More Hours and a new e-mail address

This morning I am beginning work in the office here at Sweet Home. The church administrative assistant resigned last week to take another job, and I'll be filling in wherever possible for the next two months, until the church moves into the new building and they can hire a new Admin. Assistant. They put me into the computer system here, so my new work e-mail (of course I'm still using the old one) is mparker@sweethome.org

Making changes

I'm making some changes with my blog, and changed some security options. A good reason for this is that my address, contact information, names and stories should not be accessible to the general public. As a result only those invited by myself to view this blog will be able to. If you know of anyone who would like to see my blog, but I neglected to add their e-mail to the list please leave a comment or have them e-mail me at:

newlove_oldfaith@yahoo.com

unfortunately after 30 days Blogger will want you to have your own google account, having a google account can be helpful in many ways so I don't think it would be a burden for anyone to sign-up, however if for some reason you are not comfortable with that, never fear I am still writing newsletters to be sent via snail-mail, the first one goes in the mail this week!

World Communion Sunday

I visited a church this morning that I believe will be where I attend this year. I've already started practicing with the ever so small choir and I feel like I was really welcomed there. It is a very small congregation overall but very active and I'm excited to get involved.

Being that today is World Communion Sunday the service consisted of almost each piece being read or spoken in a different language, it was quite possibly one of the coolest worship services I've ever taken part in. We were greeted in Portuguese, the call to worship was in Spanish, the call to confession was in Italian, the old testament scripture was read in French. Parts were done in German and Dutch as well. I was reminded of how much I wanted to learn German as a child.

I pray that everyone felt as connected to the rest of those taking communion around the world today. I hope to spend a little more time very soon updating everyone about everything I've been up to!

Love in Christ,
Maggie

In Miami

Hello! I don't have too much time to update tonight, but I thought I should let everyone know that I made it to Miami!

I just started working in the afterschool program at Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church http://www.sweethome.org I just jumped in today and did a little homework help and I'm looking to try and get more involved there, I'm supposed to be meeting the director of Christian Education tomorrow and he may have more for me to do.

I have four housemates (well 5 if you count the dog). There are Allison (aka AleeV), Christina (AKA Chris), Allison, and Becky. We also have Lucy the dog, she's a Ridgeback/Pitbull mix that Allison adopted from a shelter and she's a sweetheart. The house we live in is owned by Silver Palm United Methodist and any mail you might send actually goes through the church first.

My new Address is:
Maggie Parker
15855 SW 248th St.
Homestead,Fl 33031-2001


There's SO much more to tell, but I have to jet, my internet time is up, AND it's time for dinner. Please e-mail, write or call me, I'd love to hear from you all!!

Just a week or two away

Hello! I am down in Florida just sort of hanging out until I can make the final move to Miami. I do have some news as far as what I'll be doing, right now I'm being considered for two different positions. One is with a social services organization, and the other is with a church. There are 2 afterschool programs that would like to include athletics into their programming. I’d only work in one of them. One is more hispanic/ haitian and more of a social service program and the other is more african american/ Carribean and a church based program with a separate youth group too. There’s another they're trying to check into again as well.

Any day now I should be receiving a phone call from a supervisor to talk about the positions. I also offered to move down early (With UF starting soon, my brother going back to school aswell, and both my parents working, there's not too much for me to do up north). So I may be at my new home in the next week, though I still haven't received the new address.

This next bit is important, so it's big. A few people from church mentioned that they were going to be sending money. I NEED you to fill out covenant of support form, either pick one up from Mary at the church office, or print out this PDF file http://www.pcusa.org/nvo/pdf/yavcovenant.pdf it can be mailed to my parents' address until I have my Miami address. These forms are important simply because I need to be able to have an idea of how much money is going to be coming in, and how much has been pledged! If you are giving anonymously I would still appreciate a note with an amount just so I have something to report. The account that money is sent to is recording it, but they won't be giving me the accounting of that until a little while after I start, and I'm required to have a picture of what has been donated much earlier.

My parents' address in Lithia is:
15879 FishHawk View Drive
Lithia, FL 33547-3862

If you have any other questions or comments, leave a note on this post or e-mail me at newlove_oldfaith @ yahoo.com

Another step closer

I leave in a couple hours (after calling Jim and Debi I suppose) for Walla Walla, where I can inform the Church of my placement, and start figuring out how I'm going to ask for money. Also I have some errands to run, with a couple things I need to pick up, that I'm sure I could find anywhere, but in Walla Walla I know EXACTLY where to find them, so that's a major bonus. I have a plot for a graaduation present that will actually be in a couple different parts, it should be interesting :P. (You know I write about this simply because I know Matt will read this, muahahaha :P)

I've been working out how I'm going to spend the summer, which would be SO much easier if the rest of the family could figure out their plans (AHEM... COUGH COUGH...) Also I'm trying to figure out how much stuff I can possibly get rid of, narrowing everything I own down to what I can comfortably fit into the back of the suburban, and *hopefully* still be able to see out the back, is my ultimate goal, though I do plan to take my bike, so this may be a challenge. Mostly I guess it will depend on what's already at my placement, but I won't find out what area of Miami I'll be in, or who my housemates will be for at least another month or so.

Also I've been working at finding a school to transfer to when I finish my year in Miami, the University of Florida is looking like my best bet at the moment. I'm also considering potentially taking a class or two at a CC if that will at all be possible during the next year, just to make sure I have all the basic grad requirements done so I can start right in on a major.

Miami

I am right now just hanging out in the Louisville Airport waiting on my flight back to Spokane. This discernment weekend has been amazing.

I had a really good time hanging out with the site coordinators for Ghana, and in the end that was actually my number one choice though I was torn between Miami and Ghana. so I put them both down as my top choices listing Ghana first. Which honestly scared me to death, and I kept going through this list that Glen (one of the site coordinators) made of all the really BIG challenges like illness lack of communication with home etc. Trying to eliminate Ghana as an option, and I honestly couldn't, there was NO reason for me to not go. But I also REALLY wanted to go to Miami, though I wasn't entirely sure I was making that choice for all the right reasons. By Friday night though I prayed seriously about it and thought "Ok, Ghana is number one, and I'll write a note that Miami is a close second, after that it's not in my hands." So I handed in my discernment form the next morning they gave us our placements Saturday night, and I was assigned to Miami.

So YAY! I'm really excited for this placement, there are a lot of really cool organizations and/or churches for me to get involved with!

Discernment

HELLO! I'm back.

The end of winter quarter has been super busy and it culminated in a pretty much amazing spring break filled with Washington DC, Seattle, Walla Walla, fancily cooked dinners... and on and on. Once I get around to uploading the Photos Jamie and Matt took, labeling people in them, and also putting up my very few pictures from DC they can be found right here!

Anyway I've also finished all my informational conversations with the sites I'm looking at applying to. I got to have my Seattle conversation and honestly, I really was kind of considering Seattle until that meeting. It wasn't bad, but after that talk I definitely felt like that wasn't the place for me, the program sounded good, and it may even be cool if I get really involved with MSR type activities with the PCUSA to go and work there, but I don't know... It doesn't interest me right now, I think I just need to get out of the state, if not the whole country.

My national sites in order of interest are 1. Miami, 2. Nashville, 3. Atlanta.
International are 1. Northern Ireland, 2. Ghana, 3. UK (Time For God)

I most likely don't have much of a shot at NI or Ghana, but I'm going for it anyway. As far as the Time For God posts in the UK, I think it would entirely depend on where I would be put and what I would be doing. As much as I would value the learning experience of leaving the country, and I love and adore that region of the world, I personally couldn't justify raising that money and spending it if I could be of more use and more help in one of the US positions, specifically Miami, which quite honestly sounds like it would be the coolest site ever. I don't know I just spent an obnoxious amount of time on the phone with one of the site coordinators, and I think I'm in love, it was just a fun conversation and it sounds like it might just be the perfect spot for me. I also have friends and family in the area so thats a clear bonus, but genuinely my interest in Miami has far more to do with the work I can become involved with there.

Over the last week I've been weighing my options and I kept telling people "Oh I'm going to call everyone and see what they think." because I was SO confused as to where I'm going to end up. I've actually started the rethink that. This really is going to be between me, God, and the site coordinators to discern my call. I think I should respect that. I value the advice of my friends and family, but for the event in Kentucky next week, I think I really need to simply be focused on that event. It helps that they specifically request that you avoid visitors and cell phone use, for the reasons I already mentioned, but I honestly started thinking along those lines before I read that. So for those four days I'll be "incommunicado" I may bring my computer depending on whether or not I'll have homework, but I probably won't be responding to much. Just FYI if you want to get a hold of me it may be rather difficult. For emergencies and what not I'll leave my phone on, but it will be on silent and most likely not with me, so you could text me or leave a message or something. Those of you without cell phones or text messaging can use this http://messaging.sprintpcs.com/textmessaging/compose and just type in my cell number.

Love in Christ,
Maggs

Motivation

The session at church approved the "Worshiping Community Endorsement" for me and should be sending it in any time now. The potential for actually being able to go out and work whether overseas or stateside is growing more and more exciting every day.

Thursday night I had the opportunity to hear Shane Claiborne speak at Whitworth College. I read his book "The Irresistible Revolution" back in June and simply fell in love with his approach to the gospel. He has what some might consider to be a fairly liberal approach to politics, but his theology is right on so it's hard to argue with, mostly because he's not trying to argue.

So that's me sitting in the front row at Shane's talk. I believe this photo was taken right after he has answered my question and had moved on to one of the people behind me who was asking a question.

To learn more about him, or even better the community he's a member of, check out http://www.thesimpleway.org

And so I titled this post "motivation" because in filling out all my forms so I can be a Young Adult Volunteer I was frequently asked why I wanted to go into mission work, what my motivation was. Over and over again my atheist and agnostic friends will try to argue that we should do good things whether there is a God or not, we shouldn't need motivation based on the fact that it's what God wants of us, or that the people we help are children of God, and while I say they're absolutely right, we *should* do it anyway I think they're missing the point. If there's not standard of equality, for example we are all made in the image of God, then there is no reason to give preferential treatment to some and not others. Why would we need to love our enemy? These are the same people who would rather ignore those they don't like than trying to engage them and talk with them, that might seem like a better option but it's simply the violence of indifference. In order to work for peace one cannot be passive, if we want peace we must love our enemies and love is a verb, an action, we have to *DO* something.

We are called to love.
Love in Christ,
Maggs

It Begins

To my dear Friends and Family,

I have started this blog in an effort to allow you all to keep up with me wherever in the world I may be. I have begun the process of applying for "Young Adult Volunteers" positions through the Presbyterian Church USA. These positions include a few overseas posts as well as several posts stateside. A major step in this process will be asking my church to recommend me for international service, this Tuesday, the 13th of February I will be attending the session meeting at my home church in Walla Walla to ask for their support. I am so grateful to my church family for loving and supporting me over the years and I am excited for the opportunity to ask their blessing at this time.

Of all the places I am currently considering service Northern Ireland would be my dream, as I have spent much time studying the culture, conflict, and integration efforts in that region. Regardless I will be happy to serve wherever I am placed.

In naming this journal I have chosen a phrase close to my heart "Not All Who Wander Are Lost," whenever I travel I love being able to make different turns off the path to simply see what's out there and to give myself a better understanding of my surroundings. A few times I may have had a passenger in my vehicle a friend or sibling who adamantly claimed that we were lost just because I didn't take the normal route home, or to the dorms. In my journey through college I am choosing, and God is leading me, to stray a bit off the beaten path and look at the other possibilities around me. This seems like the most opportune time to take a break from the classroom and not let school get in the way of my education. The nearest I can find to this quote's origin would be J.R.R. Tolkien who chose a slightly different wording "Not all those who wander are lost." however I came upon the quote after it had been translated into Irish Gaelic and posted in a list of Irish Phrases as "Níl gach uile fhánaí caillte" and I simply fell in love with the concept.

The URL seems much more obscure, so allow me to explain, I'm aware that the address of such a page should be simple, so that it is easy to find, unfortunately the name "Wanderer" was taken and so I chose a different word "seachránaí" the Irish word for wanderer or rover, of course I cannot use the accents in the word lest I make the URL even more difficult so, as I'm sure you already know because you're here, the address is http://seachranai.blogspot.com bookmark it! :P

Love in Christ,
Maggs