Hot or Cold

So, I was talking to my friend at work the other day about Makarios. I did not send support letters to coworkers, because I did not think that would be appropriate, and I would feel like I was putting people in an awkward position by asking them to "commit to praying" for me if they do not feel led to prayer in general.

My friend said he probably would not pray for me, because he didn't think my God would listen to him. Obviously, I disagreed with that. But, he went on to explain: the reason he would not pray for me is that he thinks if you are going to pray, you should believe in the God you pray to, and you should be genuine about it. He doesn't think people should "half-ass" something like that. We both acknowledged that people who are simply going through the motions are kidding themselves.

I could not agree more.

I told him that I think he has a better view of prayer than so many Christians. So many of us just go through the motions because we feel it's the right thing to do. Do I pray constantly knowing that I will be answered, or are some requests born out of repetition or duty? I know that I am guilty of writing some things off as being too far gone. Is anything too far beyond God's power? I think not.

My friend at work reminded me of un amor de mi vida. She always says that she hates lukewarm lives. Be all in, or all out. Don't sit on the fence. It's pointless to go through the motions of something without being passionate about it. So many unexpected little lessons learned...

Onward and Upward

In an attempt to make this blog not end with one single entry, I am back. This year is absolutely flying by! Next week is Thanksgiving, as well as my dear old Papa's birthday. Half a century old! That Jon Kemp is such a gem. If I become technologically savvy enough, I can post some holiday/birthday pictures up here soon. I have started to receive support for my trip! It is really reminding me that I am going to be completely taken care of with this temporary move to the Dominican Republic. I am starting to think about things like what to pack! I am somewhat known as a light packer, so hopefully that holds true in this new era of paying for every bag checked onto a plane. While I am in the DR, I have a few main responsibilities:

Primarily, I will take care of these two studs-- Jakob and Isaak (above). The director of Makarios, Sharla, is adopting them, and I will basically be their nanny about 3 days per week. I will help out at the Makarios school, started and run by the staff there. I have zero teaching experience, so that should be a fun time to learn! I will also help out with short-term mission groups that come in to work at Makarios. I have no idea what the main responsibilities will be with this part, but I am excited to see a lot of different faces coming through.

Hopefully, I will be diligent with updates, especially while I am out of town-- I want people to see where I am and what I'm doing! I also want to encourage you to visit the Makarios website and blog to see what is going on from day to day in the DR. The blog is now on the main page of their shiny new website.

Yellow John, estatue?

So, I guess this is my first official blog entry. I feel so...so...very much the same as I did before! I just figured that maybe I should try and change my anti-journaling ways to keep people posted on the happenings in my life. The story starts back in January.

I graduated from the greatest university in the nation back in December 2007 and began working in January at the Human Neuroimaging Lab at Baylor College of Medicine for Dr. P. R. Montague. This name may sound familiar to you if you know my good friend, Latané. (alt 0233--I remembered).

Is this a great place to work? Absolutely. Do I want to pursue a career in neuroscience? Desafortunadamente, no. It just does not seem like the best fit for me. I went into this job knowing that I wanted to travel and eventually go back to school. I pretty much wanted to do whatever I can to postpone being a member of the real world.

So, I emailed Sharla from Makarios (http://makariosinternational.org/). Makarios is a mission I heard about through the Austin Stone Church, where I attended while at UT. I have been thirsting for the opportunity to go somewhere, be thrown into another culture, and (hopefully) finish learning Spanish! Within days, Sharla contacted me and seemed very excited about my interest! In a chain of events that was totally in God's hands, I have been given a position to work in the Dominican Republic! I will be leaving on January 3rd and returning July 11th, 2009. I am very excited about this next step, and am currently trying to raise support for the trip. I am looking forward to see what God has in store for me.

Also, to add to the list of random things I am doing, I am taking the GMAT. I will take the test this coming Saturday, and to be honest, my expectations are not that high... After some consideration, I think that I will go ahead and take the test, but I will not go back to school right away. As of now, if I go to business school, I will probably start in fall 2010. Who knows-- I could end up finding a job I love when I return.

Pretty much, right now I'm a wanderer, but a happy one.