Many times throughout the year, I have stopped in awe looking at where I am standing today and where I was standing five years ago. I am just a girl from a town of 200 in the middle of nowhere in Iowa, and now I am living in Detroit, Michigan. But Detroit doesn't even begin to explain it. Last year alone, I was in Sierra Leone, West Africa; Colorado; West Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; Naperville and Chicago, Illinois; the Twin Cities; and all the places in between. I have traveled throughout England once stranded in London for 4 days as well as for a J-term my freshman year of college. I have been to Sierra Leone three different times and in college I hung out with the homeless people in Minneapolis. And now, I am taking a year off from my SENIOR year of college to do a year of voluntary service in Detroit, Michigan a city I knew very little about, but many people worried about me going there. How do these things happen to me? I can't really explain it except that God has a particular calling on my life and from a young age, I have been trying to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. My dad always says that there is nothing spectacular about his children or family except that we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I don't know why God has chosen a small own girl from Iowa to be His hands and feet in all of these places, but He has. My life as a Christian disciple is far from boring- let me tell you that!
Often I don't realize how different my life is until I am taken out of my world and placed into another world or unless somebody point blankly tells me that this isn't normal. But define normal! I am starting to forget what normal is, but maybe we aren't supposed to live normal lives. I think normalency (I am making up words here) can lead to complacency if we aren't careful.
It was strange to come back home to Iowa this Christmas break. It was quite the trip to just make it there. I was awaken at 6:03 AM by my friend, Andy, calling me from my front porch ready to bring me to the bus stop. Praise the Lord that most of my stuff was already packed with just a few things to throw in. With Andy making me a lunch, I was able to get ready and out the door in 10 minutes. My parents can testify that that truly is a miracle! I made it to the bus station just in a time for me to catch the Mega Bus with a few minutes to spare. Unfortunately I forgot my lunch in the car, so I was sitting on the bus tired and hungry ready for my 14 hour bus ride to Minneapolis! It all turned out alright in the end though.
I love public transportation, and I am starting to get pretty good at using it. I especially love subways, elevated trains, buses, any kind of inner city transportation. It always very exciting for me because I never used it growing up, and it is always an adventure especially observing the people around you! In Detroit, the public transportation system is NOT one of its high points. The bus system is horrible. You never know if your bus is going to come or not and usually the buses show up late. I feel bad for many of our kids in our programs who have to wait to ride the bus to school everyday. Usually they have to wake up extra early just to catch the bus and make there transfer. It's so different from when I had to wait at the Holland "bus stop" a house over from my house for five minutes, and we were dropped off right at school. Public transportation use to scare me so much, but I have slowly learned how to get around.
It's amazing how I have learned how to get around in different cities. When I was only 18 years old just graduated from high school, I was stranded in London for 4 days by myself while I was on my way to Sierra Leone. Luckily, my parish priest had relatives in London who I was able to stay with for a few days. One of those days, I rode with Mr. Quint to his work in downtown London and explored the city by myself. Who does that as an 18 year old girl? I am from a country who has a very little sense of history, yet I was touring the Tower of London. I ate my homemade lunch on a little bench in Trafalgar Square watching the swarms of people walk by. I rode the tube by myself and made it back to Mr. Quint's office in time to go home for dinner.
I don't know how I have learned how to do these things. I just do them because God has provided me the opportunities to do so. God has given me countless experiences to do things that I never imagined I would be doing except that He is teaching me. I never imagined that God would teach me so much about the inner city and inner city ministry when I decided to attend the University of St. Thomas. It all started with when I served with REVAMP and met these crazy people who had a heart for the city. God slowly started showing me His heart for the city, and I fell in love with Minneapolis and the inner city. Through going to Detroit, I am starting to see how God has given me a heart for His people especially those who are poor and oppressed. Time after time, He calls me to work in the areas where people say "don't go there" or "that's a bad part of town" and yet that's the places I love best! Some how in the last couple of years, I have learned where the homeless people hang out, how to navigate my way through a soup kitchen, and how to speak compassionately yet firmly with beggars and drunks. In the last few years, my world has been completely turned upside down actually it has been taken apart... a prayer I have prayed many times, but that's a whole other blog post!
This Christmas break, my brother picked me up on the boarder of Iowa and Minnesota in our old pick up truck listening to country music and taking the back roads with the millions of stars above us. I looked out on the open fields covered with ice and snow. We drove through small towns a glow with Christmas lights with trucks and cars lining the streets. In Holland, cars park in the middle of he road. I thought about the little cafes with a steady stream of people coming in and out. Small town life includes dirty jeans, flannel shirts, and work boots. I will probably always be a jean and t-shirt kind of girl at heart at least that's what Grandma says. So much of small town life revolves around farming. We all know farmers and at least have some basis of what farm life is like. Many of my friend's families are farmers. My dad worked for two farmers part of my life. Last year, I would pray for the farmers especially during planting and harvest season. My roommate said that she never thought about praying for the farmers. She grew up in the city. It just wasn't a part of her life, but it was a part of mine. Sam, one of the guys I work with, for meal time prayers will always pray for the hands the prepared the food as well as the hands who grew it. I often don't hear people pray for the farmers or the people who work for the food industry, so I always appreciates it when he does.
That night when I got home, I headed out to Johny Ray's a little resturant in the neighboring town where I went to school to meet up with my high school classmates for a mini reunion. We met in the bar drinking American beers and having shots. It was another example of just how different my life had become. It's hard to explain a small town bar, but it's different than a bar in the city. I also have realized how spoiled I have become mostly drinking European beers and having a larger variety on tap. Several of my classmates are getting married and most of them still live close to home. It was really great being able to catch up with them, and it was interesting to see how we all came from the same place, yet how different our paths have been.
I also thought about all the people back in Detroit who laugh at me so much for being from a small town. It all started this summer when I was at a rest stop on the way to Northern Michigan and I took a deep breath looking out over the rolling hills and said "It smells like farm." I guess people from Detroit don't usually here people say that with so much joy in their voice! I love Iowa so much, but I bet I will never live there again. I love that I could be outside all day long playing basketball with the boys, exploring the creek, or riding my bike on the trail. I loved that the sidewalks only purpose was to collect weeds because I walked in the middle of the street. I loved that the only traffic jams in Iowa are from tractors (The first year I had a car in Minneapolis I longed for tractor jams. Now my dad comments on how much my driving has changed since when I lived in Iowa). It was strange walking outside my grandparent's house by myself smiling and chit chatting with the neighbors who I didn't know. I don't usually greet people so openly in Detroit. In Detroit, I am just another face in the crowd while back home in Iowa I am known by so many people, and I know so many people. I know most of the town and most of the town knows me.
At heart, I will always be a small town girl, but I know that I am being shaped and formed into a Global Minded Woman of God. I am so grateful for my small town roots. I was able to experience a lot of things through being involved in athletics, theater student government, band, year book staff, ect. All of these experiences in school, propelled me into a world of people and opportunities that I have been blessed to be a part of as I continue to grow, learn, and be formed each and every day. I am definitely not a small town girl living in a lonely world as the song says!
