My dear family and friends,
First, I want to thank you for reading these letters and praying for me and responding. You bless me! 🙂 I will start this letter with a support update and prayer requests and then share a reflection of my year in the making.
As of the beginning of September, I had a support account of -$2,250. It's not an unrecoverable amount, but obviously I don't want to sink further into the hole. I still need more monthly supporters, and I need to seek out more church support (note to self: get on this!).
Daphne and I are traveling to Brazil in November to visit the staff and their friends. I've borrowed a phrasebook to start picking up a few words. And I've got to shop for a bikini :-/ (they're more normal than a one-piece in Brazil!). Also, I'm preparing to interview some of our friends there. Brazil has strict regulations on publishing photos or video, so we're thinking of creating an audio piece and maybe some writing to creatively share our friends' stories (sort of like “This American Life”). I'm thrilled to put my journalism drive to work. I think part of my life calling is to get to know people and then share their stories, and in doing so I can reveal the Creator. I'm so excited to do this in Brazil! So, please be praying for me and Daph in our preparations for this visit. Also, specifically, I need help in funding this trip. Please pray for me and consider supporting me in this endeavor.
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This is the first year since I was 6 that I've missed my family's annual trip to Ely, Minnesota. Our family friend (like an uncle to me) Gibson owns a little cabin that doesn't have running water or electricity. It's so simple and peaceful. Oh, I miss it. It's one of my favorite places in the world.
We usually spend a day on a pontoon on Lake Burntside – from morning to the last drops of sun. Becky fishes every minute she's on the boat. I fish a little, read, steer. We swim, picnic, bake in the sun. We fight. We apologize. We remember why family vacation is so hard and so important and so wonderful. And every year I sit on the back of the boat as we head back in for the evening. I let my feet dangle in the splash the motor kicks up. I breathe it in, the freshness, the peace, the setting sunlight reflecting off the pure, cool water. And I recall the year that's passed since I last floated on that lake.
It's ever so much less glamorous than reminiscing on a lake, but I'd like to review here a little about the last year.
The day you receive this letter is approximately my one-year anniversary of living in Omaha. October 16 is my one-year mark at Word Made Flesh. On that day I will sign my new three-year contract and officially step into these roles: Publications Editor and Assistant to the Advocacy Department. I know I've been talking about this for a while, but I still can't quite believe the year is over.
Moving to Omaha was an adventure. I lived on campus all four years at Anderson, so I never had to take furniture. I was fortunate enough to receive hand-me-downs of all the furniture I needed, but it required a U-Haul. I'm getting ready to move again. Hilary, my dear friend and sweet co-worker, is currently living with me in my original one-bedroom apartment – cozy friends are we. So the two of us are scouring the neighborhood for a house to rent, planning to settle in the first weekend in October. Then my beloved friend Christina Wolfgang is moving the next weekend from Indiana. I have been blessed with great roommates in the past, and I think this house will be amazing. We want it to be a place to foster community, to be a welcoming home. And I'm so excited for it.
God is so faithful. A year ago, I started to worry about leaving my family, about losing the closeness there, about never being the sister who can have dinner any given night of the week, about becoming the granddaughter who misses out on family events. And I had to prepare to be submersed in strangeness, starting from scratch with friendships and location familiarity.
And it was lonely. For a while. I would get home after work, eat dinner and then wonder how early I could go to bed without feeling like a dork. I rented a lot of movies, read a lot, did a lot of jigsaw puzzles. I had to fight through my social awkwardness that resulted from the strangeness, making myself keep initiating contact.
I prayed for friendship. And God was faithful to answer. He's revealed just how good of friends I had already – people who let me know how much they believe in me and love me even from afar. He's given me incredible co-workers who challenge me and share so much life with me. And He's given me a church family at Steadfast, the kind of friends I dreamed – people who cherish face time and can just sit together, people spontaneous enough to plan a camping trip in less than a week. And now I'm going move in with two of my dearest friends and biggest inspirations.
It feels cliché to say, but I've really been finding out who I am this year. I'm becoming who I was created to be. I guess stepping into our true selves is an ongoing process. I'm becoming more confident in who I am, more able to share myself. When I've been the most me, I've really liked who that is, or at least who she's going to be.
Part of the Burntside reflection is to think about how I've changed in the year. I like more food than I used to – I keep trying new things, or things I don't like, trying to acquire the taste for them. (I do still love to cook!) I've enjoyed time alone. I don't get a ton of it, but I can enjoy myself more than before. I've grown accustomed to heat. Formerly predisposed to air-conditioning, I have been shivering in the beautiful 70-degree weather of fall!
Even though I can point to a lot of positive growth, I am constantly made aware of what's still needed. Thanks for the grace you extend me in this journey.
Love, your fellow pilgrim,
Mandy
P.S. Maybe I'll develop a sort of highlight reel … we'll see. 🙂