Week Seven!

I can't wrap my mind around the fact that it has been seven weeks, Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is just under a month away. In fact, I fly home in 19 days! I am so excited!!!

Last Sunday was an intern day at my church. I spent the first service in Treasure land which is like Children's Church. We packed Shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. It was a lot of fun working with Kindergarten girls and helping them pack the boxes. Afterwards, I went upstairs and greeted at the front doors. It was a beautiful day! It was wet with a slight chill in the air. Felt more like spring than winter! After greeting, I went and asked if they needed help in the Nursery. I was SO happy to find that they needed an extra set of hands. I spent the rest of the service mostly holding and playing with 4 or 5 month old Jordan. She was such a bundle of pure joy! I also held a 4 week old baby for a few minutes. To say I was content is to put it lightly. My heart is SO happy when I get to hold babies. It isn't work to me. If I could spend my life with babies, I'd be so happy! So, a goal of mine is to see how that could possibly play out in my future.

Monday was a slower day than normal. I think with the fact that Tuesday was our last full day at Kairos, I had a hard time focusing.

Just a handful of my thankfulls!

Tuesday was a great day. In the morning, as a part of worship, we wrote on sticky notes everything we are thankful for. After like 20 minutes we began to stick them up all over the room. We nearly covered everything! There wasn't any surface that was not touched by one of our sticky notes. It was a good time to sit down and truly acknowledge all the
blessings God has given us. If we had had time to actually write every single thing we were thankful for, we would not have enough wall space to put them up.For lunch we had a potluck lunch and invited all of Reign Ministries' staff to join us (Kairos and our staff are in the basement, Reign Staff for everything else is upstairs. We don't get to hang out very often). I made sweet potato casseroles (which I am glad i did because it was the only time I was able to eat it! No one made it on Thursday! :( If I had known that, I would have made some! lol) I also made deviled eggs. It felt good to cook for people again. I've only done it a couple times for my host family and they help out a lot!
I can't remember when but one of these days, Melissa put the lights on the tree! Not sure if we are putting anything else on the tree...haha
On Wednesday I decided to just let myself sleep in. Which I did, till 11am. I haven't slept in much the last seven weeks so I figured as the first day of break, I probably should let my body catch up. It felt good. I then spent a couple hours helping my host family label things for Scott's job. Which was fun. Then I just relaxed the rest of the day. I don't remember what else I did. I think I did laundry. lol just took it easy.
Thursday we drove an hour to Melissa's brothers home. Many of her family members were there and even some of Scott's family was there. Which made me happy because I know them better (his mom, brother and sister). Melissa's family was great. I spent a little while talking with some of them. A handful of her family are Christian's and I could tell which ones were. They were the ones who were very interested in getting to know me and what I am doing in Kairos. They asked so many questions. It was nice to feel relaxed around new people and be in conversations instead of hiding in a corner! haha
Friday I took another day to rest. I watched Netflix and cross stitched pretty much all day. Got a head start on some Christmas presents!
Saturday I caught up on Bible reading, worship planning and other Kairos stuff. Also cleaning my room and decorating for Christmas! One of my host sisters gave me a couple boxes of lights to put up in my room. I love it! Then I invited my youngest host sister to come down and play some Uno with me. We played crazy 8's and another game that I can't remember the name of. Fun bonding time.

Also, on Tuesday we started some prep work for our speaking blitz in January. When we visit schools and churches (in the MN area, sorry GA I won't be visiting during speaking blitz! lol)
We will be doing a couple skits along with testimonies. I got my part in a skit which is hilarious because it is totally type casted. My character is sooo much like me! I am really excited to be a part of this and can't wait for Speaking Blitz to start! Actually, I sorta can wait. It's crazy how fast things are going . Once Christmas break starts until March is going to be three months of non stop craziness! One week after break ends we go on Speaking blitz for like two weeks. Then a few days or week after that we are leaving for Honduras for two weeks! Then after Honduras we have a spring break for two weeks! March 11 kicks off 2nd Semester! Things will calm down from there until May when we have our Boundary Water's camping trip. Then in June, we finally have our summer trip with Royal Servants!! I cannot wait!!! Next year is going to be AMAZING!

Week Six!

This week was a fun week. We had the previous director of Kairos, Kevin Rusack, come in. He spoke on the Father-Heart of God and Spiritual Warfare. Both were amazingly great teachings on both! He connected so many dots and made so much make so much sense. I have always known God loves me. I have never doubted it. But to see it play out so clearly in Scripture. To see it more clearly in verses I have ready time after time but now saw them in a whole new light. And his teachings on spiritual warfare were so applicable for daily life. He had story after story. The entire class was tuned in. We could have sat there for days and listened to him speak.  Three days on spiritual warfare and two on the father heart of God was not enough. And I think I speak for the whole class. He is a marvelous speaker!
This week I turned in a book study on the book of Ruth and also a 4 page report on Abba's Child by Brennan Manning. Really enjoyed Abba's Child but I think I will enjoy it more a second time through. I've already begun a list of things  I need to read after Kairos.

On Friday after class we went to Feed my Starving Children and packaged food for a couple hours. I can't remember all the numbers but our group and the other volunteers packaged enough meals to feed like 76 kids one meal every day for a whole year! I love food packaging event, this was my third event. It's near mindless work but has such a lasting impact on the world.


On Friday night I went to Wayzata Highschool (Where my oldest host sister goes.) She was in the pit during a play. It was a cool experience.
On Saturday night I hung out with my carpool girls, Ashleigh and Amanda. We had a great night just relaxing. We got some memorization in and some stretches. We mostly just hung out and laughed. A lot. I am really enjoying my class and getting to know them all better.
Oh and my mom is the best and ordered us pizza! :)
And during the day on Saturday I helped my host mom put up the Christmas tree! We had fun and I drank eggnog :)

 Many thanks to all of you for your continued support! You all are the best!

(I have the best host sister! She braids my hair and I get to have curly hair! I LOVE curly hair!)

Week Five!

Over one month in now! Fully immersed into the culture of Minnesota and the life of a Kairos student! It's been amazing thus far! I am loving it all!

Just so you know, I did send out letter updates to all of my supporters! I sent out 72 letters! I wanted to say a few things here that I totally forgot to say in the letter. But just a HUGE thank you to all of you who give. Every dollar has meant so much to me! From the smallest to the greatest, thank you! No matter the gift size you have become a part of a team that God is using to accomplish his goal for me personally. I cannot wait to see all that God has in store for me this year through the various ministries and mission trips. This week I believe we are going to a food packaging event. Can't wait to share with you all about that! I love those!
Tonight I wrote my fourth paper. We have read several books.
"In a pit with a lion on a snowy day" Mark Batterson
"Celebration of Discipline" Richard J. Foster
"Abba's Child" Brennan Manning
And a book study on Ruth.

We had to write basically long book reports on the books. What things stood out to us and what will we apply to our lives. I've really enjoyed our reading list so far. Next week is a short week because of Thanksgiving break. My hope is to get some reading done that week, personal and for school. Our next book to read is "The Pursuit of God" by A.W.Tozer and I recently got in the mail a free copy of "Revolution in World Missions." I can't spell the name of the author. lol. So we will see what all I get done! haha.

We have also been busy with memorization! I keep surprising myself with how much I have memorized and that I can remember it. All of our tests are accumulative. Here is the list of the verses I have memorized.
2 Timothy 2:1-2
Philippians 2: 3-11
Galatians 5:1
Romans 2:1-2
Galatians 3:20
Romans 6:1-2, 11-12
2 Peter 1:3a
And our next test next week will include:
Ephesians 1:4-5
Romans 8:15-16
Romans 8:28
Galatians 4:7
1 John 3:1
Matthew 22:37-40

I'm a bit of a procrastinator though when it comes to memorization. So I am a little behind in beginning to start the next set. Oops. Better get on that ASAP.
Last Friday my class got to be a part of something so cool! Our director, Erika, got engaged to the wonderful Christian! He set up a scavenger hunt date for them Friday night. But he was what she had to look for. She made like 7 stops to different locations looking for Him. Each time she was met by a group of friends or family (Or Christian's Cross country team) and that group would give her her next clue.
Our class got to be one of those stops! It was actually her last stop before she reached Christian! After her stop with us she went to an overlook over St.Paul where Christian waited for her. Guys, he is just the sweetest. He put so much thought and time into this proposal. It was so cute. And I am so thrilled that he included his cross country team that he coaches and the Kairos class that Erika leads. (And they want to wedding soon. Maybe Spring? So I'll most likely get to go! YAY! :) haha )
We all went to Fuddruckers for a late dinner where we waited for the happy couple. It was such a fun night. Erika's family surprised her and drove from Wisconsin to spend the weekend.

I also didn't have to pay for my meal at Fuddruckers which was spectacular because then I went and bought a winter hat and wool socks at target the next day. Two very much needed items for the frigid winter that has just begun. It's already dropped to single digits. Dare I say even negatives? It's cold. lol









ALSO just wanted to introduce to you all my small group. I may have done this before but they are awesome and we have awesome pictures. So in the really silly one where we are using props from Target, we have from Left to right : Chelsea with the army hat or something. Casey with the snow flake crown, me with the pirate hook, and Breanna with the police hard hat (Breanna is our small group leader) They are all amazing and I love them to pieces!

AAAND
I'M DOWN TO ONLY NEEDING $1,055!!!!!! $56 and I'll be under 1K! That is soooooo great! Thank you Jesus!

Week Four...Already?

Golly it's already been a month here in Minnesota with Kairos! Crazy how time flies! Hope you all have been enjoying my blog thus far!
Just so you know, you can always give feedback! I'd love to hear from you all!
As I sit here typing, my heart is full of joy. As you can tell from the picture, it has finally snowed here in MN!!!! And we get the day off today but I might get to that later! And yes, I do plan on playing in the snow and doing a bit of shoveling around the block.

So, this week. We watched an amazing video series on relationships by Dean Sherman. I absolutely loved it and if you ever get a chance to watch or read anything on relationships by him, I urge you to do so! It was absolutely fantastic! And it doesn't just apply to single people but also to married couples. The truth he teaches still amazes me! Every Christian should watch and learn.

I've been taking a lot of walks this week. Like 5 or 6 days out of the week. And hopefully just because it snowed I won't stop! Yesterday I took a nearly 6 mile walk with a friend! WOW! By the end we were frozen! haha but it was probably my last snow less walk. haha . I took some great pics too and just touched them up by playing with the contrast of a picture. Same with the snow ones above :)
 (<- yes, that is me in the corner taking a selfie with some other girls!)
On Friday we had a fun day. The guys and girls separated and had their own day together. The girls met at our director, Erika's house and just chilled out for the day. We watched three romantic comedies. Of course we had to watch New In Town (based in MN) then watched 27 Dresses and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. WE did our nails, covered our arms with henna tattoos and of course, ate great food. What better way to spend a girls day? We did start the day by going around to each girl and spending a moment to tell the other what gifts we see in them or what things we love about each other. I know for me, it was so encouraging and uplifting. To know how people see me makes me so happy. I'll be honest, I sometimes struggle with feeling needed or that I bring anything to a group. But to know that these girls see things in me that they are so happy I am there, wow it just made my day! To know that they love me for ME! It was definitely a needed encouragement and I hope I brought encouragement to others too!

On Saturday Scott showed Gabrielle and I how to change a tire. That was...interesting. And a lot of fun! haha. I learned I am not quite strong enough to even loosen the bolts on the tire! hahaha

 And I think on Thursday, Erika and I were twins! No, it was not planned!
 On Sunday we had our internships at church. I spend the first service with children's church. Then second service, I greeted for like ten minutes before heading down to the High school's service where me and two others shared a brief bit on who we are and how we came to Kairos, which for me is part of my testimony. So that was cool. Kind of introduced ourselves to the high schoolers.  Hopefully will build more on relationships with them.


Also been working on a lot of memory verses this weekend, frustrating and a bit hard but worth it in the end. Glad though that we get one more day to study! haha

So, why do we have today off?
On Wednesday we were going to have a Sabbatical Day. We would not go to class that day but just head over to our internships at church. They moved up our sabbatical day to today (Monday) due to the winter storm we are in. What a Sabbatical day for today looks like is to serve our host family in the morning (a usual thing for a Monday morning) but then to make sure we spend time with Jesus today. Just being in quiet time. So that is on my agenda for today, some Jesus time :) And maybe a bit of hot chocolate!!

So yeah, that was my week! I'm one month in! Nine to go but I'm not counting! I'll be enjoying every minute!! I already am :) 

Week Three!

Hey, everyone! Hope you all are well! Hopefully I can write this post without falling asleep! I am very worn out today but it's a good worn out. My host mom and I took a 5 mile walk yesterday and another one today. The weather has been truly amazing! Though I have begun to play Christmas music today. I'm getting antsy for the first snowfall! Till then, I will enjoy the wonderful temperatures and beautiful fall leaves!
This week I think slowed down quite a lot since last week. Our teachings in class were all Old Testament study. Really just stirring the waters of such a vast ocean of information!
Also this week I continued reading a book called The Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. Very much enjoyed it! This book expounded on twelve different yet equally important spiritual disciplines that every Christian should structure into their lives. These disciplines were grouped into three categories: Inward, outward, and corporate disciplines. This book was a fantastic read that challenged me to look deeper and earnestly seek on how to better my life by building up my relationship with God in deep ways.
I have been bonding well with my class. I've really been enjoying playing fuse ball. It's a class wide game playing phenomenon. We have had one tournament so far in which I believe our director, Erika won. We will be beginning a team tournament probably this week. Everyone loves it! Friday night (Halloween) my friend John had a bonfire at his house. I almost didn't go due to a headache and the fact I hate halloween and never want to leave my house on that night. haha. But I had gone out to dinner with my host parents (all the girls were gone, one to a friend's house and the other two to a church weekend retreat). I also had left my tablet at school which I need for the weekend (it's also my alarm clock) so that kind of forced me to go to the bonfire to get my tablet from a friend. Glad I went though. It was a good time of fellowship around a HUGE fire. Definitely not a fire for roasting marshmallows! Also, on Friday, I had, I think my new favorite drink from Caribou (coffee shop) it is called a Vanilla White Chocolate Mocha. Oh my goodness it was like drinking melted white chocolate. AMAZING! haha
This week has been great at home. I mean, besides being driven crazy by the family cat, Okin and his sneaky antics (This little guy got up on the counter and stole my piece of banana bread! Stole it right off my plate! Little brat haha).(Even as I type Okin was being bad and got up on the kitchen counter and began eating crumbs from dinner last night that was in a plate by the sink!! Bad kitty!) I've been able to help with dinners. Last night Scott (my host dad) had two old students from like 20 years ago that he coached in Swim, they reconnected and they came over for dinner last night. I was able to kinda lead the way with dinner. We made a spaghetti/goulash dish. Just noodles and sauce. But we added cans of tomatoes with herbs. Also added a bunch of chopped veggies including carrots, zucchini, yellow bell pepper and cauliflower! Also added garlic. It was so good and we have LOTS of leftovers which makes us all excited! It's kind of become my specialty dish (we have done it twice now). Melissa (host mom) and I make a great team. I enjoy to cook and she enjoys the cleaning (which we dislike the reverse so we work great doing what we enjoy!) I'm thankful for this way to serve my host family.
I'm connecting well with the youngest daughter, Danielle who is 11. We love to play games together. Our favorite so far (granted it's really the only thing we have played together) is called Spot It. It's a fun quick thinking card game!
Today we went to church and got home earlier than usual. Melissa and I went for that walk and came home. It's been a pretty chill day. The two older girls are still gone at the retreat but should be home soon. And Scott had to coach swim today in like St.Paul or something. So quiet day. I wrote my second paper for Kairos on the book, Celebration of Discipline. Though I still need to re read it. Which I hate doing. haha. I hate re reading my works. So I am blogging to take a break from that. But I'm glad it is written. It's due Wednesday. The next book on the list is Abba's Child by Brennan Manning and I also have a book study on Ruth due, both in a couple weeks. I'll most likely begin those tomorrow. 

 As always, THANK YOU for your support and your prayers! Some things to pray for :

- That my small group will continue to bond well (Chelsea and Casey)

- The rest of my finances will come in. God is SO good! I am down to only needing $1,330 left to raise! YAY!

-Gas money

- $ for personal expenses

-That I can begin to apply all that I have been learning, especially in spiritual disciplines. God has been teaching me so much and I honestly can't wait to really apply what I have read.

  Care packages make my heart happy :) My love language is gifts.

 And if you ever feel the desire to send anything to brighten my day, I will never say no to anything warm such as teas, coffees and hot chocolate!

Gum is another thing where it's pretty much never disappointing. (Watermelon and spicy gum are the exceptions that I will be sad over. haha)

And also, monetary gifts come in handy too! lol

If you'd like to donate to my trip fund or to my personal fund, here is a link and my address :)

https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift2/?giftid=3C14F4E1-28B3-4FC4-8A37-F3611508F638


245 Walker Avenue, N.
Wayzata, MN 55391

Love you all! Thank you so much!

Beka
बेका

I wanted to take a moment to remember a dear friend. Ms.Linda was a wonderful woman of God who supported and encouraged me in so many ways these last ten months. I have been extremely blessed by her kindness. Ms.Linda passed away and although I am deeply saddened that I will not get to see her again when I visit home, I am encouraged because I know that I will see her again in eternity some day.

Love you, Ms.Linda!