Father Abraham... Had many sons...

Last night after Imbizo (our group meeting), we sang father abraham. It was the most fun I've had in a long time!! The Africans got SO into it.. especially my roommate. She led a lot of the actions. The best part was when we all sang it while sticking our tongues out. Imagine a bunch of twenty year olds singing Father Abraham while sticking out their tongues. Quite funny!

Then.. when we were walking back to our houses we couldn't stop humming it. So Sarah, Stephen, David, and I hummed, sang, and acted out the song again. Oh, so funny.

Today was our last day in the kitchen for the week.. I can't believe its already been two weeks. I only had one bad day in the kitchen this week.. but it was really bad. Gennae told me to go do something, then Walter would tell me to do something else. This happened like 5 times, at least. I was getting so frustrated. The last straw was when Gennae told me to go make a plate of food for lunch. I met my friend Stephen at the table and we were talking about how the Kitchen had been really stressful, and how I was fighting back tears for a while. Then Walter, the head chef came up, looked at me and said, "what are you doing? There is enough food here for everyone, you don't need to rush at making a plate". That is when I just lost it, I stormed away from him, put the plate back and then he told me to come back and make a plate. AHH.. So I made a plate, while I was fighting tears/they were streaming down my face. Poor Stephen was standing there.. not knowing what to say. Finally, he said, "Do you know of Philippians 4:17?" Which turned out to be incredibly comforting. I just feel bad that he had to stand there as I awkwardly tried not to cry. When I finished making a plate, I ran to the bathroom and stood there for a while. Then when I came back, Joey (the head chef) saw that I was upset and he told me we had to talk about it. That is when I started crying the second time. Oh, it was so bad. Finally, I had to go on a walk...

THENNNNNNNNNN... when I came back. Walter found me, and started to "apologize" to me. However, he started by asking if I wanted to pursue nursing... and then he told me that it is a really emotional field. Honestly, that was so hard for me to hear right then. I was upset that he had been harsh and had been so confusing earlier. Then, he was about to make fun of me for choosing to be a nurse.

oh boy. It was a really rough day.

Anyways, things got better, finally! I talked with walter the next day, and so hopefully he understand why I was upset. I just really don't think I'm supposed to be working in a Kitchen after this summer. It is too stressful for me..

Well.. those are my stories for today! :)

Hope to talk to you guys soon. Tomorrow we are going up to Pikes Peak, and then on Wednesday I'm off all day! :) Should be fun!

Love you guys!

Will the love continue when my walk becomes a crawl?

"What if I stumble" by DC Talk grabbed my attention today while I was working in the kitchen. I don't think I have ever looked at the lyrics before.. I encourage all of you to look at it!

Well.. I have a lot to share but I don't think I will be able to remember it all!

First... Last night we went to a Sky Sox Baseball game. I believe it is a minor league team -- not completely sure though. It was SO funny to watch how people responded to their first US baseball experience. First of all, the game was delayed by 1 hr 45 min because of rain!! Luckily we were able to entertain ourselves with chants. One of the Africans, John, led our team in many chants (some american, some kenyan, and some south korean). He also led the whole stadium in the wave!!! Wow -- so crazy.

During the game I had an interesting conversation with my friend Josh from Australia. It all started with me asking if he missed home. His first answer was, "no". So I asked "why?" which led to a whole series of deep questions. I was so shocked at how open he was. Honestly, I think he was shocked, too. Eventually, we were talking about death (quite an odd topic for a baseball game). That's when things got really emotional. Wow. I'm still not sure how to respond!

Ahh... running out of time. I have to go to dinner. I'll post more later!

Finally, I have a day off! It isn't that I have been INCREDIBLY busy.. but I'm so tired from adjusting to everything here. It is quite different!

Yesterday we had GSP olympics. It was quite funny! We had many different relays and things.. One event was spinning around five times and running about 40 ft where you would then put a golf ball into a selected zone. Another event was where everyone lined up between two buckets filled with water. We had to pass a sponge back and forth as fast as possible to move all of the water. Another event involved transporting water balloons between two buckets. You had to place them in between two heads. It was kind of weird... I was paired up with Andrew from Texas. He was just kind of awkward about it... which of course made me feel awkward. Oh well.. I survived, and I might add that we were quite speedy on that event!

Yesterday, we also made a walmart run! Oh, I was so happy to get off the Glen. It is beautiful here.. but I have this need to see different things and different people. It is amazing how refreshing it was for me to be alone in Walmart for even 5 minutes! Today, I get to go out to lunch with my Mom's friend from bible study 25 years ago! I am excited to meet her and hear all of her stories with the navigators (as well as get off the Glen!)

Hmm... what else can I share...

After dinner last night, a bunch of us went over to the Plant (a building) and we played mafia. However, we played the dutch version which is called werewolves. The main characters are some werewolves (that kill), a psychic (that can find out other players' identities), and cupid (makes two players fall in love -- if one of the lovers dies, the other automatically dies, too). Oh, and there were normal citizens! It was really fun to see how the different cultures worked together in that setting... oh boy! :)

I guess I have another prayer request. I'm sensing that one of the girls in my small group has a lot of pain in her past. She admitted to us that she struggles with anger. She proceeded to tell me that she has a lot of insecurities, and that she often "puts her friends through the ringer" and she doesn't know why they put up with her. She has a really tough outer shell.. and I am afraid that the closer I get to her, the more potential there is for her to hurt me. There are so many ways in which we can relate about our doubts and fears and such.. I am just really concerned about her anger problems because I am starting to see them surface in unique ways.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. They are so appreciated!

Hopefully I will be able to make some calls to you guys soon! :)

Love,

Krista

P.S. Joy, if you are reading this... we drove by YWAM CO Springs yesterday! It made me think of you! :)

Things have started to get difficult..

As I have been getting less sleep, I have noticed my desire to withdraw become greater. I have been so tired that all I want to do is go back to my room after meetings and just do things by myself. Then, I feel guilty that I am not spending time with my friends.. I guess I just need to understand that sometimes I need to push myself, and sometimes I need to rest. It is just a matter of being flexible yet responsible for my own needs.

Kitchen has improved so much! As the days go by, tasks have become more familiar. I got to make danishes again, yesterday! And, I am comfortable making the GSP cold lunch (sandwich meet, lettuce, tomato, cheese, chips, cookies, and salad). Familiarity is such a blessing.

Tuesday and Wednesday will be our days off; our work week is from thursday-monday. :) I am definitely excited for a break! Hopefully, I will be able to make it to walmart to pick up some fruit and some snacks! Tuesday we are having GSP olympics. I'm not sure what that entails.. but I guess we will see. Wednesday we are completely free -- its our sabbath! :)

Oh boy... I haven't quite processed this yet, but this morning I was talking to Kanini, one of my housemates, and she proceeded to tell me that when she first met me she thought that I was here for fun and not for Jesus. Then as she has gotten to know me, she has been surprised by my depth and my desire to understand. In some ways this is both encouraging and discouraging.

I can't believe this is only the end of the first week... seven more to go! It will be really nice to form deeper friendships as the summer goes on.

Prayer Requests:

1. Please pray that I may have more energy!!! Waking up at 6:45 am is not my favorite... Pray that I may be restored physically, as well as emotionally and spiritually.

2. Pray that I might be more open to God. I have found myself incredibly resistant, like never before. At our group meetings... I become so distracted by the "lingo" of Christianity that I fail to see peoples hearts. I want to love others.. but I am so judgemental. Please pray that I may see my place here at the Navigators. So many have been involved for so long, that it is easy for me to feel out of place. Pray that I may discover more of what God has planned for my life, as I draw nearer to Him.

3. Please pray for patience for my housemates and I. It is difficult understanding each other sometime... we have different ways of living according to our unique cultures. Pray that we may experience understanding, not judgement.

4. Please pray for patience in the kitchen. There is one guy in particular that my team struggles to understand. He has some special needs, which makes it difficult to learn from him.

Thank you so much for being such wonderful friends. I miss you all!

Love,

Krista

Sweet Dreams

These past few days, we have been busy watching Jeff the chef prepare for a wedding, which is tonight! I took a picture as they were setting up... it will be BEAUTIFUL!! Nantongo and I were thinking about skipping dinner to go watch the wedding from inside the castle! :) We'll see if we actually go through with it..

Please notice the picture of the bighorn sheep... they always tend to moon us when we want to take pictures of them! So funny!

Ranch Dressing and Danishes!

Today was my first day of work in the kitchen! Oh boy, was it ever crazy.. We arrived and asked what we could do, and immediately they put us to work. It was quite frustrating though because we had no idea where anything was located! Also.. I quickly learned that kitchen people speak in very direct (I would prefer to call them mean) voices. It often seems like they are yelling at you.. but it is just so that we all get our work done. The kitchen is definitely not the same as NWbooks.

Micah was training me around the kitchen at first.. however, he doesn't do well with a lot of stress. I'm pretty sure we did laps around the kitchen like 10 times because we kept forgetting things. As he said, he was quite "scatter-brained". My first task was making ranch dressing with Micah. So, I have never liked mayonnaise.. I am afraid this will not change after today. The mayonnaise was disgusting! It came in a huge bag that was in a bucket. Ewe, gross. Anyways, Micah and I kept working on the dressing.. putting the splash guard on the mixing bowl, then taking it off, then putting it on again, and taking it off again. Wow, I felt like we were very inefficient.

My next task was placing meats and cheeses on a platter for our GSP lunch tomorrow. It was very uneventful.. Thankfully I was able to help make danishes afterwards. It wasn't necessarily more fun, but I was located next to one of the head chefs and so I got to watch him cook! I was taking mental notes for when I get home so I can try out new recipes! :)

After work, I ate lunch outside with my teammates Julia (Canada) and Andrew (Texas). Since we are on kitchen crew, we don't get to eat with the rest of our GSP team. Oh well, it turns out that we will be getting better food than them anyhow! :)

Oh... funny story to go along with the pictures I posted earlier. Last night we had a small group meeting, and Nantongo prearranged that our group would go off-campus to a coffee shop! It was really nice to get off Glen Eyrie. Not because it isn't beautiful here.. but I just felt trapped. That was irrelevant to the story, so moving on... Nantongo ordered a hot chocolate at the coffee shop. It had a LOT of whipped cream on it. My first idea was that she should stick her nose in the whipped cream... so I told her to do that. She did, and looked at me with this huge smile and said, "now what?!". It was priceless.. I didn't actually expect her to stick her nose in it! Anyways, she was still confused as to how to drink her hot chocolate and so we told her to eat spoonfuls of whipped cream. She devoured it! Then she asked if she could have more..

It is so fun because I am learning the personalities of my friends.. It is easier to tell when people are joking and when people are serious. Well, actually.. before we were just serious most of the time. Last night, as we were driving home we were talking about doing something wild. I was like, "we can't do anything wild because we are navigators!" Then, Christine (the driver of the van) proceeded to drive around a round-a-bout three times, claiming that we were being "wild". Oh boy.. I'm excited to see what happens the rest of this week and the rest of my time here. I honestly can't believe that I just arrived on Sunday! It has only been 5 days!

Anyways.. I hope you enjoy the stories!

Love,

Krista

Just a few snapshots

Dear Friends, Here are just a few pictures for you! I wish there was a better way to organize them! Nantongo (Susan) is my small group leader! She is in the red shirt with me! She is also pictured with Marlene (pronounced Malena). The other pictures are of dinner. We eat every night at a place called "Camp Creek". It really isn't by a creek though.. :) Anyways.. More to come later! Today is our first day of work, so I am sure I will have more stories!

Miss you guys!

Good times

I don't even know where to begin! I have learned so much in these past few days.. Definitely too many things to write down!

We spent the day yesterday just relaxing and getting to know each other better. A small group of us got together last night and we searched for our houses on Google. It was fun! In one night we traveled to Holland (twice), Australia, Pennsylvania (twice), and Minnesota. It was cool because we could see the street views of many houses!

Today we had orientation for Glen Eyrie. It was interesting to learn how the Glen was founded and how the Navigators were able to purchase it. But, after a while the information was old and redundant.. We met with our teams, as well. I will be working in the Kitchen. I'm not sure if it will be fun, or hectic!

I have made so many friends so fast.. How incredible! I think that is largely due to the presence of so many different cultures! Right now, I should be reading a book called "Foreign to Familiar". It is about the differences between Hot and Cold Climate cultures. We have been talking about these things a lot..

For instance.. America is strongly a cold climate culture. Meaning that in the US we value time and tasks over relationships. Hot climate cultures tend to value relationships much more than they do time. As well, they tend to view possessions as communal. Today we had a scavenger hunt to discover more about Glen Eyrie. I was placed in a group with Tim (England), Janaye (US), Ross (US), Kelsey (US), and Ian (Kenya). SO we were a mainly cold climate group; we were extremely task driven. Needless to say, we won the scavenger hunt and came away with bookmarks as our prizes! (For my Northwestern Friends, they were the metal Demdaco bookmarks. I chose the one that says "Forgiven").

I have really enjoyed learning more about the other cultures. Today, I showed my roommates some of my pictures from back home. :) It was really fun. I have also spent a lot of time talking with the Aussies.. oh they are so funny! Chantel and I will be having a conversation and then we will find something that we have different names for. We will get focused on these differences and forget what we were originally talking about. Examples: Gerkins = Pickles, Torch = Flashlight, Uni = University...

Well well well... I'm sorry this is so spontaneous. There is no real theme to my update. :)

Hope you guys are having wonderful summers!

~Krista

Take me as I am

Today is my first full day in Colorado.. I can't believe it! What seemed to be just an idea so long ago, is now a reality and it is so different than I could have ever imagined.

My flight arrived to Denver yesterday at 1:15 p.m or so. I quickly headed off the plane to meet a couple that is on staff with Navigators and two guys from Singapore. I found them with little trouble. I picked up my bag, and we were soon on our way to Colorado Springs!

When we arrived at Glen Eyrie it was a rush of activity! So many people to meet and so many things to do (registration stuff and eating some snacks!) It has been so fun meeting people from all over the world! I have already picked up some of the crazy vocabulary of my new friends!

Last night I was the only one in my room until about midnight! (It was freezing cold, as well!) I came back around 9 or so, and dozed off sometime thereafter! A group of Kenyan students arrived late last night. I was so happy to finally have roommates when they came! One of the girls is my direct roommate; Her name is Fidi (fee dee). She is such a sweetheart, and I can't wait to get to know her better! I believe there are more girls that will be arriving later today.. from Holland and Canada, I think. I'm so excited to meet them!

Well, I need to get some things finished before lunch.. So I suppose I will update more later!

BUT, here are some prayer requests..

1. Pray that I would come to know Jesus more intimately than ever before! This year has been a challenge for me spiritually, and it is hard to hear how "strong" everyone else sounds. I am still filled with doubts and questions.. pray that God would be patient with me. I want to grow through my doubts and questions. If I ignore them, I am afraid that I will be left with an ignorant faith. I want my faith in Jesus to be genuine; I do not want to be focused on "doing" Christianity, but I want to understand more fully my identity as a child of God.

2. Pray for unity among the students. Pray that we may all be servants to each other and that we may seek to understand and not judge.

3. Pray that we would all stay healthy.. It is tough for many of the students to adjust to the altitude and the time change! :)

I'm sure I will have more requests later..

Love from Colorado,

Krista