Goodbye College Housing

My days of living on a college campus have finally come to an end. Believe it or not, it has been seven years since I moved out of my parents house. Of those seven years, I have lived five of them on a college campus. DBU's and CBU's campuses have served me well, but needless to say... it is time to move on. As I move on, I will not be moving far, but just 2 miles down the road on Van Buren to Canyon Park Apartments.

Sarah & Becka will be my new roomies in our two bedroom/two bathroom 1st floor apartment! I met Sarah & Becka through my friends Kim & Lindsey. They are both CBU alumni, teachers, missions minded, and single. I can honestly say that I don't know these ladies all that well, but I am very hopeful about the future sisterhood and community we will have.

We love having people over and we hope that it will be a place God chooses to bless others with! Be ready for an invite and if you are ever in Southern Cal you are more than welcome to stop by!

Sarah, Becka, and I at Disneyland at Christmas! This was my first time to ever hang out with them and at the time didn't know they would be my future roomies.

Here we are at Lindsey's wedding just last month!

Oh the Places You Will Go...

While in India, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my past 3 years as a Journeyman. When I started applying almost 4 years ago I had NO IDEA what God had in store!! I have literally been all over the globe. I thought it would be interesting to track all the places God took me in this journey. These places have pieces of my heart and are definitely instrumental in shaping who I am today. The Alicia that left Dallas, Texas 3 years ago is a different Alicia that writes this blog entry today and resides in California. God has changed me. He has intensified the desires in my heart to see the nations come to worship Him for all eternity. He has given me friendships all over the world. Many who are a part of the family of God and some who I am still praying to be welcomed into the family. I can look back at the end of my journey and all I can express is gratitude to the Father that He loved me enough to pull me out of my simple life in Texas and give me the HONOR of being a part of His work in India. What a sweet gift it was. One day there WILL BE a great movement of Christ in North India and I am honored that I was asked to be a part. I am more determined now, than ever before, that being on journey with God through pursuing a missional life is the only way to truly live. May He continue to grant me favor as I seek a life of faithfulness.

Richmond, Virginia
January 2005 – Screening Conference
August-October 2005- FPO
September 2007 (twice) – Debriefing & J3 Training
January 2008- J3 training

Washington, DC-
September 2005- FPO field trip

Concord, Mississippi
October 2005- Commissioning Service for J-man term

Delhi, Shimla, Chandigarh, Manali, India
October 2005-August 2007
June-July 2008

Chiang Mai, Thailand
December/January 2005 & Brought in the new year- Visa Run
June/July 2006- AGM
December/January 2006- Visa run
June/July 2006- AGM

Pattaya, Thailand
January 2006- Edge Retreat

Bangkok, Thailand
January 2006- vacation

Singapore
December 2006- Brought in the New Year (2007) and vacation with Chesed & Julie

Seoul, Peoungtaek, and Sangtan South Korea
July 2006- visiting Amber
August 2007- visiting Amber

North Korean Border
August 2007- vacation

Kuala, Lumpur Malaysia
July 2007- vacation

Bali, Indonesia
July 2007- vacation

Greenville, South Carolina
September 2007- J3 training

Riverside, California
October 2007- present-J3 job

San Francisco, California
February 2008- Golden Gate Conference

Mexico
February 2008- work trip

Munich, Germany
May 2008- ISP

Salzburg, Austria
May 2008- ISP

Amnebad, India
July 2008

11 new countries & 24 new cities

Freckles

Has anyone ever noticed that I have freckles? I would say that one distinguishing characteristic about myself is that I have freckles. I have always liked my freckles. Since I was a little girl, I have always had people making comments about my freckles. There was this one old man named Phil who I used to work with that incessantly commented on my freckles. Every conversation we had was revolved around my freckles. It always humored me. When it would rain he would even say, "It looks like the rain hasn't washed them away." I used to kind of roll my eyes. But in all honesty, I love my freckles and am thankful that God made me to have them!
HOWEVER, Indians don't understand them at all! They see freckles as an intrusion on perfect fair skin. You see, Indians want fair skin and are always bleaching their skin to be whiter. On two separate occasions, once in Riverside and once yesterday, I had an Indian woman look at my face very closely and say, "What happened?" And I of course replied with, "What do you mean?" They said, "You have BURN MARKS on your face." I then replied, "Oh, those aren't burn marks...they are freckles!" They then say, "Oh. pause. Is there medicine you can take?" I then try to tell them it's normal and nothing is wrong. They look at me like I obviously don't know what i am talking about. Apparently my freckles are a very bad medical condition! Sad. I happen to like my freckles...even if Indians find them to be a skin problem!

This was quite the random post, but it was on my mind so I thought I would blog about it!