Strangely Dim

  Tonight on the radio, I heard "Strangely Dim" by Francesca Battistelli.  I really like this song, but tonight it really encouraged me.  It encouraged me to not focus on any worries that I may have, but to truly focus on Jesus, who He is, and who I am in Him.

  My favorite lines are found in the final chorus:

I'm gonna fix my eyes on all that You are

'Til every doubt I feel

Deep in my heart

Grows strangely dim

Let all my worries fade

And fall to the ground

I'm gonna seek Your face

And not look around

'Til the place I'm in

Grow strangely dim

~"Strangely Dim" by Francesca Battistelli

Love,

   Sierra

Don't Worry

  Every Tuesday night, I attend a Bible study with several other young adults.  I feel very blessed to be a part of this group - I've learned so much from all the discussions and studies from the past eight months!

  A few weeks ago, there was a Tuesday evening which was especially encouraging to me.  In our small group, we read through Mark 8 several times over, digging deeper and deeper each time.  What stood out to me the most was found in verses 14 through 21.

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.  "Be careful," Jesus warned them.  "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod."  They discussed this with one another and said, "It is because we have no bread."  Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you still not see or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?  And don't you remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"  "Twelve," they replied.  "And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?"  They answered, "Seven."  He said to them, "Do you still not understand?"

  What stood out to me?  The disciples were worrying about the fact that they had no bread.  They were worrying about this after Jesus had already fed the crowd of 5,000 (plus women & children) with five loaves and two fish!  This was after Jesus had fed the crowd of 4,000 (plus women & children) with seven loaves!  This was after Jesus had performed so many other miracles that the disciples had all witnessed!  After seeing Jesus perform all those miracles, how could they even entertain a small doubt that He would not provide them with the food they needed?

  But then I thought...how can I look back at all the God's done in my life - all the ways He's provided for me, all the prayers He's answered - and yet worry that He won't do the same in my future?!  How can I entertain the doubt that He won't provide me with what I need (and want...inside His will)?  Reading this passage comes at a time when I'm sort of looking into my future and wondering what God's going to do.  Reading it really came at the perfect time.  God really does work in great ways!

 Love,
    Sierra

Disney World

  I'm looking back, and the past 7+ blog posts have been about my trip to Haiti.  And I now, as of last week, have a new trip to add!  Last week, from Tuesday to Sunday, my dad and I went to Florida.  My dad co-owns an elevator company - they specialize in custom elevator cabs.  There was a convention in Tampa and I went along with him.  We only went one day of the two day event, which gave us an extra day at...Disney World!!  I'd never been even outside a Florida airport before, so I was very excited to experience Disney World.  I'll share some photos with you, but please excuse the fact that they are from my phone camera. :P

  Our first day was spent at Disney Hollywood Studios.

 I am an autumn girl.  I love fall.  I love the cool, crisp weather that requires sweatshirts and sweatpants.  I love the colorful trees which are beautiful.  I love pumpkin bars, corn-mazes, night-games, apple cider, and more.  And finally we were getting that weather here in Minnesota.  Until...I stepped out of the airport in Tampa.  Hot, humid, and raining.  However, with the chance of thunderstorms in forecast for the whole weekend, it definitely cut lines down!  There were only a couple rides in the whole weekend where we had to stand in line for a long time.

  One of our favorite things from the whole weekend was the Great Movie Ride.  The building where you wait in line is modeled after Grauman's Theater in Hollywood.  You are taken on a track through several scenes filled with animatronics.  These animatronics are amazing!  It was incredible to see each detail put into the sets and the people.  The rooms were very dark, so that's why the poor quality photo. Below is Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain.

  Our second day, we spent at the Magic Kingdom!  We were in the first hundred people in the park!  Whoo-hoo! :P

  My favorite thing was probably the Small World ride.  Sounds cheesy, I know, and I thought it would be.  Not at all!  Everything at Disney World is so elaborate!  In every nook and cranny, even those where you wouldn't notice if they were bare, were elaborate and extravagant decorations!  That was a very fun aspect to see.

  I apologize for the blurry photo.  This was just one small part of the Small World ride. 

I am counting on the fact that I'm not the only 18 year
old who got excited when I saw Cinderella's castle. :P

  I love Tangled.  Little Mermaid is first, but Tangled is definitely a close second. :)  We were just walking along and I noticed the tower.  That was pretty fun! 

  When we rounded the corner, I saw Rapunzel's village!  Well, at least, a small part of it.  If we want to get specific, they made her "village" the restroom stop, but nevertheless, it was pretty awesome.

  I saw a couple other "castles", too, that I had to take a picture of!

The Beast's castle (Beauty & the Beast)

Prince Eric's castle (The Little Mermaid)

    Our last day was spent at Epcot.

  Our favorite ride at Epcot was Fast Track.  The only ride we went on twice.  You go in a room and create your own car.  You pick the wheels, the shape...everything.  Then you scan your design to a card and when you get on the ride, the computer scans the design into the car you're riding in.  The ride then takes you through "storms" and tests the responsiveness, capability, efficiency, and finally, speed of the car.  You end up going around a rounded building over 100 miles an hour before the ride was over.  Below was the first car we made.

  Hidden Mickeys.  Can you see it?

  There was a building which had soda that you could taste (for free!) from around the world!  I tasted all of the except the Mexico one because of all the kiosks, it was gone.  As I was getting the Italy one, someone looked at me and said, "It's gross."  After I tasted it, like seven other people agreed including myself.  :P  China's was a watermelon flavor which was really good.  

  You may think me ridiculous, but I got a picture with Mary Poppins!  So...I was happy. :)  She's the only character I stood in line for, but I also saw Merida, Alice, Peter Pan, Wendy, Buzz Lightyear, Mike & Sully, Jasmine & Aladdin, and Snow White.  It's kind of fun seeing them all dressed up.

  So that was our trip in a nutshell.  We wanted to take the Keys of the Kingdom tour, but trying to get tickets the day before does not work.  So...if you're going to Disney World, my tip would be to plan.  Know that you're going at least a week before. :P  We had a good time, though.

  Sierra

Haiti: Our Final Day

  I took a little break there by accident, with this posts.  This one is just about our last day - Monday, Day 7.  I would have stayed, honestly.

  It was super hot Monday morning.  Possibly the hottest we'd experienced since being there.  We cleaned a bit, brought our bags down, and started saying our goodbyes.

  We had to get one more "family photo" :).

    Tom's boys came to see us off and drive us to the airport.  

  When we got to the airport, it was a flurry of commotion.  We didn't get the vehicle parked, so we had to rush to get our bags off it and out of the street.  We quickly hugged goodbye and waved as we walked along the sidewalk to the entrance of the airport.  

  We had a nice time of waiting for boarding as we ate some lunch and just sat together to think about all that had happened over the past week.  For those who have asked, our trip was from August 13th to August 19th.

  Our flights home were uneventful, praise the Lord!  The car ride was relatively quiet on the way back from the airport.  Back at the church, we all said our final goodbyes to each other.  After being together non-stop for one week, it was a bit weird to be apart!  My dad picked me up and when I got home, my mom and sister were waiting up for me.  They all stayed up with me till 2:00am hearing stories.  

  This trip was a life-changing one.  People have asked me if I'd go back.  Would I?  In a heartbeat!  People have also asked me if I'll have the opportunity.  My church is sending out another team in February to do some construction-type work with Nate and Kristi.  As I told a friend, if it's God's will for me to go...I'll be on that trip.  I wouldn't have dreamed I'd be on this trip even six weeks before.  We'll see where God has me in six months and what new experiences and opportunities I'll have!

In Christ,

   Sierra  

Haiti: Day 6

  As our thoughts were with our families back home who were gathering all together to worship our Lord, we headed into a new experience: church in Haiti.  It's hard to know what to expect in these situations.  But the experience we had was incredible.  So many people gathered, young and old, all worshiping: some were waving their hands, some were dancing.

  We also got to spend some with kids while at church.  I had two kids fall asleep on my lap on Sunday (not at one time, though!), which was so sweet.  And kind of funny. :)

  After church, we headed over to the Lighthouse again.  It was fun to see all those kiddos again!  We painted compact water bottles with them (thanks, Jean!), which is practical, fun, personal, and cute!

  Here is Jovens rocking at Bop-It.  Loved watching him!  He had learned to recognize the English words to the sound it was supposed to make and where it was located.

  Lauren, the girls loved the bracelets you made them!  Thank you for sending them with your mom!  

  It was hard at the end of the night when we had to say goodbye.  We definitely proved we were Minnesotans when we did the Minnesotan Goodbye. :)  We had such a great time.

  When we returned, we helped Kristi make dinner - delicious fajitas.

 Below is my pitiful attempt at creating a collage type thing.  I guess I have more learning to do.  Oh well, if you want to know how to eat a quenepa, Tanner and I demonstrated for you below. :)

 Love,
    Sierra

Haiti: Day 5

  It was Haitian Hustle day!  The Haitian Hustle is a 5K that our hometown, Becker, does to raise money for the boys and children at the Lighthouse.  There were people in Indiana, in Spain, in Haiti, and several places in Minnesota running/walking this 5K on Saturday, August 17th.

Minnesotans and Haitians who ran the Haitian Hustle (no. i didn't do it)

from right to left is first, second, and third place.

  After the Hustle was done, we went to the beach.  So perfect!  We all had a wonderful time cooling down in the water and stayed for a few hours just basking in the perfectly blue Caribbean Sea.  It was gorgeous!  A lot of laughs were had as well as a panic moment: Tanner got stung by a jellyfish.  We had such a great time bonding as a team, which is very important, as well as spending some time with Tom's boys.

  The combination of the Sea, mountains, palm trees, hot day, blue sky, and sweet fellowship with friends made this time all the more better.

  When we got to the Guest House, we got ready to head to the Lighthouse where we spent some wonderful time with the kids!  We did straw painting which was fun to do.  I loved seeing how different each child's creation was.  The little guy in the photo below touched many of our hearts.  He is blind and his story is both breaks your heart and shows just how amazing our God is!  He is very intelligent, is a pro at Bop-It, rides bike, plays basketball with the other boys, and is just one of the sweetest guys ever!

  Lynel and I got our fingernails painted by this beautiful young lady.  Lynel and I had blue, sparkly fingers for the next few days.  

  We had a marvelous time playing other games including Jenga, Uno, Bop-It, Impulse, Tick-Tick-Boom, and more with the kids on Saturday.  We started building relationships with them, so it was hard to think of leaving on Monday.  

 This was written on a column at the Lighthouse.  Loved it!

In Christ,

     Sierra

Haiti: Day 4 {part 2}

  When we had finished our time in the small village, part of the team walked back down to the Mission, while the rest of us climbed up this "mountain".  It's a very steep incline with no path and a lot of loose rocks.  Although it personally took me longer to get all the way up there, I was so glad I went all the way!  It was gorgeous!  

  Being up there was such an eye-opening experience.  I'd like to share with you what I shared on Sunday during our report at church (okay, I wrote it, Lynel read it.  I lost my voice :P):

 On Friday we went to a small village called New Jerusalem.  This was a new village, about two or three months old, located on the side of a mountain across from the Mission, and consisted of about seven homes and about forty people.

 We were welcomed into a particular home where a family of seven or eight lived.  It had one bed, two small pieces of furniture, and several small children living there - including a one-month-old.

 As I sat in this shelter of metal and tarps, I remembered that I used to complain about sharing a room with my sister - a bedroom bigger than that home.  And they are sharing this "room" with eight people and it's the only room they have! 

 After our time in the village, Tim, Tanner, Christine, Nate, and I - along with two of Tom's boys - climbed the rest of the mountain.  Some faster than others.  But when I finally reached the top, all I saw was beauty and God's creativity.  

 I realized, standing up there, that even amidst all the hurt, amidst all the spiritual darkness, amidst all of the poverty...there is beauty.  It's as if God placed those majestic mountains and the gloriously blue Caribbean Sea, in a land where poverty thrives, to remind us that He is there...that He has always been there...and that He will always be there, creating beauty amidst poverty.

  That is the biggest take-away that I took home: there is beauty amidst the poverty.  The above pictures just do not do it justice.  On one side of the mountain were more mountains; on the other side was the Sea.   I often heard in my mind, and even by team members, "Climb Every Mountain" from Sound of Music while walking up these mountains/hills.  That was pretty great. :)

  Love always,
      Sierra