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