AMAZING trek!

hello!


wowowowowowow. what a day we had on saturday.
it was called "amazing trek" - and amazing it was, but also hard and challenging and exhausting and disgusting and fun and bonding and everything in between.
we were told the night before that this race would start anywhere from 4-6 am on saturday morning, and that we should dress for the weather as this would be an all-day thing. we were going to be participating in our assignment teams - so just the 2 teams against each other! the prize was dinner out with your team, paid for by trek.


the next morning we all woke up at - you guessed it - 3:30am in order to be ready for 4, seeing as there was no wake up call and any delay on our team's part could result in loss.
after that we proceeded to do many tasks, most of them pretty difficult and all of them challenging in some way or another. the day was about 13.5h long in total, plus supper afterwards and debrief at my mentor's house! it was INSANE.
some of the events included:
 - eating lots of really gross food (look up "balut" and you'll get the idea; ewwww)
 - geocashing (which is pretty much finding a location by using a gps and a set of VERY specific coordinates) for a couple hours
 - eating at a sikh temple for lunch (that wasn't hard, that was awesome!!)
 - doing some puzzles - brain teasers, sudoku, crosswords, etc
 - building a fire to burn through a rope in order to get a bag of cooking supplies to cook a raw egg we'd been carrying around all day
we walked around the whole day to get to all our stations. we ended up walking something like 15k and were driven around a bit in the evening too. it doesn't sound so hard when i write it all out like this, but it was REALLY challenging. i wouldn't repeat the experience, but i did learn a lot about my team and working together. this was, i believe, the point of the day.


and now i am into week 4! this is crazy; it feels like i've been away from home for so long.. and at the same time, no time at all!!
this week we leave for a 4 day stay at a cabin on an island close to here! this will be so much fun; i LOVE LOVE LOVE cabins and being in nature and meeting God there! we get to take a ferry too, which i've never done! yay for more new experiences!! we may even get to do some painting/upkeep work at this cabin (the owners have graciously allowed us to stay for free!), which is exciting too :) i love painting!


i think the thing that i love most here is community. being with people all the time and loving them and getting to know them and learning from God's influence in their lives and all those things all rolled into one - i thrive on it. being able to know these people so deeply is such a blessing. God has so much to say to me through each and every person, and i love it!!!


we are also memorizing scripture here as a part of our every day. i am memorizing romans 12 and i have gotten through verses 1-15! i recite tomorrow, so that will be nerve wracking :P i'm looking forward to it though! memorizing scripture is so good for me; i should take more time in my every day life to do so... it's hard though you know? not that that is an excuse of any sort, but it unfortunately is why i don't.


tomorrow is our second team time! it is very exciting to begin training as a team and i am loving every minute of it! i will always appreciate prayer for our team and their dynamics as this is very new for me, as well as the rest of us!


ciao for now,
tejal :)

my team!!

heyyyy!


just wanted to post a team photo for all of you to see! i look like a tool; please ignore. i had no glasses on obviously and so i was kind of squinting to see the camera... oops :P


the guy with the plaid is jonas, our german; the guy in white is brady, our team leader; the girl in front of me with the dark, curly hair is ashley, from fresno; that leaves charis behind me (the blonde). they are all so awesome! i am so blessed to spend all of trek with them!! 
(i hope the picture isn't too small! my apologies if it is :( )

team life starts here

more to come,
love tejal

intentionality.

zdravo!


(that's hello in serbian, just for those of you who didn't know. cool! ;) )


life here continues at its crazy-awesome-wicked-sweet, rocket pace, which is invigorating and wonderful!
this week is a big week on trek, because we receive our teams and also discuss the week's theme - personal holiness - which is serious in and of itself; forget teams!
our speakers have been so real, so intentional about life and love and faith. it is inspiring ot see people so in love with Jesus and so ... genuine! i know i've said it before, but it strikes me every time we hear someone talk!


one of our speakers particularly struck me this week. i will keep his name to myself, because he talked about some pretty personal struggles in a pretty raw way.
he talked about personal holiness as a whole, and how important it is in our lives and walks with God. he talked about his struggles with pornography and sexual sin - it was very, very thought-provoking to hear a married, grown man talk about something he struggles with to this day. he is a father and a husband, as well as a believer and an employee of a missions organization. i have never experienced someone being so real about problems like these and be so.. i don't even know. not accepting, but aware of their presence and ACTIVELY fighting against them.
this led me to think about our own lives and struggles with sin - just because we lie instead of look at porn or think inappropriately about our friends or family in our minds instead of murder, how does that make us "better"? isn't all sin equal in God's eyes? what can we do to eliminate this sin? it's a sobering thought, thinking that the sins we all commit are just as heinous to God as adultery.
our speaker talked about this too - we looked at ephesians 4:17-24 fairly extensively. eph 4:17-19 talks about how we are without God's grace, while eph 4:20-24 talks about the solution that we have access to by God's grace and mercy. look at them, and think about the "pits of deception" (the areas of our lives the devil deceives us in - the parts we believe are okay but really hurt God every time we do them because they are against every part of who He is) in your own life, and see how God wants those to change.
i know i will be.


evy klassen also talked to us and she had some GREAT quotes that also made me think about living life intentionally. here are a few that really struck me. they're really simple, but they're powerful if you think about them for a bit:
"i believe that God wants to tangibly come ... to our problems and invade [them]."
"we don't need to hate ourselves because we aren't like another person. God made you and He LIKES who you are!"
"today is the day that God is calling you to embrace. ... you're not called to 3 more months. you're called to today."


remember micah? the baby that was the cutest little child i have ever held? well my friend took a picture of me holding him that i totally forgot about, so here it is! he's just adorable. 

babylovin

i will try to put more pictures up here so my blog isn't so wordy and boring. sorry about that thus far :( i'm kind of technologically impaired sometimes, seriously. i just figured out how to upload this picture after... well, a while. let's say that. haha ;)


well, i'm tired, and you're bored of me by now probably.
missing you all!


lots of love,
tejal :)

sent.

HELLO!

just a short post on teams!
WELL. this is so exciting! on my team are charis, ashley (my roommates!!), brady, and jonas (the german). we are going to
-- drum roll please --
the philippines!!
so excited to be called there to serve. i don't know what we are doing there yet, but believe you me, i will let you know when i do.

lots of love!!
tejal :)

alive and excited!

hey all!


my apologies on the break between posts. time here goes by fast and all of a sudden i realize i haven't blogged in a while.


well, here i am.
the silent retreat was interesting. it was hard and long and i thought a lot and met God many places.
let me restart; maybe be more coherent.
we began the retreat last thursday around 2pm. the first thing i did was sleep. i was pretty lost as to what to do - because, surprise surprise, i like to talk, but i couldn't. the rest of the day and over the next 48 hours, i proceeded to read many books in the Bible and meet God in a new way there. reading scripture is the spiritual discipline i struggle with the most, and i had prayed that God would meet me in His word in a new way - and guess what? He sure did. it was interesting - and good - to read about our ancestors in faith and all the advice to us from those wiser than i (ie paul's letters)!
during the retreat, God really affirmed that i was made to be with people - i was so drained by the experience of not being able to BE with people. i am definitely extraverted. if anyone ever doubted that.
God also talked to me about surrender - that was cool. surrender is hard, and i think that we all write it off too often. i don't know exactly where God is taking me on that one, but we'll see. life is an adventure.


so that part was the "alive" part of my blog post title. i am alive. i made it through an incredibly long 48 hours of silence and - dare i say it - even enjoyed parts of it.


the excited part is about assignment! i don't know where i'm going yet (I FIND OUT TOMORROW!!!), but they did reveal the almost-firmed other location!
just to refresh your minds, ukraine has been confirmed for a while. a team will definitely be going there.
the other location - which is ONLY 95% CERTAIN, so don't go around quoting that this for sure is an option - is the philippines! wow. so exciting!
when i find out where i'm going and who i'm going with, i'll let you all know. we take our team pictures and Bible verses, as well as make our prayer cards tomorrow too.


as well as being exciting, there are a lot of practical ramifications of finding out my assignment location. i have to get my travel vaccinations, health insurance, and open an international bank account for team finance. this part of this experience is so eye-opening.
i mean, at home i live with my parents where my mum cooks for me and does my laundry most of the time (thanks ma, i love you lots :) ); sometimes i jack the car to go see friends and then i have to pay for gas, but i'm pretty carefree. but now, when i go overseas, i will have to cook, grocery shop, clean, do laundry, etc etc all for myself! i think this may be one of the more stretching parts of trek. we shall see how it goes.


well, our next session speaker has arrived. ciao for now!


lots of love,
tejal :)

i have to be silent for 48 hours?!

bonjour!


the last few days have been really sweet here, as is the normal :) we had the meet and greet at the office, which i mentioned in my last post, on tuesday. it was cool to meet more of the lead staff and also the people who work behind the scenes to make what i am doing possible. we also worked on stuffing about 10 000 envelopes! we didn't finish, but we were there for 3 hours and probably got through about 4 000. we did fun things to make the job less monotonous, like racing each other in our jobs, or playing loud music and singing to it.


yesterday, luke's family (luke is our director) came to eat supper with us! joanne (luke's wife) and luke have two kids - kate, who is 2, and micah, who is 5 months old. after supper, one of my friends, david, was holding micah. when micah started to cry, david, being a typical boy, kind of panicked and held micah out for "someone [to] please take him!" i did, and ended up holding micah for the rest of the evening. at one point, joanne and i were talking and we realized that micah had fallen asleep in my arms. it was probably the cutest thing that has happened to me in a very long time :)
i was reflecting on that later, and thought about how God must feel when we entrust ourselves completely to him and "fall asleep in His arms", so to speak. i wonder how that feels to Him and i marvel at how much He loves us to take as much care of us as He does.


in just over 1h16m, we are starting a silent retreat - a period of complete and utter silence for 48 hours. i am only allowed to have my Bible, journal and pen with me. i can't go on the computer, talk to other people, use my ipod, read any other books, or even make intentional eye contact with people! this is going to be insane. knowing how extraverted i am, these next two days are going to be both painful and amazing. having done shorter silent retreats before, i know sort of what this will look like, but it is going to stretch me and push me more than i have been in a long time. i look forward to the rest i will be getting and the time i will be able to spend with God, but i am nervous about being frustrated or lost with what to do with my time.


well, here we go! what an adventure.


til next time,
tejal :)

spiritually speaking...

hello again!


you guys are awesome. since the last time i blogged, my blog has gotten 160 views! that's incredible. i pray that God will use me to help you in your walk with Him, or to maybe even give you a first glimpse of His love. that's what we believers are here for, no?


so church on sunday was sweet! ashley's friend's parents picked us up and we went to their church. it was HUGE! like 4000 people go there; insanee! the pastor preached a very thought-provoking sermon on how esau and jacob display for us the prototype for wicked men, BUT that jacob saw God's heart and was motivated to do the things he did. he also pointed out that esau did what he did out of a lack of respect for God; out of a complete and utter indifference for God and His plan.
then we went to the people's house for lunch and the afternoon, and they even did our laundry! they are so kind. super cool people too; they were missionaries in brazil before! so awesome :D


our theme for this week is "hearing God's voice", so all of our speakers (and probably worship times too) are focused on learning how to hear God's voice. steve klassen (the author of your ears will hear, remember?) and evy (his wife) are the main speakers this week. logically, seeing as their entire book is written to help others hear God's voice. steve walked with us through scripture a bunch today, and pointed out neat things in different passages that were well-known to me, but not well-studied/examined in my own life.
for example, we went through psalm 23. i know, i know - classic, right? that's what i thought too. but steve put a really cool and slightly unusual spin on it. he pointed out to us that God barely talks about our actions or accomplishments, and almost entirely about His action to us - He comforts, pursues, protects, leads, anoints, restores, guides, honours, prepares, and makes us. woah. all that in 6 verses.
God is good.


then in the afternoon, jp hayashida, a super-awesome, japanese, first generation Christian i.t. guy who is one of our speakers, talked to us about 1 corinthians 2. it was INSANE. he linked so many things that i had never thought about before, and explained to us the role of the Holy Spirit so clearly that i will never again doubt Its (? His? who knows) influence and key role in my life as a believer. pretty much, he explained it like this: our spirit and God's spirit know their respective party entirely. they connect with eachother and that is how we connect with God. through the Holy Spirit, we have total access to God, even the "deepest parts of God" (that's scripture by the way. not me. God said it) - and God also has total access to our deepest parts. that's kinda scary. it scares me a bit, have to say. anyways, our spirit/Holy Spirit and all those connections look sort of like this:


us <-> our spirit <-> the Holy Spirit <-> God
it sounds kind of insane to me too, but if you go read 1 cor 2 then you will see what jp is talking about. it is so marvelous to see all that God promises to us in scripture, but it is also so easy to forget that. so for now, i encourage you to try to dig deep into God's word and see what He has for you - and i am doing the same in my own walk. let's walk together, community-style, because that's how God made us - to be in community.


tomorrow we go to the office and work with the lead staff! i'm quite looking forward to it :)


that's all i have for now.
blessings,
tejal :)

6 months away from home, begins here.

hello!

wow so i`m actually blogging. writing to an internet community who are probably mostly my family and friends, but still, who knew!

well, it`s been nearly a week since i got here and things are so awesome :) i am making lots of new friends and hanging out with them has been incredible. everyone here loves Jesus so much; it is so insipiring and i am realizing yet again how much i have to learn about God, His love, and my walk with Him.

there are 5 girls and 5 guys here, as well as 3 interns and luke, the director of trek. one of the guys here is what`s called a `global servant`. that means that he has worked with missionaries before who have asked him to come back to work with them again, but in a longer and deeper capacity this time. he is here to be trained for stm (short term missions). the other 9 of us will be split into 2 teams, one team of 4 and one team of 5.

my mondays through fridays are mostly scheduled with sessions and a small connecting time with God in the morning. we are doing a study on a book called `your ears will hear` and it has been very good so far! it`s about listening to God`s voice as a lifestyle as opposed to an activity. the guy who started trek, steve klassen, also wrote this book. he and his wife evy have compiled stories about their experiences with hearing God`s voice from the everyday to devoted times of study. i think God will meet more than one of us in this book and i am excited to really get into the `grit` (so to speak) of the book!

we also had a speaker named david manuel come talk to us. he`s a little east indian man (my homeboy, so pumped ;) ) who is SO on fire for Jesus! it was so exciting and inspiring to hear about the work that God has done in his life thus far and it reminds me to remain hopeful for God`s ultimate plan for my life.

my roommates, charis (`karis`) and ashley, are super awesome! we have bonded really well already and we have a lot of fun together :) we went shopping a couple times - once to an mcc thrift store about a 12 minute walk from here! it was a huge success :) i will be proudly wearing my new old man sweater with leggings. regularly.

we have church tomorrow! first time here. i`m looking forward to it :) we are going with ashley to her friend`s church and then to that friend`s house for lunch. this will be an adventure because i don`t know ashley`s friend, that church, or the friend`s parents... hooray for being outgoing!

well, that`s all for now. ì`ll try to keep this updated fairly regularly, but my apologies if up to 10 days go by between posts.

lots of love,
tejal :)