved there by helicopter and train. They even have a gigantic steamboat sitting on their lawn (SOOOO COOL)!!

Kelsey was the bestest and got us in for free since she works there (: We spent 2 hours frolicking about and looking at circus exhibits and gun exhibits and blacksmiths working and printing presses (and how they evolved over time, amazingness). Afterwards, we met up with Kelsey and went to dinner.

By that time, I wasn't feeling the greatest but I thought maybe it was because I was hungry. We ate at an amazing place that served quesadillas and food and I scarfed mine down really quickly because we had our most important part of the trip ahead of us: The Avett Brothers.

Even Sarah Palin went to hear the Avett Brothers!

I love Vermont because they invited the Avett Brothers to their state and gave us free ice cream during the concert. As I said before, a large reason why I wanted to visit Kelsey and drive up north was because I knew that she had a ticket that I could use for this concert (: Which was sooo very very good. I only wish that I didn't feel so sick during it (I really felt miserable and that put a damper on things for me but I tried so hard to look not sick for everyone else) But the Avett Brothers were amazing and so good and sexy and I love them and you should go see them in concert if you ever get the chance!!!

After the concert, we crashed in Kelsey's awesome apartment. I really liked her place, it's cute and she has a nice room and wonderfully large kitchen. Kelsey's roomie had a huge air mattress for me to sleep on that inflated like 2 feet thick (I've never seen one so thick). I fell asleep almost instantly and didn't hear anyone get up to turn off lights or doors nor did I hear her roomie walk past me to get to her room. I DID however wake up when the dog tried climbing up on the mattress at 6am. That brought a short shriek out of me since I forgot a dog existed and I wasn't expecting a hairy dog-face in my face. But that was a fun surprise.

Vermont is awesome becasue they have large farmer's markets in walking distance and so we went there to watch Vermontians protect and sell their rhubarb and let their babies play in the fountain. We ate breakfast at a place sorta like NDB but they have more selection and it was incredibly good (and I wasn't sick in the morning yayayay)

After roaming Burlington for a while and getting Vermont maple creemies, it was noon and we had to start heading back towards home. (Booo. It was soooo sad leaving Kelsey but she's very happy in Vermont so that makes me happy.) We drove. Correction: Michael drove. I rode. He still wouldn't let me drive. For dinner, we showed up in the Bronx in Denise's neighborhood and ate real New York pizza. [Side rant- everyone claims NY pizza is amazing but to me it tasted like normal pizza and wasn't as special except that my slice had lots of veggies in addition to chicken]

Real New York pizza

Denise met us at her favorite local place and we ate pizza with her and her friend and then we went to her house to say hi to her family (I think they thought we were crazy for randomly showing up in the city without really making plans that morning to do so because they seemed a bit confused as to how we got there). Denise's dog loved Michael though. I think it was because the dog's fur is a blonde version of Michael's hair. 

We left New York City and headed home for realsies. The only traffic we EVER encountered on the trip was in Newark, DE (go figure) on our way back to my house (in MD). We got to my house around 11 and Michael dropped me off so he could go back to DE so he could wear his Canada hat to church in the morning. (I love Pastor John Groth).

And that was the end of the trip ):

Pretty much that was the 1st and best vacation I had ever had. A 6-day road trip was a good choice. 6 days was long enough that you weren't exhausted or annoyed or whatnot from being on the road for too long away from home but it was still long enough that I was ready to go back to real life by the end. I had lots of fun and learned a lot and finally finished reflecting from it. Yay!

My favorite quotes were "We're in Canada!" and "Green means GO!" and "Cow I win!" and anything that Kelsey said. And I still wear my Canada trucker hat every time I drive my car.

The end.