Voy al Peru!!!!

I am setting off on an adventure in a few hours to Peru!

I am slightly delirious right now, but I wanted to update you on where I will be for the next two-weeks!

I will be visiting and volunteering at New Hope Children's Home in Arequipa, Peru. Many Liberti friends have visited on short-term mission trips and several friends have been living and working there for varying amounts of time since October 2008. I never thought it possible for me to spend any time at the Orphanage until recently, and now I cannot contain my excitement to meet the zany, amazing children that I have met vicariously through my incredible friends who are living in Arequipa.

I will be staying with my muy muy muy bueno amigo Seth and he has so graciously organized and planned everything for my stay. I am STOKED to get to sit and have some coca tea and talk with him. I am even more excited about visiting New Hope and meeting some kiddos!! To be outside of my normal teaching environment and re-focus my heart and mind. God had really met me along the way in preparing me for this trip. I hope that my efforts to learn some conversational espanol can be used to connect with at least one or two of the kids. :)

Here are some links. One to Seth's amazing blog where you can see tons of photography, and one for the Home.

http://www.sethshimkonis.com/blog/

www.peruhope.org

Check them out, get involved!


There are more emotions going on inside of my brain and heart than I can even process right now. I will make sure to update you about my trip when I return. Pray for my travels, that I will be safe and that God will give me courage to step outside of my comfort zone. That I can glorify Him in all that I do!

Kristin over-and-out, chhhhhh.

Stop right there. That's exactly where I lost it.

Tonight I had a late night conversation with my friend Shane. During it he sent me two songs. For some reason they were exactly what I needed to hear tonight. Sometimes the smallest gesture of a friend recognizing a way to connect and pass on something God used in their life can impact in huge, unimaginable ways. This was one of those nights. The things we discussed about the songs and what the lyrics mean, was a reminder that I had been needing tonight. If you have ever had a night like this, maybe I can now pass these songs along to you. Listen to the songs, read the lyrics. They hit home. For all of us, no matter where we are. Music has worked wonders into my life this week. I used to love Reliant K back in the day and tonight they really were the encouragement I needed. Enjoy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Za3jn5esbR0

"Who I Am Hates Who I've Been"

I watched the proverbial sunrise
Coming up over the Pacific and
You might think I'm losing my mind,
But I will shy away from the specifics...
'cause I don't want you to know where I am
'cause then you'll see my heart
In the saddest state it's ever been.

This is no place to try and live my life.

Stop right there. That's exactly where I lost it.
See that line. Well I never should have crossed it.
Stop right there. Well I never should have said
That it's the very moment that
I wish that I could take back.
I'm sorry for the person I became.
I'm sorry that it took so long for me to change.
I'm ready to be sure I never become that way again
'cause who I am hates who I've been.
Who I am hates who I've been.
I talk to absolutely no one.
Couldn't keep to myself enough.
And the things bottled inside have finally begun
To create so much pressure that I'll soon blow up.
I heard the reverberating footsteps
Syncing up to the beating of my heart,
And I was positive that unless I got myself together,
I would watch me fall apart.
And I can't let that happen again
'cause then you'll see my heart
In the saddest state it's ever been.
This is no place to try and live my life.
Who I am hates who I've been
And who I am will take the second chance you gave me.
Who I am hates who I've been
'cause who I've been only ever made me...
So sorry for the person I became.
So sorry that it took so long for me to change.
I'm ready to be sure I never become that way again
'cause who I am hates who I've been.
Who I am hates who I've been.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxBBMT85E2Y

"For The Moments I Feel Faint"

Am I at the point of no improvement?
What of the death I still dwell in?
I try to excel, but I feel no movement.
Can I be free of this unreleasable sin?
Never underestimate my Jesus.
You're telling me that there's no hope.
I'm telling you you're wrong.
Never underestimate my Jesus
When the world around you crumbles
He will be strong, He will be strong
I throw up my hands
"Oh, the impossibilities"
Frustrated and tired
Where do I go from here?
Now I'm searching for the confidence I've lost so willingly
Overcoming these obstacles is overcoming my fear
I think I can't, I think I can't
But I think you can, I think you can
I think I can't, I think I can't
But I think you can, I think you can
Gather my insufficiency's and
place them in your hands, place them in your hands, place them in your hands

Ready ready ready ready to run...

Why do I have such an issue with being content?

I have been living in Philadelphia for nearly three years now. It has been my home since I left sunny southern California and my west coast life. Sigh. I have spent the past two years learning and growing in ways I never thought I would, or would ever even want to. Why is there still an itch to leave? To run? To start over yet again?

Why am I uncomfortable calling Philly my home?

I have become a part of a community here in Philly unlike any I could have ever imagined. It has been just over two years since I joined Liberti Church: Fairmount. www.liberti.org I am challenged, encouraged, loved in ways I never expected to be. I am part of a community of Christians unlike any I grew up with. Real, broken, redeemed, people who love Jesus and want to live seeking His path and His will for their lives. People who want to get up in my mess and do life with me. People who want me in their mess and want me to walk with them as we journey along. A group of people that I fit in with, without compromising any part of who I am or who God created me to be. Who would run from that? God has led me and planted me right in the middle of the type of church and community life that I have sought my entire life. Shouldn't peace and contentment come with that?

I am unsettled.

As the seasons change back to spring and I feel able to breath a little deeper, soak in the cool sunlight that makes my heart swell with joy.........I get that itch. Run. Go. Plan the next adventure. The next chapter. I mean, no one will realllllllly notice if I go. What's the harm? Everyone knows I am a west coast kid and must return to the Pacific NW at some point. Right? I mean, have you ever SEEN Mount Hood?

The point of this confession, the truly amazing thing, is that I do not go. I am still here. I dig deeper into my community, deeper into my life here in this crazy city. This crazy city that I am learning to love, as difficult as it is most days. I am learning what it means to serve God where I am. I am letting go of my fear of being content.

The itch is still lingering. Is God planting seeds? Is this itch the beginning of a new journey? Perhaps it is not about running, but going where I am led. For now, it is Philadelphia.

What next?

Alliteration aside, I'll take my chances in the tournament

Hello blogging world, it's me again.

(Hi, again, Kristin)

It has been almost 24 hours since I began this blog, and my mind has been alive with thoughts about possible posts and topics to write about. Topics that matter, humor that will change the world, meaningful insights that only I could possibly muse. However, I want to have purpose to this blog, and therefore I am having difficulty deciding what avenue I want to take. I want to incorporate so many things, layers upon layers of depth, and therefore I am stuck.

Where to begin? I want to avoid a "dear diary" taste and actually present topics, come to conclusions. Is this too lofty of a goal for a baby blogger? I suppose time will tell. I want to share about what it was like to grow up in Oregon, the most beautiful and free place on earth. I want to share about the lessons I learned as an athlete and how I have been shaped in a multitude of ways because of my experiences on the court and on the water. I want to describe what it was like to watch lava flow into the ocean 25-feet away from where I sat when I lived in Hawaii. Driving, we must discuss this. Poverty in America. My favorite authors. Music. Most of all, I want to talk about the culmination of all of these things into a beautiful story of God's redemption of my life and where He has brought me. Scars, we must talk about scars. And I am sure heartbreak will come up eventually.

I must think. If I am going to make the world a better place because of my blog, I must think.

To be continued, friends.

Kristin

She's Lumm Undone

Hello world of blogging-

(Hi Kristin)

Here I sit creating a blog, never imagining in a million years I would be sitting here creating my very own blog. Perhaps it is because I have always prided myself on being "anti" to things of this nature, but for whatever reason, I now have a blog. And so it starts...

Tonight I was sitting around a table with some friends. One old, two new. All definitely lifelong. We were talking about things that could be considered nothing other than the matters closest to our hearts and as we discussed life, food, Philadelphia's poor communities, redemption, and heredity, I commented that "these are the things I would write about in a blog." They then told me I must have a blog. I have heard this statement from many people across the spectrum of my life: family, friends around the country and globe, grad school classmates, professors, employers. I suppose I feel a simultaneous fear and excitement about this recurring push.

Nonetheless, She's Lumm Undone, and now you all get to share in my journey.

Kristin