I emailed this out to the group of people that receives my regular email updates. But thought I'd post it here too in case you read my blog, but don't get my updates. If you'd like to hear from me via email...just post me a comment with your email and I'll get back to you.

Finishing a chapter, beginning a new one

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated my blog but considering in the last two weeks I graduated, finished my final papers and exams, and spend Christmas with my family in Minnesota....well, consider yourself blessed by an actual update on my blog!


The above is a photo of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. This is where I spent the majority of my time at Wheaton.



Well, I'm officially a Master in Intercultural Studies if you can believe it! The year and a half program has flown by and saying goodbye to this chapter of my life is bittersweet. I've made some amazing friends:


and have some fantastic memories and wonderful experiences and feel as though I'm walking away from here with a new understanding of cultures and worldview that will be a great benefit to me in the months and years ahead. However, I admit, I was getting a bit restless over the last few months. I get this rush of excitement as I search for ticket prices on flights. I went to the library to check out some "candy" reading (non-academic reading, now that I'm finished with my degree) and ended up checking out The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...they are both travelogues. hmmm....I sense a theme.

I can barely keep track of my own schedule, but for those interested in tracking me down, I will be back to Chicago for a week to pack up my stuff, back in MN for a fundraiser at my home church on January 9 (please come if you're around! There will be yummy Afghan food!). Then I will be traveling to Amsterdam Jan 16-26 to take part in some training for the school we are going to run in A-land this upcoming year and to do some team building. Then I'll be back in the USA to finish up raising support, to represent my organization at Wheaton's Mission in Focus week, and to pack and head back to A-land mid-February. It's going to be a lot of travel and I'll be doing a bit of couch hopping before I head back "home" in central Asia.

So, stay in touch. I want to see you if you are in MN or Chicago (or happen to be passing through Amsterdam the same time as me!).

This picture is by far one of my favorites from my time at Wheaton. It was taken a whole year ago at the Christmas party for our department. As of Friday, all of us will be graduated and headed out around the country, and eventually the world to the things God is leading us into.

I graduate on Friday....really.
It's hard to believe that a year and a half has passed by, that I earned 40 credits for a Masters Degree, that I made some great new friends, that I laughed and cried, slept a lot and drank lots of coffee. I wonder how many hours I wracked up between the library and caribou coffee studying.

One thing I've been most blessed by is time to just cultivate new friendships. I love the friendships I have working overseas. It's almost as though when you meet people in settings like that that you avoid all the meaningless chitchat because you both know a bit of the depths of that person's heart being that you are meeting them in a context that they are living out their passion. It makes for some intense interactions and you go deep with people you may never have gotten a chance to know if it wasn't for that place and calling that you both share.

Wheaton has been a time to meet a variety of people...people I hadn't expected to enjoy their friendship so much; people who think like me and yet differently as the same time. I've been able to socialize and be silly and do things with people just for the fun of it. That has been a wonderful gift!

And these women above have taught me much...how to live life with abandon, how live life making calculated and deliberate decisions, how to follow your passion, how to persevere, how to be a friend, how to share my heart, how to let the tears flow, how to laugh more, how to "study" with out really studying, how to be a better cook, how to call up friends just to talk, how to create community while not living in community. There are more than just these faces that I am taking away with me and many others not included in this picture but I felt like the photo was representative of some great, great times here at Wheaton.