This may or may not be a short post, I'm trying to sort through some recent thoughts that I've been having.
First off though... let's catch up. I'm doing well, going home for Thanksgiving was one of the best things that I could've done. Not because I was terribly homesick, but just because I needed it emotionally. The night before I left, on the 22nd of November, I was mugged a few blocks away from our house after getting some wendys. It all took place around 6 pm. There were two guys who had a knife, which was a scary thing when it happened but now is almost humorous. The reason it is kinda funny is because when I left the YAV house, I left with just my keys and credit card in my waist band. When the people mugged me they asked for all of my money, I left my wallet at home so I had no cash and I didn't mention my credit card. They then asked for my phone, however I had left my phone at the YAV house so that it could charge. Finally they asked for my car keys, but as you know from my previous post, my car had been totaled. So the muggers were quite disgusted and after patting me down, one of them hit me in the stomach and they both ran off. Again, it was scary at the time, but kinda funny now.
So like I said, it was good being home after that experience. I drove back down with my Mom and my F 150 and also a sousaphone in the back of the truck (gotta start practicing for Maryville.)
The construction on Pauger is going great. We have a group of college aged people this week which is nice. All of the work is a bunch of finish stuff, base board, window trim, caulk and spackle... things like that.
So one of the things that I had been tossing around in my head was the thought of what I left coming down here. I left my dog, my family, great friends, an awesome bible study group, and the chance to further my education. These were all ME things though... relationships and plans in my life that I thought I needed, but they weren't God's. God put those people in my life when I needed them at that time, and going through high school I had the "5 year plan" but as my roomates said tonight, "do you want to make God laugh? Then make plans." And it's true, we can make as many plans as we want, but we don't know what will happen. If you told me at the beginning of high school that I wasn't going to go to college and instead I was going to work construction for a year with below minimal wage and live in a intentional christian community with 8 other people I would've laughed in your face. And that's because I had made my own plans. Our site coordinator, Kathy, had made the comment tonight that God will put interruptions into our plans, and for New Orleans that interruption was Hurricane Katrina. I used to think "how could God be in a natural disaster, why would he send that onto us?" I'm still trying to decipher it, but Kathy had said that before the Hurricane her plan was completely different, so maybe the storm was God's way of putting people back on the right track, don't quote me on that because I'm still thinking through it.
That last paragraph wasn't meant to be a "debbie downer" passage saying that I wish I could change my choice, because I have switched my perspective recently from what I left and lost to what I have gained. I have gained a whole new set of friends who share my passion for helping others in any way possible. I have gained a new perspective in life, I have grown as a person, gotten to really experience the world and see what it's like to not be sheltered like I was in Charlotte. I have gained significant life and leadership experience as well as new skills that I wouldn't have gotten the chance to experience just by going to college.
The thing that I like about the college that I will be going to though is how service driven it is. I think that God really had a hand in my college choice and my after high school choice too. That's why I didn't take the SAT till June 4th of my senior year, why I didn't go on a single college visit until after I graduated high school, and why I didn't have a idea about a really good college until I talked to a friend of my youth pastor who is a maryville college alumni. God had and has a plan for me through all of it, I'm just along for the ride.
This year has been one of the more difficult times of my life, but it has also been the most rewarding. God planned this year for me, and He knew that I would be leaving some things behind, but as we also learned from tonight's review of our book, God sometimes calls us to dissolve our Fellowship and Community relationships for the betterment and progress of both. My North Carolina friends are still my friends, I'm just adding some New Orleans friends to the mix. I called this a gap year, but I think the YAV motto applies better, for it truly is a year of service for a lifetime of change.
-eric
ps hope the holiday season is going well for everyone, I'll be home on the 22nd!
