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
- All that is gold does not glitter,
- Not all those who wander are lost;
- The old that is strong does not wither,
- Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
- From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
- A light from the shadows shall spring;
- Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
- The crownless again shall be king. - J.R.R Tolkien
Sometimes what I write in this blog will be well articulated, grammatically correct essays that serve as good social commentary on current issues. Most of the time, however, I'm busy and am not as diligent about proofreading or properly expressing thoughts as one should be when presenting one's writing to others. I apologize for anything you may read that seems worse than a rough draft, or appears to be a random disconnected thought. "Them's the breaks."
About Me
Raise money for Save Darfur Coalition - Savedarfur.org just by searching the web and shopping online!
2 comments:
Why hello.
So, I saw the seachránaí thing on MSN and couldn't help but try and figure it out. It took me 15 minutes to figure out what you were going for when I could have just come to this blog. :$
Anyway, here's to you hopefully getting to do this stuff that you want to do (God willing, of course)!
Also, yay for random languages and irish-ness.
Hi Maggie, I am glad you are reading blogs! thats what I did while trying to figure this all out... lets see, selection. you will have interviews which are pretty basic, nothing stressful. Then you will have conversatons about the national sites and international sites. Pretty much you are going to be offered a spot, i think its very rare that people arent. Plus, numbers have been down recently in YAVs. Then Pretty much in April, you will interview with your top 2 or 3 sites with the site coordinators who are there from all the countries. and then you evaluate your interviews and say how you feel about the sites, whether you would want to go there, would be willing to serve there, or aren't willing to go there. And then the next night you are told where you are offered a place and you meet your YAV group and there ya go! Its pretty crazy, then next thing you know you will be six months into your year like me! haha. As for the money, my church gave me a couple thousand as well as my presbytery and that was a big part of mine. I also sent letters to friends and family asking for pledges. I still haven't raised $10,000 and one of my roommates still only has about $3,000. So, I would say don't let the money hold you back, its doable and they don't send you home if you don't get it! my email is ekhgrad@yahoo.com if you have any more questions and thats awesome that your first choice thus far is Belfast! I will tell you that you learn a lot at placement about sites, sometimes your phone conversations about the sites aren't quite the same as when you hear it from the site coordinator themselves. But Doug, our coordiantor is awesome. We heart him.
TAKE CARE
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