Background photo by Justin Urban. Check out his other amazing photographs at his Facebook page

Friday, June 2, 2017

TOIB #2: Expectations

On this post, I want to focus a bit more on the specifics of what I'm going to be actually doing this summer and see where that takes me! This summer I and another intern are splitting our time between the youth group and the kitchen of the learning center!

Our responsibilities in the youth group are primarily to just be with the youth and form some relationships, as well as provide the practical support for the leaders, such as helping with meals and whatnot. So far I've been to 1.5 youth group nights and I love it. It reminds me a lot of my old youth group. I suppose youth groups are generally the same in most places; and teenagers are teenagers wherever you go. I've loved getting to know some of the high school girls and hearing about their passions and their struggles. Since youth ministry is something I've been interested in since 8th (ish) grade, I'm excited to get a taste for it and see if it is a thing I really want to consider doing regularly in my future!
I get to go camping with the youth as well as go to a summer camp with the middle school kids! The camp is run by Cru, which is a fairly popular campus ministry at UNC. I'm excited that it's with an organization that I know and can learn more about. I'm also excited to get more involved with middle schoolers since I tend to shy away from middle schoolers. It will really push me out of my comfort zone and give me exposure to something I wouldn't be doing otherwise.

The kitchen work will also push me out of my comfort zone and give me a lot of experiences I would never have otherwise. This summer I'll be not only cooking the meals for the elementary school kids, preschoolers, and youth group kids, but I'll also be planning the menus and shopping for the week. I've never grocery shopped for myself, let alone 40-some kids! I know it will take some getting used to. I'm afraid about how the week or so it takes for me to get used to the kitchen will affect the staff of the learning center and youth group. So I have to trust myself to catch on quickly and trust that I will receive grace if I do screw up the schedule.

This last week we've been in our actual internship rather than in training. And even though it has still been a lot of more specific training and getting used to things, it has given me a good idea of what this summer will look like. I came here with expectations of myself, the ministry, and my job. So far most of the expectations have changed. It's been a challenge to let go of my original expectations. I had been thinking and talking about this internship since March. So that's two or so months where I was trying to imagine what was going to happen to me this summer.
Living with all the other interns has been different than I expected.
My actual job responsibilities are totally different than I expected. Kitchen work was not on my radar when I applied for this internship.
The church itself is totally different than I imagined.
None of these things are bad the way they are. I love the other interns, and my job, and the church. But they aren't what I thought they'd be.
I hear people say that I shouldn't go into many things with expectations. The dining hall, my classes, any sort of relationship, etc. Apparently, you're just disappointed if you have any expectations. It's impossible to not make expectations. I've tried. So the conclusion I've reached is to have expectations but don't get married to them. Maybe take them on a few dates. Add them on Snapchat. But nothing serious. My problems don't come when I have expectations. It's when I'm disappointed that I didn't get what I wanted.
I find that my expectations put God in a box. How often do I expect God to do great and mighty and amazing things? Almost never. My expectations going into this internship were all about myself. The experiences I was going to have. How God was going to change me. Will God teach me amazing things this summer? Yeah. He already has. But I am not here for the sole purpose of being changed. I'm here to see God work. And when my expectations shift from my own experiences to God's majestic work, it doesn't matter what I'm doing.

The second day I was here, one of the youth directors was having a meeting with the parents of the youth. He said something that keeps coming to mind as I write this.
When we know what our why is, our what doesn't matter anymore. 
And because these last few weeks haven't been exactly what I wanted to be, I've had to shift my focus from the what and back to the why. I'm here because God wants me to be here. I'm here to learn about God's heart for the poor and homeless. I'm here to learn what it means to serve selflessly. And because I know that, I don't have to worry about all the specifics of what I'm doing and what's happening to me. I know the why will be accomplished and so I'm okay when the what changes under my feet.
Before now, I expected the what and not the why.
But now I'm expecting the why and I couldn't be more ready to see what's going to happen.

Much love,
Amanda.

Friday, May 26, 2017

The Obligatory Internship Blog #1: God is a Tagger

As some of you probably know, I'm just beginning my summer internship with Open Door Ministries!
Since I find that I tend to process things better through writing, I knew that I was going to have to start blogging about my experiences. If you're curious about what I'm doing with my time or just what God is doing in Denver right now, feel free to read along as I try to figure my thoughts out.
To start I want to give a little intro about Open Door and what it does. Open Door Fellowship began as a church meant to minister to the urban population of Denver, such as the homeless that unmistakably populate the streets. It's designed as a welcoming environment to show the urban population their value in God's eyes. Open Door Ministries was the natural outflow of a church whose main goal is to reach these people with the love of Christ and form long-term relationships.
You can learn more about Open Door Ministries HERE. They're doing some really cool stuff downtown!
What drew me to this place was the proximity to my own home. Living in north-east Aurora, I've driven down Colfax countless times and spent a large portion of my time hanging out in Denver. Denver is a place close to my heart. Having spent so much time here, I have come into contact with quite a few homeless people, always desiring to show them love but not knowing exactly how to do that without giving them handouts. I know the spots to avoid and I know that the city can be a dangerous place. But I am tired of being afraid of Denver and the people in the city. I am going into this internship eager to get used to Denver and ecstatic to get to know the stories of some of the people I would normally avoid eye contact with and rush by. 
During my time at ODM I will be working primarily with the youth program and the early learning center. Though I haven't done too much with either ministry yet, I am sure I will be writing about these two ministries very soon.

Until I get started with my normal responsibilities here, however, I have been in training with the other interns. There are 9 of us working in various ministries. We come from all across the country and from all different walks of life; so it's been really neat getting to know each of these people and how they ended up doing this internship. These training days have focused on the history of Open Door Fellowship/Ministries and the expectations they have for us this summer. These last few days have been jam packed with a lot of different awesome things that have made me think about the character of God and my place in his ministry. But, I'm only going to focus on one of these things so I'd love to tell you more about all the others if you ask me!
On the first day, we went on a prayer walk all around Open Door. We stopped by a lot of different spots around the area, our guide sharing some specific stories at each stop. There were far too many for me to share on this post; in fact, I can't even remember the specifics of all of them. But one specific part immediately caught my attention and hasn't left me alone since. It was near the beginning of the prayer walk; we were standing in an alley behind the post office by some dumpsters. This area was littered with... well... litter. The walls of the dumpster and the post office were covered in graffiti. We stopped to talk about gang activity in homeless youth. The man leading our walk asked why these people tag wherever they go. 
I had never considered before exactly why they do it. I just knew that tagging was vandalism and it was annoying when names and symbols were scrawled on the fences and garage doors of my neighborhood.
"They tag to be noticed," he said.
These individuals are longing for someone to know they exist, to know they are there. And so they write their names wherever they go so it's impossible to ignore their presence in the world. The very act of graffiti removal is acknowledgment of their presence.
This alone was enough to make me think. But our guide took it one step further.
"God is a tagger."
What? These taggers are gang members. How can this man compare God to these taggers?
As I chewed on it the rest of the day I began to realize what he could have meant.
God demands to be noticed. He writes his name wherever he has been and his presence is unmistakable. You can try to power wash him off the walls of your heart or paint over his signs on the doors of your soul but he is still there and his name will always come back to you.
Don't get it confused- God does not need your pity. He is not desperately hoping to be noticed like some of these taggers are. But his presence is unmistakable and permanent. And he will be noticed.

Another important aspect of this concept of God as a tagger brings me to Matthew 25:31-45. This passage is the one usually brought up when someone is talking about providing for the poor. Just a quick summary of this passage:You got your sheep and you got your goats. God is separating them during the final judgement. After he lets all the sheep into Heaven, God's turns to the goats and says, "Hey I was in need and you didn't help me." And the goats are like, "What we never saw you in need." And God says, "Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." These goats represent the people were not following him, or those who said they were but didn't act like it.
God wants us to look at those who are lost and broken with as much compassion and love as we would if it was God himself in that situation. Isn't that crazy?

I encourage you to think about these concepts as I continue to process them. As always, I would love to know your thoughts as conversation is a key part in any learning process.
I'm hoping to be able to publish a blog at least once a week! So be on the lookout for that!
I love you all!

-Amanda

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

On Being a Prude

I was called a religious prude recently.
It hurt more than I expected it to. Why is this bugging you so much, Amanda? I asked myself this quite often for a few days after someone stamped that ugly label on my back. This individual, I believe, meant for it to hurt. And, although I was raised being told to get a thick skin and not let things like that bother me, this one was hard to shake.

The worst part, I think, what that I didn't think I was doing anything worthy of being called prude. So I went and looked up what the heck "prude" actually means. "A person who is or claims to be easily shocked by matters relating to sex and nudity." I suppose, by the dictionary definition, I am a prude. I'm not super fond of nudity or sexual situations/jokes. And shoot, other people being naked makes me uncomfortable.
It took me a second to digest that, according to this definition, I am a prude. Now all I had to deal with was the accusation that my faith caused me to be like this. Perhaps my "prudishness" is a result of my Christian faith. However, I don't think it takes someone to be a Christian to be uncomfortable with sex and nudity. At least, I never thought so.
But still here I am, having been called a religious prude. Still being bothered with this label. Here is the conclusion I've come to.

Within the homeschool community, I always considered myself to be fairly "edgy." I read Harry Potter, I don't live and die by K-Love radio, and honestly sometimes there were other places I would have liked to be besides youth group. There were times where I felt pretty outcast from that group for these reasons. That never really bothered me too much.

I always felt like who I am would help me reach people because I wasn't some ultra-Christian person. (An opinion that, now, I understand was totally incorrect. God gives everyone their own convictions about different things and can and will use anyone to reach other people....)
What I've been learning, however, is that although I am far more relaxed than some Christians I know, I will never fit fully into this world as long as I am holding to the truth of the Gospel and following Jesus closely. I cannot fit into this world without letting go of God.
1 Peter 2:11-12 says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage ware against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, then may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."
1:15 says, "As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct."
As a Christian, I am not called to be as close to the world as I can be before I cross whatever line there is into sin. I am called to be separate from the world and fully devoted to God, following him and his direction in order to most effectively spread his word.

So I suppose I am a religious prude. But don't think for one second I'm going to stop.

Much love,
Amanda.

I want to make it clear that I am not bitter towards the individual who called me a prude. Their words just impacted me a lot and this post is me working through my thoughts and not intended to be any sort of attack or angry response towards them.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Not Finished Yet: Grace

Grace.
 It's a word that I have grown up hearing from my Sunday School teachers when they spoke of God's love for humankind. It's a concept that remained, to me, ambiguously close to mercy up until a few years ago. It was also used in a phrase my mom had to tell me consistently growing up. When I was a little girl (I say this as if I'm so old and changed completely since then...) I did not have much patience with my peers. Especially in any form of group work that I was forced to do. I was easily frustrated by their immaturity or, in my eyes, their incompetence. As if I was somehow better than them and they all needed to "get on my level." Whenever I would complain about it to my mom she would look at me and say, "Remember to give them grace, Amanda." To this I would usually sigh and sit silently while my thoughts were battling with each other
.
'Give them Grace.' vs. 'But they all just suck so much.'

Thankfully, because of my Mom and Jesus, the first option usually won out.

Now I am 18 years old (newly minted adult!!) and in real college (not community college). Having grown up in the church, every now and then I settle into the idea that there are certain things I'm  finished learning about. God is really good at making sure none of his children are settling where they are in their faith; and in these last two weeks at UNC Greeley I have been reminded every day to give someone grace.
 In this last week I had a very frustrating time communicating with my adviser. Nothing I did got her to help me figure out my class schedule. And nothing she was saying to me made any sense whatsoever. A very frustrating week of missed calls and malfunctioning phones and unread emails. As a result of this exchange, I am in a class I shouldn't be in and don't have the proper prerequisites for. It was very easy for me to slip into a mood of anger and bitterness towards this woman whom I have to work with for the remainder of my college career. While most would tell me my anger was justified (and it most likely was) it does me no good to sit here being angry with this woman who is also doing her best to help me and all the other students in my program, as well as teach two classes- especially since there is not much she can do to help me now.
I need to have grace with her and understand that she is not perfect just as I am not perfect and she is doing the best that she can.

This is just one specific instance of God teaching me yet again to have grace with someone who wouldn't typically deserve it.

Not only has God taught me to have grace with others, but also to have grace with myself. I don't know if you guys know this, but I make a lot of mistakes. I know that I have said some things that have hurt other people. I know I've had to cancel plans on people when I probably shouldn't have.
The other day I was supposed to meet with my RA but had to meet with my adviser (mentioned previously) so I was forced to cancel last minute on my RA. I was at work, however, and couldn't go onto the program to cancel my appointment. So I shot a quick text to my roommate to have her email my RA for me.
My RA never got the email and was quite mad at both me and my roommate for not showing up to the meeting even though we did all we could.
I will never forget when I saw her later that night and tried to apologize. Her face remained expressionless as she reminded me to cancel it online and not email her because she didn't check her email. And then she walked away.
As you can imagine, I felt pretty crappy about myself. Everything that happened was out of my control. Yet my RA was mad at ME and wouldn't accept my genuine apology or explanation for the situation.

When I was texting my mom about it later, she reminded me to have grace, not with my RA, but with myself. While she didn't say those words exactly. She told me she understood my frustrations because I was doing the best that I could. Those words meant so much to me (thanks mom) and continued to impact the few days after that.

What is in the past is in the past. And I am always going to mess up and I need to learn from my mistakes and move on. Whenever I mess up it is just a reminder that I need to show the same amount of grace I need (that would be an ABUNDANT amount).



Stay lovely, folks.
-Amanda

Friday, March 4, 2016

So I'm Starting This Blog Thing Up Again

Hello! So as some of you may remember, I used to blog. And then sometime around January of last year I stopped feeling like sharing my thoughts and opinions and so I stopped blogging. Maybe it's true that no one cares about my blog; however, I was challenged recently by my friend and mentor Kasey (one of the most amazing people I have ever met, by the way) to start using the talents that I was given to bring glory to God. So here I am, blogging again.
I'm not really sure what this is going to look like, but I want to try to most fairly regularly.
I would love to hear suggestions on what to write about as well, if you have any.

That being said, I would like to start this first post with a little bit about myself,
I am currently 17 (and a half) years old at community college. But I hope to transfer to a 4-year university in the fall semester. I plan on studying English and being a secondary English and Lit teacher. I have always loved writing, finishing my first story in 2nd grade. Since then I've written two novels, neither of which have been published but I'm still pretty proud of writing them.
I have an older brother who I'm pretty close to (who also has a movie review blog and writes movie reviews for our college paper which is pretty legit, right?) and a lot of really awesome friends.
I have been a Christian basically my whole life, so don't be surprised when most of my posts relate back to that at some point.

My favorite band of all time ever is Twenty One Pilots and I've yet to hear another band that reaches the same level as them. |-/

It means a lot to me when people read my writing, even if you don't necessarily agree with what I have to say. If you do read one of my posts, please like it or share it or email me saying "read ur blog." And I'd be incredibly happy.
I plan on sharing things that I learn so hopefully you all can learn with me and help me figure my life out.

Stay classy, friends,
Amanda Page