I do not always have time to get on the internet here, or to spend the time I’d like sharing stories with you. I have things I want to tell though, so although time has gone by and things are out of order, this explains the multiple posts today covering a span of time. Forewarning: this will probably happen again some time in the future 😀
Archive for August, 2010
I arrived in Holland! I’ve been here about three days now. It was really quite smooth to get here and my luggage came off the conveyor belt quickly, all of it, so that was a big blessing. I felt like a ridiculous American for having so much luggage, but that’s the deal when packing for 3 years. ‘3’ – I can’t even picture it to any real amount. I just don’t know what I’m getting ready to do, so I can’t picture having done 3 years of it, I’ve met some of the faces going to Chile for the 9 month program, so it’ll be neat to get to know them better. Of the 11 or 12 of us going to Chile (I’m the only 3 year person, the rest are in the 9 month program), I am the only American. The team is made up of people from Germany, Holland, Norway, Finland, and the U.K.
Holland is beautiful. Right outside the airport are sunflowers growing. OM people met us at the airport, helping things run smoothly. We drove in an old manual steering and transmission Ford van. We drove ~3 hours out to a camp, and the drive was beautiful! Everything is so green and lush and growing here. I stayed awake the whole drive so I could keep looking at the countryside. I get weird looks in America when I comment on the prettiness of a barn, so I’ll probably get it here, too, but the barns here are big, lumbering beauties. The horses are huge!! I mean they have some “normal” size horses running around, but when I look out in the fields I see big, tall, muscled, powerful, beaUTIFUL horses! Their cows and sheep are all rather large, too, but it makes sense because they have plenty to eat here. I looked out the window as we drove and saw sheep front-kneeling to eat the lush grass, and I just had to smile. I understand why it’s so lush because, although the day we arrived it was sunny and beautiful and cool with a refreshing wind (so nice after 90+ temps in Kentucky all summer!), the rest of the time it has rained. And I mean rained! I can’t believe how much this ground can absorb. It’s pretty amazing.
I’m still fighting the time change. I’m seven hours ahead of my internal clock, so mornings are pretty rough. Trying to pay attention to a speaker in the for-me middle of the night is a battle royale between my mind and my body, but I’m slowly conquering the jet lag.
There are around 270 of us here getting ready to go to our respective fields. There are ~50 Americans but we’re outnumbered by the 60 or so Germans here. It’s odd to have a translator working in sessions and to not hear Spanish as the translation, but German. I’m definitely not in America anymore :D. Everyone speaks English but to differing degrees. It’s been really neat to sit and have conversations with people coming from all over the world and going to all over the world. At one table there can be people from Sweden, Colombia, South Korea, Norway, Russia, Brazil…; there are many, many countries represented here, and it’s beautiful to worship together.
Our God is greater, our God is power, our God is higher than any other … and if our God is with us, then who can ever stop us? And if our God is with us, then what can stand against? What can stand against?
But he’s no match for the Mightiest!!
Two Tuesdays ago, August 17th, I moved out of my apartment. Bleagh. Moving=not fun. My friend, Jason, bless the man, helped me move my big stuff on Monday and put it up in my parents’ attic, along with Dad’s help. Thank the Lord for friends with trucks :D. Tuesday Mom and I spent the day packing up all the last things, those annoying little things that have not yet found a space in another box because its purpose is not absolutely clear but it shouldn’t be thrown away. You know what I’m talking about. The move was made many times harder by the extra complication of packing for Chile at the same time. It meant that I couldn’t just move a bucket of stuff with me the way I’d moved it with me since college, never unpacking it. I now had to go through every single bit of paper I’d saved, every box that hadn’t been unpacked, every bag that had things in its pockets. If it was important enough to save, pack it. If it needed to go to Chile, pack it somewhere else. If it wasn’t important, trash it, or recycle it, or goodwill it, or friend it, or….
It was exhausting.
Mom and I finally finished and she headed home. I went on a whirlwind of errands, planning to meet her at home. However…
…I had not planned on having an absolute meltdown in the Walmart parking lot. But I did. I had walked out of the store putting my money in my wallet, and I got in my car. Seeing a flyer on my windshield, I got back out, grabbed it, got in and drove off. I stopped soon after to get a drink but I couldn’t find my wallet. Small eek. I got out and looked through my car and couldn’t find it. I wondered if I’d had my wallet on my lap when I got out to grab the flyer, and with a sinking feeling drove back to the Walmart parking lot, parking as close as I could get to where I’d been.
I didn’t see it.
I crouched to check under the cars around me. I didn’t see it.
I checked all over my car again. Didn’t see it.
I went to Walmart’s service center to see if it had been turned in. Nope.
Mom called as I was going through another fruitless search, and as she happily chatted, my face crumpled. As soon as she breathed, I interrupted her, wailing, “I can’t find my wallet!!! I-went-into-walmart-and-when-i-came-out-there-was-a-flyer-and…” hiccup. hiccup. She said Dad was on his way.
After I knew Dad was coming I gave up searching. I just sat in the car and sobbed. And I mean sobbed. I don’t remember the last time I cried that uncontrollably. I was so tired and worn out, physically from moving and emotionally from saying goodbyes, and I hadn’t really dealt with a lot of my emotions so this was the trigger. It just got worse as the thoughts occurred to me that I’d have to get a new driver’s license – with less than a week in America. I’d have to cancel my credit cards and get new ones – with less than a week in America. I’d put my plane ticket on my credit card so I could check in with it, and now I wouldn’t be able to… I worried a few passers-by with the volume and power of my crying. I choked out, “God, I can’t handle this right now. I just can’t handle this. Get Satan away from me and help me, Lord, because I can’t handle this…”
When Dad pulled up next to me he let me wet the shoulder of his shirt for a bit and then told me to get in his car and cool off while he searched. Sobs continued (that’s getting redundant). Mid-meltdown I looked up and through the windshield I saw him holding up… hoorah! My wallet! I wet his shirt more in gratitude and relief and exhaustion. All of the terrible things that would have happened weren’t going to. He said it had fallen between my driver’s seat and the console, but not all the way to the floor. Somehow it lodged itself up underneath the driver’s seat so I couldn’t see or feel it at all. It couldn’t hide from Dad’s handy-dandy flashlight, though.
So, crisis averted. Exhausted Whitney got home. Thankful Whitney praised God, hugged Dad again, and told the devil “nice try”, but fail!
His fail was even bigger when, the very next day, I checked my support raising and I was 100% supported!!!!!! God is so good, and so faithful, and so awe-inspiring. In the span of about two months I went from 0 to 100% support. Praise God! And thank you so much to my sending partners.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!! In less than a week I will be winging my way towards Amsterdam, then onward to Santiago! I have bought my ticket (which made all of this very, very real). It’s been amazing and humbling and miraculous to watch God work. I mean, really, in the span of about 2 months I am now just shy of being fully supported! To see people wanting to partner with me, well, it’s been pretty incredible. I have $59 a month left to raise. $59! That’s it.
God is good.
It’s been a busy time around this whitney joint lately (…underSTATEment…). In the last two days I’ve moved out of my apartment and shoved a lot of stuff up into my parents’ attic. Tell you what, I am glad i had such a huge yard sale in July, because I still have way too much stuff; I can’t picture what it would have been like if I’d had all of it. I also found myself wishing I’d had a first floor apartment. whew! ibuprofen is my friend, though, as well as Jason, Becky, Mom and Dad, and I am officially out.
Two weekends ago I had the honor and pleasure of photographing the wedding of my awesome friend, Selena, and her awesome now-husband, Tanner. It was brilliant. It’s been so flippin hot and humid around here for pretty much the whole summer, but their weekend was the one blip on that trend, and the weather was beautiful! It was great to hang out with wonderful friends and wear a number of different proverbial hats. i got to play a little bit of florist, makeup artist, jill-of-all-trades, and of course photographer. it was brilliant to be there as those two got hitched.
My sister is here!! It’s awesome, and it’s wonderful that she was able to come because it’s still crazy busy at the Young Life camp where she works. She was able to finagle a small window, though, so it’s great to have the four of us together. We’re trying to spend as much time together as possible.
This seems very disjointed and choppy, but I’ve already gone a very long time since my last post, so I’ll go ahead and share this, and continue on soon about what else is happening. Thank you so much for your prayers as my time comes down to the wire.
When I Heard God Laugh... 