Please Pray for Me and My Team!

East Asia Extreme- THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!

My team will be leaving on July 10 for East Asia for 21 days! We will be teaching English in small market towns and villages. The people we are reaching are only.25% reached. Animism is the main religion of the people and we want to see God's name glorified. Please pray that we would be courageous in sharing the gospel.

Here are some specific requests to pray daily. But we will also be posting updates periodically throughout our time at www.calbaptist.edu/isp. This is where you can get more up to date and recent requests and hear what God is doing!

Week One-
July 10- Pray for last minute preparations and rest before we get on the plane.
July 11- Pray for travel safety and for ALL of our luggage to arrive.
July 12- We arrive to our city at 11AM. Pray for an immediate unity and bond with our field workers and for our cultural adjustment.
July 13- Pray that we would be LEARNERS as we go through orientation and learn our country and city. Pray for a great love for the people we will be serving- our Z’s.
July 14- This will be our first day of teaching. Pray for effectiveness in teaching and instant relationships with our students (this can be ongoing requests as it is our main task).
July 15- Acts 26:18 “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified.”
July 16- Pray for team unity, patience and love for one another.
July 17- Pray for endurance and strength and adjustment to the humid heat.
July 18- Pray for boldness and courage to proclaim the gospel!

Week Two-
July 19- Pray that God would break the hearts of the people and make their hearts ready for the gospel. Ask that HE would also break our hearts for lostness.
July 20- Pray for great favor in the schools that we go to and with the people that we come in contact with. Pray that as we are faithful that God will grant our team and our field workers favor.
July 21- Romans 15:20-21 “And thus make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation but as it is written, ‘those who have never been told of him will see and those who have never heard will understand.”
July 22- Pray for salvation…many, many salvations!
July 23- Pray for open doors for our field workers once we leave. That the contacts we make will go beyond our 3 weeks on the field.
July 24- Pray for our team. We are in our final week- strength, endurance, unity.
July 25- Ezekiel 11:19-20 “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.”

Week Three
July 26- Pray for rest for our team and for us to connect and share with those we have not yet been able to. For divine opportunities to share and boldness to do it!
July 27- Pray that we would be a blessing to everyone we come in contact with and that we would be able to share with others the blessings of Christ.
July 28- Pray for perseverance, that we would keep our eyes fixed on the goal, and that we would finish strong as a team.
July 29- Pray for good goodbye’s with our new national friends and our field workers.
July 30- Pray for our team as we debrief our experiences and that God would teach us what we need to learn as we learn from this experience.
July 31- Pray for safety as we travel back. Also pray… “And he said to them, ‘the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Luke 10:23.

Texas in Pictures

My sister Shannon & I. We went to Downtown San Antonio to the Riverwalk to celebrate our birthdays. We have the same birthday...wierd...I know.

Lake LBJ- Where I spent my Fourth of July

Shannon and I on the boat...about to watch fireworks on the lake.

My silly Daddy and 2 of this 3 daughters

My awesome Aunt Peggy and my two cousins.

My mother and I.

Shannon and I outside of Texas Roadhouse- a birthday dinner tradition

My grandmother and I

Home and Family

I had the rare opportunity to go home (to my parental unit in Texas) this summer for about 3.5 weeks. I have not spent that many consecutive days with my parents since I graduated high school about 8 years ago. Needless to say it was a blessing. Family is something that is really really important to me, yet the places that God has called me to in obedience continues to lead me far away from my family. That was one the hardest parts about living in India and continues to be difficult now as I settle in California. Being in Texas these past 3.5 weeks was awesome because I got great quality time with so many members of my family. It was exciting to be an active participant of my family and not just an observer from afar. The older I get, the more I long for family and a place of belonging.

For the first time in my life, the thought of settling down in one place sounds so appealing(Especially if that involved getting to be settled near my parents where they could love on their completely hypothetical grandchildren). I have been really fighting God lately and telling Him I want my will for my life and not His. I always know it's only a matter of time before He wins, but I have been particularly stubborn this time around. However, I think God might have finally knocked me down and officially one when He spoke very clearly through a book I am reading. I came across this...

"God's call was to mobility. The first word that God spoke to Abraham was "Go..." Here he continues the theme laid down in the first command given in Genesis 1:28, repeated in Genesis 9:1 and forced upon man in Genesis 11 at Babel. God's people are to be mobile so that they may fill the whole earth. Harvey Cos makes some thought-provoking observations about mobility and its relationship to theology. 'When we seek to understand the phenomenon of mobility from a theological perspective, it is well to remember that the whole Hebrew view of God arose in the social context of nomadic, essentially homeless people... In short, when they were wandering and homeless, the Hebrews seem to have been closest to fulfilling their calling.... They key characteristic of Yahweh, the Old Testament God, are linked to his mobility. ' .... This statement highlights the fact that God is not bound to one place and will not let his people be bound to one place. The whole earth is his domain"

Whether you agree with this theology I could care less about. But what I loved about this passage in the book is that it made my somehow really abnormal life seem somewhat normal. I don't know if that makes sense, but for me I know that God has not called me to settle. I know there will be seasons of settling (like Cali right now), but ultimately I know that I always want to be in a place of mobility. That when God says go, I am ready and most importantly willing to uproot... again.

All this to say, is that I will probably never live next door to my family and get to attend every Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Fourth of July celebration. But that is part of the sacrifice and joy of obedience in my answer to say to Jesus' call "Follow Me." I treasured this past month with my family and thankful for this sweet gift.

God, I pray that you would help me keep my eyes focused on You, Your kingdom, and Your global purposes. I ask that my life would be marked by mobility as you move me to the nations here and there. Thank you for this calling in my life and I ask that days that I am not thankful for it that you would give me eternal perspective.

So this video here is random. But it's me giving a tour of my home in India. I came across it while at home. This was done the first month or two that I was in-country. It's about 15 minutes long, but its pretty entertaining and I even sing at the end which might make it worth your time. :) Please enjoy my Indian Home- which I also long to visit.

Masters of Intercultural Studies

Starting August 14, I will be an official Union University AND Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (GGBTS) graduate student! For the past year, I have been working towards my Master of Theological Studies at GGBTS. But this year, I am finally becoming a part of the Global Studies Program (GSP) which is a partnership between Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in San Fransisco, California and Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. The GSP program is a dual masters program in Intercultural Studies and Theological Studies. In simple terms, when I finish (400 years from now) I will have two masters degrees from two different universities. I am really excited about the classes I will be taking for my Masters of Intercultural Studies. I have had my eye on this degree for awhile now and am I finally getting to start it. Below is a brief description of the program (feel free to scroll down if you don't care)

• Students today face unprecedented challenges and opportunities as they prepare for professions that are increasingly global in outlook. The Master of Arts in Intercultural Studies (MAIS) is a graduate program designed to provide you with an integrated view of the knowledge and skills needed to live and work across cultures and nations.
  
• The MAIS program will:
  1. Give you a foundational knowledge of intercultural relationships while guiding you to develop a conceptual framework for understanding different, diverse approaches to knowledge and intercultural relationships.
  2. Enable you to learn how to integrate intercultural consciousness and empathy with practical skills necessary to live and work effectively between/among cultures.
  3. Teach you the critical skills necessary to evaluate new environments, situations, and information in intercultural settings.
  4. Teach you to conduct, document and apply field research. Every student is required to participate in an intercultural field research experience.
  5. Guide students to develop, communicate and implement a multicultural vision in which ethical decision-making and leadership are key.

The unique thing about me starting this program is that all my classes will be in San Fransisco (about an 8 hour drive from where I live in Riverside)! Most people that pursue this degree go to school at GGBTS' main campus in San Fransisco NOT the Southern extension where I attend. So the travel is a little bit abnormal for the typical GSP student and I am kind of considered a guinea pig to see if they would recommend this to anyone else. The phrase "Go Big or Go Home" comes to mind. The format of the Union classes are intensive weekend classes that meet from Thursday-Saturday all day. Each class meets for two separate weekends for a total of four this fall! Needless to say, there will be a lot of travel in my future! But if I am going to travel I would say that San Fransisco is an awesome place to be "stuck" learning. The GGBTS campus there is beautiful and sits right on the bay.

These are the classes I am taking this fall:
1. Intercultural Communications- San Fransisco, CA (Union Class)
2. Organizational Systems of Society- San Fransisco, CA (Union Class)
3. Survey of Christianity to 1517- Orange County, CA (GGBTS Class)

I am excited about this graduate program and where God wants to lead me in the future as I learn about being effective among different cultures and nations. Please keep me in prayers. It's always a challenge to tackle a grad program while working full-time in ministry!

New Blog Makeover- yessssssssssss!

Well friends, I finally gave my blog the makeover it has needed for about 2 years. Yes, I finally updated my links also. My roommates are happy that they finally got some link love. I changed my URL so I hope those of you who have followed me on http://namaskarsa.blogspot.com/ for the past 4 years will find me!

Leave me some comment love and I just might blog on this more often! Is leaving comments on blogs going out of style...???? Because if it is I think we should bring it back... kind of like how Justin Timberlake brought sexy back... if Justin can do it...I think Alicia can do it.

Ok I am rambling....

My Little Alicia Heart

It's funny how when you hang out with people long enough that you begin to pick up each others mannerism and phrases. So as most of you know, I coined the phrase "my (something) Alicia heart". When overjoyed I often express this by saying, "my little Alicia heart is happy" or "my roommate heart is happy" and etc... Somewhere along the way, my roommate Becka also picked up the phrase and started saying "my little teacher heart". Becka teaches high schoolers and her high schoolers have also begun to pick up this phrase. Tonight as I was staying up late with Becka as she grades her students' final essays and in one of the essays they wrote, "it hurt her little student heart" in this student's final!! Yes, friends.... I am officially influencing the world of high schoolers in Riverside with my own verbage!! I feel like a celebrity!!

What are phrases of funny things you do that others pick up?

Quality Time With Texas

Tomorrow morning I am getting on an airplane and flying to San Antonio for an eight day vacation! My fun begins the minute I get off the airplane because I am going to be greeted by 6 of my college besties! In honor of officially being done with college for four year we decided to have a reunion. Once they pick me up from SAT airport we will go for a night on the town at the Riverwalk! I am so excited to see these ladies (one is even prego now)!

This was our last night together at DBU where we created Hamaley (a build a bear that has our recorded voices in the paw and her name makes up all of our names!) I first took Hamaley to India with me and she has been passed around for the past 4 years.

And this is us the weekend after I got back from India! I have the most loyal friends who always love me enough to drive to where I am in Texas!!

After an evening of fun with the old roomies and besties I will get to celebrate my mother's 50th Birthday!! I love my mother and all of her daughters are going to be together! We are going to have a nice little barbecue birthday party filled with fun surprises!!

Then I get a whole week with the fam! I am going to give my Daddy lots of hugs (apparently he misses hugging me) and veg, and shop, and love on my family that I never see!! Bliss.

Then my cousin Chris is finally getting married!!! He just graduated from Seminary and is marrying an awesome girl!

And last but not least I get to see another one of my best friends get married...Sarah Clary! She is my ghetto friend who when I first met her thought she was too pretty and popular to be my friend. She thought I was a goody-to-shoe. And then we played basketball together on the court and she met my sass. Heh...then we were instant BFF's! She is great and I am stoked she married at my home church in college so i get to see all my FBC Irving peeps if they are at the wedding!!!

Me and Sarah.

Ok...so this post has no creativity in it whatsoever, but basically I hope you can see that I am excited to get to see and be apart of so many awesome events! For once, I don't have to watch them from a distance! God is good to give me some quality time with people I love and have laid the foundation for who I am today!! Peace out...see you in a week!

See You at the Globe

One of my favorite traditions at CBU is globe send offs.  Globe send offs are synonymous with the International Service Projects at CBU.  Before a team departs for the airport the MOB staff(office of mobilization which is my world at CBU) executes a globe send off!  It is a chance for friends, family, and significant others to come and support and send off the people they love.  I also think it's a great way to focus the team right before they head to the nations for the next 21 days.    Teams leave at the globe and return to the globe!!!

The globe, also referred to as the koogle is a favorite landmark on CBU's campus!!!  It gets a lot of action.....

Tomorrow we will be sending of Russia A & Russia B!  This means that we will have 15 teams on the field right now.  You can be reading there updates at http://calbaptist.edu/isp.  We would love to have your prayers as over 300 students go courageously to the nations!!!

 

Look at all these people praying!!  Powerful moment!

Here is me and my roommates last week sending off Sam to Southeast Asia!!  Sam is my roommates brother which means he is our brother too!!

Please PRAY FOR MY STUDENTS!!!!

Kickboxing

When I was in college, I had the opportunity to take kickboxing classes. I have always loved kickboxing and Taebo. However, it is always really hard to find a place that you can take classes and that doesn't cost a fortune. Recently, I discovered a kickboxing gym, KO Knockout, that is literally about a mile and a half from my apartment and relatively in-expensive! I single handedly convinced my roomies to join the kick-boxing gym with me! This is what I love about my kick-boxing gym...

• my sweet pink everlast gloves
• that it is a full-body work out
• it's great cardio
• there are lots of classes and variety
• you get kick things and hit things
• "Cause it got the beat that bounce and got the beat that pound"
• it is a Christian run gym and they offer bible studies and prayer!

I have really LOVED kick-boxing so far! I will say that I haven't been able to move my body this past week and my muscles hate me. However....this too shall pass.

Ode to the Spurs

To My Black and White Ballers, 

My heart is saddened by our unfortunate defeat

I was so hoping for a championship repeat

You worked so hard this season Tony

The world can see you're clearly no Phony

Fans let us not forget our Tall Tim 

Every school yard kid wants to be him

We couldn't have made it this far without Ginobili

You put up baskets that rival silly Kobe

I sat at the AT&T center and watched my homeboys win 

With home court advantage you were a definite shoe-in

As a whole it was a well-fought season

But this defeat had to happen for a reason

Let's give another Texas team a championship slot

You know that the Lone Star state will always be hot  

Since the days I first learned to drive a car

I have been consistent to watch you even from afar 

Lakers and Clippers fans are so lame

Aren't you glad us Spurs fans don't bring you shame

I need you to know I will always remain loyal 

Even if I am living on California soil  

My basketball heart will always feed your fame

Cause you BOYSZ you know YOU GOT GAME  

So it is here that I will end this flo 

With the simple words... GO SPURS GO!

Love for the Game

What does 1999, 2003, 2005 & 2007 all have in common? Yes, they are all odd numbers BUT more importantly they are the years that the Spurs have taken home the title of Champs! I am a woman of tradition so I think it would only be fitting for them to take another championship in 2009 to keep with the oddity of their wins (pun intended). Don't you agree?
This is one my most looked forwareded to times of the year... the time NBA PLAYOFFS! My homeboys, the San Antonio Spurs, have been consistently making it to the playoffs for the past decade which means I have been loyal to chant "Go Spurs Go" since the days of learning to drive.
My loyalties could have been challenged as I ventured to lands beyond San Antonio, but my devotion has only been strengthened. For example, during my college years I was surrounded by Maverick fans that insisted that just because I lived in the BIG D that I should betray my boys, but no my stubbornness and love for the Spurs shined brightly among those malicious Mavericks. Even in my years of living abroad, I was faithful to wake up at 3 AM just to watch the championship games to see my homeboys play. The worst of all however has been my recent move to Southern California where the suffocating colors of purple and gold bombard me from all sides. Even close friendships could not alter my love for the Spurs in the land of Lakers. I have worn my Spurs shirt with pride among some of the most loyal Lakers fans around. I would pride myself in being a loyal Spurs fan abroad.
So this is my annual blog shout out to my homeboys as they fight to take the championship...yet again. They are currently in Round 1 of the playoffs vs the Mavericks. They have to win the game this Tuesday or they are out of the playoffs (FROWN). Luckily the next game we have home court advantage and Spurs Fans ROCK. So I except a pretty victory on Tuesday! On that note...
GO SPURS GO!!!
This is a picture of me at the Spurs game during Christmas break!

PS. Today was the most beautiful Southern California day and I finished one of my 1o page papers...wooo.....

Logistics

Logistics (noun)- "The planning, execution and control -of the movement and placement of people and/or goods -and of the supporting activities related to such movement and placement within a system organized to achieve specific objectives."

Last summer, I lead a group of 9 CBU students to Munich, Germany on a missions trip for 3 weeks. It is humbling how well people get to know your quirks and habits when you spend all semester training together that is culminated by 24/7 time together for 21 days. One of the many quirks that I became known for was my over usage of the word 'logistics'. I love logistics which I guess was clear by my speech. As they say, out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. I heart logistics.

It is no surprise that I took on a full-time job that is 8-5 LOGISTICS!! There are days when I am buried in emails and cross-eyed from looking at too many excel spreadsheets, but at the end of the day my J heart (Myers Briggs anyone?) is happy. This week was a particularly glorious week in that I got to see a lot of semester long projects come to an end and see some great movement. It was such a great week of work and I think I might have one of the best jobs in the world.
This is what I did this week....

1. cleaned out an inbox of over 250 emails
2. finalized the plane itineraries for the last of the 31 teams going to 20 different countries this summer.
3. ordered the last of the shuttles to and from CBU for our 31 teams
4. made, completed, and handed out about 90% of the travel cards for our 300 students so there parents can leave and pick them up at the appropriate time.
5. facilitated 2 training sessions
6. handed back the last of the passports for our Russia and Uganda teams who needed visas.
7. expedited by boss' passport to quickly get a Russia visa
8. sent of lots and lots of paperwork to Sunergos, Book of Hope, and Little Lambs (paperwork is my new nemesis).
9. harassed multiple students for passport copies
10. made team budgets for our June teams
11. organized all this information in an awesome excel spreadsheet on what we like to call the "matrix"

It was a beautiful week because i have been balancing all these things all semester, but seeing that our first 18 teams leave in a week from Monday it's finally time for it all to come together. Most people probably would want to shoot themselves because of all the details and planning, but I absolutely LOVE it!

Procrastinating. This is what I am doing by blogging. I am avoiding writing a ten-page paper on a Saturday night. Can you blame me? However, I realized I haven't blogged since January 30th! But then again, how did May get here so fast?! So I am going to update you on my life picking up from the BIG RACE...

• I completed my first half-marathon and survived it enough to want to do another one! My roommate and I are thinking about running one next fall and finding a beautiful location maybe out of town. I am still running, but not nearly as much as I would like.


• I became a true Californian. I went to the beach one Saturday afternoon and went to the snowy mountains the NEXT day. Yes, this is THE perk of living in So Cal.


• I absolutely love my job! I am one of those few people in life that actually love there 8 to 5 J-O-B. Most days, I am bogged down in details, emails, excel spreadsheets, and solving problems and in doing those administrative tasks it is easy for me to forget the big pictures. It is through the logistics of my job that over 350 students have the opporutunity to be trained and serve God overseas! And man I want to give my life for the task of seeing people come to Christ. Yesterday, was one of those days at work where I was able to literally see the big picture of what God is doing through my title at "International Service Projects Coordinator." We had a commissioning service at CBU for our 31 teams that we are sending overseas (about 350 students). I was personally blessed and moved by the intimate prayer and worship time with my own team going to East Asia this summer. I still can't believe that God allows me to be a part of his work in some of the most unreached places. It baffles my small Alicia brain. I am so inadequate but He delights in my service somehow my service brings Him glory. We also put on this awesome "Night of Nations" where all the teams performed skits sharing what they were doing this summer. We had about 800 people show up and it was a reminder of the hope we get to bring to these 21 different countries this summer!! God, why do you allow me to be a part of this task?!!!


• I took four classes this semester in graduate school. I would say that they have been keeping me busy. This semester has honestly been a huge struggle for me academically. I haven't fallen in love with seminary yet. And honestly, I haven't loved my profs or classes. This is about 80% my problem not theirs. I could be honest and say that I have just been going to classes to get a piece of paper and not for the pure joy of learning. UGH. I am not sure how to get out of this funk, but this is kind of where I am.
• I spent a majority of this semester being distracted by a tall, dark, and handsome man. It's amazing how men can hijack your brain. For the past year, I have been casually getting to know and develop a friendship with a man and this semester we actually made it official. Unfortunately, all of that intentionality was in vain and it looks as though the door to that relationship is closed. I can be honest and say that I am still praying through what the purpose of all of that was and honestly might not ever know. Somewhere along the way we have made relationships so complicated, but I guess when you have two independent lives coming together along with two imperfect people you can't help but expect difficultly. Even Paul says in I Corinthians to expect trouble in relationships. But then through this relationship, I was also reminded of the beauty of God's biblical model of relationships. Even though they are complicated and messy, there is great beauty in being committed to someone- two is better than one- having a ministry partner for life! I love the idea of one day NOT having to say goodbye to someone in my life (my life for the past 4 years), someone to dream the impossible with, someone to sharpen me and keep me accountable to the Word, someone to laugh with, someone that you just enjoy being with and living life with, but most importantly someone that we can both look back at our lives together and know that we were faithful to the task and that hopefully our lives brought Christ glory. I have honestly really been struggling with the Lord with lots of questions of why... but that just reveals where my heart is...this is the first time in my life where I want my own will more than His and that scares me. So I am praying that God will continue to show me how to trust Him...God, please increase my trust in you. The best thing I would say I gained from this relationship was that I experienced my first non-dysfunctional relationship and man it was sooo fun!
• I dyed my hair almost black. It has been a fun change mostly because people say I look like a different person and because I get a lot more compliments on my tan and blue eyes...who knew? It makes me giggle. The also humorous thing is that my bangs got completely botched in the haircutting process and it has been a funny joke with me and my roommates. Lets just say they have been pinned back for the past 3 weeks and might be for a couple more!
• I have really awesome roommates. They are my family. They are there to rejoice with me in my victories, to love me when I am unlovable, to pep me up when I need it, and to be just what I need when I need it. Being single and 25 is honestly hard some days, but God has been unbelievable in sending me sisters in Christ to share life with!


• I changed churches again. I am back at Sandals and am soo excited about my choice. I really missed the people and community of Sandals. The people who make California my home all attend Sandals and I found myself needing that community again! So I am back and soo excited about joining my small group. There is an awesome small group of married couples and singles my age that all have a heart to be overseas, love living life, and have amazing hearts for the Lord. I am stoked to join this group very very soon...



• I am going home in May to see my family!! It is my mom's 50th birthday and my cousin Chris is getting married!! I can't wait to see them... I hate that they are soo far away, but it makes being together so much better!
  

6793- Surf City Marathon

The day has finally come and I will be running my Half Marathon at the Surf City Marathon! 13.1 miles here I come!! After 18 weeks of training I would say that I feel prepared and ready to tackle Sunday morning. Training for this marathon has been an enjoyable experience. I have come a long way. I remember my first long run of 4 miles that I wanted to cry because I seriously think I was the last one to finish. I felt like such a failure and that I sucked at running and at that moment in time that I sucked at life. But here I am months later and my last long run last week of 9 miles was easy and I can honestly say enjoyable. Like I said I have come a long way!! 6793 is my bib number that I will get to proudly display while running.

I am sure there is some great lesson or parallel to my life and training for this marathon, but I will save that to ponder on my nice long run on Saturday.

There is about 15-20 of us from CBU that are running (along with my roomie) on Sunday morning. So please keep us in your prayers- we would all really appreciate that!! Most of my friends are running the full 26.2 and are pretty nervous (as they should be!) Pray that our bodies will be safe and recover quickly!!

I will hopefully get to post some fun pictures after Sunday!

Plans- Do I plan to move overseas again?

"For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 I can't help but chuckle to myself when I read this verse. During my four years of education at Dallas Baptist University, I must have had this verse read to me literally 1,000 times! I hate it when something you love becomes common place because it loses it's meaning. However, this verse holds such amazing truth for our lives. Me being the planner that I am, this verse holds a lot of truth and hope. God put this verse in the Bible for all of us planners out there...you know who you are. Because I am a planner, it is comforting to know first of all that God has a plan and second that His plan is always prosperous and beneficial for me- if I truly submit myself to Him. I am reminded however, that His idea of success and the worlds idea of success are not one in the same.

I have a lot of people ask me if I PLAN to move overseas again one day. Such a great question... but a hard one to answer. There are days when the thought of living overseas again sounds too hard and too difficult. It literally makes me want to throw-up in my mouth. I have been there and done that and I know EXACTLY what I would be getting myself into. As I settle into my comfortable life here in Southern California, my short-lived life overseas almost seems like a dream and a little unbelievable. These days it has been easy for me to want the American dream. I was reminded of the enticing nature of the world's success while I was in Texas. I had the opportunity to visit my cousin Angela (who is only 4 weeks older than me) in Austin along with her 3 bedroom, newly painted, and beautiful house. I couldn't help but want exactly what she had- the husband, brand new car, new house, and 2 dogs (except i would want kittens). She seemed to have what everyone wants and was doing it in style. That day, all I wanted was the perfect life in America. After all, all my peers around me would think I was living a meaningful life- especially if I had a great personal ministry.

However, also while in Texas, I was reading a book called "The Heavenly Man" which is the life-story a Chinese Christian brother Yun living out the beauty and hardship of the gospel. His life is anything but glamorous, yet I found myself longing for his life. Brother Yun is one of the leading church planters in China. To this day, he lives in Germany because he is one of the most wanted criminals (for sharing the gospel) in all of China and if he returned he would be executed. This book portrays Yun's life of utter physical destitution, but the author then beautifully contrasts the depths of spiritual riches He has in Jesus Christ. His life is filled with hunger, lack of clothing, separation from his family because of being imprisoned, hiding, loneliness, despair, and inhumane treatment. But his life is also filled with God's miraculous provision, visions from the Lord, miracles, supernatural prison escapes, and most importantly a deep intimate relationship with Jesus that satisfies. He knew Jesus and felt His presence in a way that I would give my right arm for. So many times throughout reading this book, I found myself in tears because of the beauty of God's presence and provision to His people. I experienced a taste of this while living in India and have longed for it to return since moving back. Today, I LONG for the presence of Christ and ministry like I had in India. Life overseas is nothing but hardship and sacrifice. But isn't that what Jesus' life was like here on earth? The purpose of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection is NOT for me to live comfortably, but to give my life for the sake and glory of Jesus Christ among all peoples.

So all of that to say this: The thought of moving overseas long-term scares the hell out of me because I know what it takes. However, living my life for myself and my own vain existence scares the hell out of me even more. I don't know exactly what God is doing in and through me right now at CBU, but I know that every future life decision I make will be filtered through a global lens: how does this job, or this education, or this or that impact the spreading of the gospel to the nations. I hope that God sends me back overseas, but I honestly don't know what His plans are for me. I am open to wherever God would have me serve. Please pray against the allurement of the things of this world, but that I would live as a true foreigner longing for my time to go home!

So here are some practical things of what I am doing to get my butt overseas until God directs me differently:
1. I am enrolling in the Global Studies program at Golden Gate in the fall. I will before pursuing a Masters in Intercultural Studies.
2. I recently gained some financial accountability and guidance to start paying down my credit card debt and eventually school loans. I don't want money to be a reason why I can't serve overseas.

I pray God allows me to go back and serve, but we will see what His plans are. I know his plans are to prosper me and to give me a hope and a future!

*I should clarify that I don't think having a husband, house, and dog is ungodly or wrong. It just can't be my life goal. I didn't want to offend anyone!

2008 Reflection

I absolutely love the New Year holiday. I love staying up late just for the purpose of counting down the last seconds of the current year and bringing in the New Year with great celebration fireworks, and sometimes singing!! I love reflecting on the past year and recognizing the experiences God has brought me through- the valleys and the mountain tops. One of my most memorable New Years was in Singapore 2006. Me and my best friends sat on the kitchen floor with grape juice and shared the high and lows of the year. It was such a refreshing time of seeing God's faithfulness through our time of overseas.

My friend Kelley blogged asking, "What was the single best thing that happened this past year? There were lots of great things that happened in 2008-

• Julie and Lindsey visiting me
• Golden Gate Missions Conference
• Julie getting married
• Leading a team of CBU students to Munich, Germany
• Returning to India and seeing my Indian family there!
• Moving in with my roommates: Sarah and Becka
• Starting seminary classes at Golden Gate
• I became a runner and actually love it

But the greatest thing that happened to me in 2008 was getting hired to work and do ministry at California Baptist University. God allowed me to start putting down some roots and gave me a specific community, global ministry, and life in California! God is Good!!

*just some of my cali community

I have just about finished my 2009 Resolutions... Here's a few:

• A guy that's fine and mine in 2009 (gotta stick with rhymed guy theme- my date in 08 worked last- why stop a good thing?)
• Getting on a budget
• Run my half-marathon
• Be Soda free in 2009 (trying again this year)
• Start the Global Studies Program at Golden Gate in the fall
• Start a mentoring groups at CBU
• and many many more..... :)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Christmas as a child is always magical. You wake up Christmas morning to a tree full of colorful handpicked gifts just for you! There is always home-cooked foods and most importantly sprinkles, cookies, icing, chocolate, and all sorts of Christmas sweet deliciousness. Another great thing about Christmas growing up is family. I come from a pretty big family with lots of cousins. The best thing about having lots of cousins is that we were all really close in age - so it is like having extended siblings. Most holidays were spent on our huge acreage in the country playing football, baseball, jumping on the trampoline, or playing house with my sisters. We definitely always got stuck at the kids tables together- my boy cousins would always burp and be disgusting and never let the girls go first in line. We always asked them to be gentlemen, but it wasn't ever going to happened.

Holidays change over time. It is unfortunate that all of us kids are now no longer kids- we are adults. We all moved to different places for school, some of us have gotten married, and some of us are too broke to come home. The transition of growing up is a little wierd. Most holidays are quiet and make me missing the good ol' days of childhood.

This year I felt a little bit of Christmas redemption. This Christmas was my favorite Christmas in years. I had a house full of family for 5 days straight with little kids filling the air with laughter, screaming, and Christmas excitement. This was also the first Christmas that all of my family (parents and sisters) were together in 4 years. The quality time with my extended family was wonderful. I soaked in each moment and understood the beauty and rarity of this Christmas. It makes me get excited for the day when my sisters and I are married and start having our own little kiddoes! But until then.... I am going to treasure the time with family that I do have! God has truly blessed me with awesome family and I am so thankful for the time I had with them this Christmas

My Grown-up cousins (at least half of them)...I guess we still act childish.

Go Spurs Go! My family went to a Spurs game.

I'll be home for Christmas

I have to work on Monday, but then I will be hopping on a plane and flying to Texas for almost 2 full weeks! Glorious. These are the things I am most looking forward to about my time in Texas.

1. Hugging my dad and sitting in his lap.
2. Running with my sister Amber.
3. Shopping with my mom and having some good quality time.
4. Drinking coffee with my daddy while having deep theological and philosophical conversations in his study.
5. Going to the Spurs games the Saturday after Christmas with my WHOLE family.
6. Seeing my cousin Angela's new house.
7. Watching lots of movies with the fam.
8. Holiding my cat and having him sleep with me.
9. Eating Loredo Lasagne with the Alves family.
10. Spending Christmas in San Antonio with my Dad's side of the family from Dallas.
11. Kissing, hugging, and playing with my little cousins.
12. Gazing at the stars in the hill country.
13. Shopping at Super Target and all the other awesome shopping places.
14. Seeing the Riverwalk at Christmastime.
15. kssssssssssssing my sister shanny.
16. Spending quality time with the grandparents.

God Bless Texas!

Running

Today I went for a nice 7.5 mile run. I think one of my favorite things about this past semester has been running. Life this semester has been pretty intense with having a 40 hour a week job and doing full-time classes. My job also seems to steal all of my mental brain power. I struggle to find time for my own thoughts and sometimes for my own life. Running is the only time of the week that I have time to think. I have come to really enjoy my long runs because I get to escape from the busyness of life and actually have time by MYSELF to think. Tonight as I was running everything was so beautiful- my typical running route is a tree-shaded lane that is framed by the classic California palm trees. If you look far into the distance you can see the snow-capped mountains. It is a beautiful run and the weather tonight was PERFECT. I found myself thinking about New Years resolutions, life goals, relationships, and who the Lord is to me right now. I always feel like a new person after running. I feel refreshed and motivated. I have decided it is my favorite introverted thing to do! I used to really like to run with people but now I LOVE running by myself (meaning not talking to anyone) Because, I do run with Becka, but she runs fast than me and is usually about 2 minutes ahead of me. She is my source of encouragement for those long runs...we usually high 5 at lights and stop signs. So we run together but separate which is PERFECT in my Alicia world. So anyways... As I was running to night I was thinking about how much I was enjoying my run and thought out this entire blog entry in my mind. So here it is...

Tagged- 8 Things about Me

My FBC Irving friend Amanda tagged me! Amanda is my college pastor's wife and one of my biggest encouragers. She is a faithful friend and she has a really awesome family. Her husband will be speaking at CBU's chapel in the spring!! I am happy with the thought of having a little bit of Texas in California. So she tagged me and I will oblige her as well.

8 Shows I Watch:

1. Chuck
2. Hero's
3. Prison Break
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. Private Practice
6. Friends
7. Law & Order
8. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Favorite Restaraunts: ( I honestly don't eat out much)

1. Indian Food - Not Just Paranthas
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Olive Garden
4. Chilli's
5. Thai Food (Thai Bay Cafe is delish)
6. PF Chang
7. Papasitas
8. Cracker Barrel

8 Things that Happened to Me today:

1. The electricity went out at work today ( my co-worker got stuck in the elevator for an hour because of it)
2. I had a 2 hour staff meeting.
3. I ate chinese food with some of my best friends for dinner.
4. I waited in line for like 20 minutes at the bank today to deposit some checks during my lunch break
5. I actually left work promptly at 5 today!
6. I drank delicious sweet tea from Chick-fil-A.
7. I wore polka dotted socks today
8. Took an official break at work today for almost an hour.

8 Things I look forward to:

1. Going home to be in Texas in just 6 days!
2. Going to the Spurs game on December 27th
3. Spending Christmas with my entire family
4. Getting to know my East Asia team and going to East Asia with them.
5. Getting out of debt
6. Having my first kiss
7. Graduating from graduate school
8. Moving overseas

8 Things I wish for:

1. Someone to miraculously pay all my debt- be debt free
2. world peace :)
3. Lifelong free airlines to wherever I want to go- whenever I want to go
4. To spend a week with all my journeyman friend in an exotic country like the old days
5. To spend a week with my college roommates having quality girl time
6. To have my parents and sisters live in the same city as me
7. Be really really awesome at my job and be the queen of details and logistics
8. To be able to drop it like it's hot.

8 People I tag:

1. Roommate- Sarah
2. Roommate - Becks
3. Kim Ji
4. Andrea
5. Emily
6. Amber
7. Shannon
8. Adam Cook