The Bachelorette

I have to admit, being single is awesome. I would know, seeing as how I lived it for 26 years. I had plenty of those girl times when I complained about not being in a relationship, but that was probably just because everyone else was doing it.  I just felt left out, really.  When you're single, you don't have to schedule your life with anyone else. You cook for yourself, no one cares if the dishes are done, you kill your own bugs, your bad day only affects you (and maybe your pet), and you can go out with any friend anytime you want or go on girl trips to the beach anytime you want. I went on one of those girl trips to the beach this weekend, but it was because I'm not single anymore. Weird. It's weird that the tradition of the "Bachelorette Party" is what it is. It's like your life is ending and you need one last crazy trip or night out before you get sold into the last form of slavery.  I'm glad this isn't the case for me.  I'm glad that some of my best friends from all different stages of my life wanted to risk their lives to the raccoons and tornado warnings to go camping with me this weekend.  And they did it to celebrate my upcoming marriage.  It was a celebration of a new stage in my life.  Not a bad one, and not some super magical one.  I didn't have an incomplete life before I met Eric, and I certainly won't have a complete life when we get married.  Singleness isn't near as good as my life with Eric will be (that's why I'm marrying him) but it was really awesome. And the cool thing is that the Lord was and is faithful in both and I need Him desperately in both.  If you've spent any time with the different variety of my friends, you know that I will ALWAYS need time with them.  Girl time is this weird sacred thing that we all need in every age and stage of life and can only be illustrated in movies I think. Good thing Wiebs knows this and supports it ;) It was a lovely weekend and I'm beyond blessed to have a group of friends who love and support me as a person and accept Eric as worthy of the rest of my life.  That's just how us girls look out for each other. I'm really thankful for that. #wiebergwedding

Marriage and the Royals

Eric and I learned a ton of cool stuff in marriage counseling with Phud.  We went through Tim Keller's "Meaning of Marriage" and there were things in the book that I have never thought of, things that were hard to swallow, and things that I think me and Eric have a pretty good jump start on.  He did mention this one thing throughout the book that I have noticed recently:

"If your purpose in marriage was to aquire a "soul mate"-- a person who would not change you and would supportively help you reach your life goals--then this particular reality of marriage will be deeply disorienting." 

He's talking about how your spouse will change. Age, jobs, children, everything will change us in some way and the spouse you first married won't be the same person in several years.  We change, and it's a good thing.  At least I hope I get more sanctified, get better at becoming a good wife, be more loving and selfless than I am now. So let's talk about a change that Eric has been instrumental in helping me with: the Kansas City Royals.  I used to not care that much about baseball.  I mean when you got 300 games a season and almost all of them are played during the hours you're at work, how can you follow that?  Well last week, he took me to my first (of many more I hope) Royals games.

And it was AWESOME.  It was a beautiful night (so that helped) and the stadium with all the fountains in the outfield was super cool.  And they won the game, so that was even better.  But why the Royals?  WHY is anyone a fan of this team? That's a great question and I'm not sure how anyone would answer it.  But I like that.  They suck, they don't have any superstar players, and apparently their management is a bunch of morons.  Listening to Eric and his Dad argue about this team for hours has done two things: make me wish I was in a different room when it starts, and really root for the guys in blue and white.  Royals-lovers for the past at least 20 years have gotten no rewards for being a fan.  The team does not pay them back with wins or really any kind of good decision making. But I kinda like being a part of that.  No stress, no pressure, no hiring and firing overnight.  And I like the players.  I like the way Eric Hosmer looks, I like Billy Butler's nickname, "Country Breakfast" and I like Alcides Escobar, their shortstop who I researched and decided to be my favorite player.  I'm partial to South Americans lately. I've mostly been a Yankees fan, and Derek will always have the #1 spot in my baseball heart, but I must say....my really hot fiance has got me cheering for the losers. Maybe it's because I love him so much.

You thought this blog post was about to get deep, right? Sorry, it didn't. Go Royals!

Back the Buzz

Sometimes the world of sports makes me sad.  Lots of corrupt players, money-hungry owners, stupid decision making, lawsuits, horrible injuries.  But sometimes the world of sports makes me want to buy a ticket.  Like when the Charlotte Bobcats disappear, bringing back the epic CHARLOTTE HORNETS.

Ok, before people get all on my case about caring about this too much (aka my fiance who I love more than anything) just know that this isn't world news.  No one cares about this mascot change except children of the 90's, Charlotte area natives, and rappers.  But since I'm all of those things, I care deeply.  No team in the history of teams has ever been worse than the Bobcats.  That orange and navy blue that within the past couple of years has changed to sky blue (I guess to please the UNC fans) doesn't even match.  They haven't had a single celebrity player, not even bobble-head worthy since the name change, and we all know that in the NBA, this doesn't fly.  If Jay-Z isn't your homie sitting court-side at your games, you're a nobody.  And don't even get me started on that mascot.  RUFUS?  Even if the guy were a REAL bobcat, he wouldn't be cool.

But THIS GUY.

I'm not saying bringing back Hugo in all his glory will turn Charlotte into some power house NBA town.  That will certainly never happen in my lifetime.  But what I'm excited about is having the good ole team back. I'm glad Air Jordan finally did something (anything) with his money. If you won't spend money on players, at least spend it on potential cool throwback merchandise.  Us Carolinians loved the teal and purple, the Charlotte Coliseum, and Muggsy Bogues in pinstripes.  They won a sad 20 games in their first season, but sold out 364 consecutive games.  Will that streak of popularity reign again? Will Charlotte be the same NBA town it once was? Maybe not.  I agree that if they don't win games, no one will give a crap about their team colors or mascot.  And given their recent 4th lottery pick in the NBA draft for 2014, they're still losers.  Either way, welcome back to the Queen City, you guys.  This is where you belong and I hope you never leave us again.  I also hope Starter Jackets come back into style. I'm just going to give the City of Charlotte credit for that one, too. If you were cool in the 90's, you know what's up.

How to Plan a Wedding

When I said yes to marrying Eric, that lead to then planning a wedding. Which I knew. The only thing I didn't know is how many shades of red there actually are in this world. Is there any way to get "garnet" to be a nationally recognized color? Because I don't think it is yet.  Anyways, I can't tell you how many people told me to elope on January 16th (the day after we got engaged).  Actually, people are still telling me that.  On August 16th (the day before we get married) I might wish I had listened to them.  But that idea is selfish. This wedding is obvs about me and Eric, but it's just as much about our families and friends who we would be completely lost without growing up in this world.  It's about my 4 bridesmaids who have stood beside me every difficult and ridiculously fun moment of my life, and not just in a black dress on August 17th.  It's about celebrating marriage because marriage can actually be a really great thing, something I haven't always been convinced of.  It's about having the party of the century because, well, parties are awesome and marrying my best friend is a HUGE reason to party for many hours.  So am I stressed about planning this one day? I'd be lying if I said the price of everything doesn't make my heart want to die a little bit (sorry Dad!) or that selecting a venue didn't keep me awake a night or two.  But planning this day so far has been really fun.  Every time I think something or someone is stupid, I just think about the future moment when everyone is dancing to early 2000's Flo Rida songs and I'm cool.  I also have the perspective that marrying Eric has very little to do with one day of our lives.  Pre-marriage counseling, which will probably be a set of more blog posts to come, has really shown me what marriage is and what it isn't.  Very little of it (actually none of it) has to do with this period of being engaged and planning the big day.  This one big day is a celebration.  Not a burden, not dependent on the rest of our lives, and certainly not a fairy tale.  I'm gonna let Disney handle the fairy tales.  August 17th is the day where Missouri and South Carolina eat, drink, and dance in the same room and me and Eric officially start fun adventures.

On the other hand, guys, I'm not dumb.  There will be things I hate about planning a wedding.  I've already experienced some of them.  And a wedding and marriage is a HUGE deal, I'm not trying to make it sound like it's all whatever.  Like I said, Jesus has been teaching us a lot about marriage.  Stuff that will take me years to experience and process.  But for now, my best advice on planning a wedding is to just plan it.  It's a miracle that a day like this comes together perfectly, but it always does.

Last Week's Current News

Last week could've been better.  But by Friday, things were looking up.

The dark knight got into more trouble than she ever has on Wednesday night, which is saying a lot.  She got loose from the yard and ran straight into the road and the side of a car.  It sounds funny when you say it like that, but at the time it was anything but funny.  She was limping on her left leg for a couple of days and after a few x-rays, the doctor says it's just a muscle thing.  She's on some good meds for this week and given her soccer ball session yesterday where she ran and jumped completely normal, I think it's safe to say she's on the way to a full recovery.  Now if I could just get her to look both ways. 

The Boston bombings.  What the crap was that? I was immediately glued to the TV, as I had a good friend who was running the marathon and her husband was there with her.  Luckily she is fast and had finished the race before anything happened.  Then watching all the manhunt footage was like watching a Chris Nolan movie.  All I know is that April seems to be the popular month for crazies to carry out their mass killings.  Now instead of supporting Boston and looking for some encouragement in all this, it's about to turn into some huge immigration reform discussion.  Just like the gun thing did a couple months ago that got everybody all mad at everything. I mean I get it, people hate America.  We can't help that we're the best, we support freedom, we have money.  This is my all-time argument as a Yankees fan, too.  What if your team won 27 World Series titles and bought the best players because they had the money to do it?  You wouldn't hate it.  But that's another discussion for another blog post.  You don't want to do that battle with me.

This is happily how my week ended though.  HUGE props to my community group who volunteered their help on tailgate & fireworks night. Way to serve our City, groupies!

Colombia (Part Dos)

So I went to Colombia. And the best part was that I made it out alive (if you ask the right people, they weren’t sure if that was going to happen).  I didn’t see or take any drugs. And I didn’t get robbed (ironically that happened to me in America).  But I did talk to strangers.  A lot of them, actually.  We met with people in a town called Cienaga, about 40 minutes south of Santa Marta.  Every day that we drove through that town, I was kind of ashamed to admit I’d never seen poverty like that before.  The people whose houses we visited were barely houses, everything was dirty, and most people who lived in Cienaga really had nothing.  But what Jesus taught me through seeing that every day and meeting with those people is that He levels the playing field.  It wasn’t a typical trip where I wanted to just go and build them another house or give them all my money.  Sure, I would love for every one of my new friends to have a clean house with air conditioning and clean water and food.  But I want them to have Jesus more.  I want them to have a better life after this one, because this one doesn’t take any of us very far. 

God sent six of his people, people like an engineer, a recreator, a student, a Starbucks barista to share the gospel with Colombians.  About one and a half of us knew any Spanish words.  As we walked up to stranger’s doors, really cool things happened and at least 20 people came to know Jesus in our 10 days!  The long-term missionary serving in Colombia, Jon, and I went to several people’s houses throughout the week and I got to talk to people who were hurting financially, physically, spiritually, emotionally.  I got to share my testimony probably 15 to 20 times and it was crazy to see grown men and women come to tears over what God has done in this one white American girl’s life.  One man in his probably late 40’s, (a linebacker-sized, big dude!) cried and told me how grateful he was that I shared what God has done in my life.  I was blown away by that.  Why a complete stranger who was listening to my little life story through a translator got brought to tears, I’ll never get that one.  I also talked to another 26 year-old girl, who as I told her my testimony, she had pretty much the exact same life story.  She was unsure about why she ever went to church growing up and now she just didn’t feel like she fit in so she stopped going.  We talked a lot about how our stories were similar, and I was stoked to see her and her husband come to the worship night we had at the church the last night we were there!  God did some cool stuff, by just calling us to step out and talk to people about the gospel.

It’s awesome what He taught me about missions and about myself through those days.  When Christians yell at me to care about missions, I got nervous because I used to think it meant I had to sell everything and move to the mountains of a country I can’t pronounce.  Maybe that will be the case someday.  But until then, I’ll be obedient to caring about missions in the exact way that He calls me to care about missions.  I won’t get to go on a trip like this every year for the rest of my life, and I may not visit South America ever again (although I sure hope I do!)  As I got back on the plane headed north after 10 days, I was happy to.  I have a great life here, a great fiancé here, and a great job that I believe God has absolutely gifted me for.  With that job, I’ll give every cent that I sacrificially can so that someone else can go overseas on mission. I didn’t come back from Colombia thinking that the six of us changed the world or feeling like we would when we got back.  But I did come back with a burden for people’s souls, that they know who they are because of the gospel. Jon asked us on the first day, “What would be a successful trip for you?” It was to be obedient in sharing the gospel, no matter the outcome.  That’s all we can do, and it’s what He’s called me to do with my life, in this country or in one really far away.  Ready to do it all again next year!

Colombia

You may or may not know that I’m going to Colombia (the South America one) in a couple weeks.  I’m not writing this because I have to give reasons why I’m going or to convince everyone that I’m a good Christian.  I guess I’m sharing because the Lord has been teaching this white American mid-20’s girl about foreign missions, a little something that has never happened before recently.  So let’s chat.

There was a time in my life when I let certain articles that I would read or certain people’s opinions make me believe that short-term missions weren't effective.  When I hear that, I just assume I’m out of luck because up until this point in my life, God hasn't called me to go overseas for a long period of time.  If you set aside the fact that God loves PEOPLE, little week-long trips such as this one don’t matter much. The typical short term trip to another country goes like this: a group of really rich Americans (because we are) head over to an underprivileged country, play with some kids we will never see again, those kids love us, we maybe fix a house or build a new one, we observe how dirty and poor everything is, and we return home to be changed for a couple months.  Sometimes we even get rid of some of our junk because we feel “too American” and rich and now it’s time to go live in the ghetto because Jesus has changed our standards on how we should appreciate our “stuff.”  These are the short term effects of a short term mission trip.

But that’s when we set aside the fact that Jesus loves PEOPLE.  This includes a white American mid-20’s girl and a Colombian child who don’t speak the same language.  Our skin is different, our culture is different, our standard of living is different, but we are loved the same.  I have an obligation to speak and show the Gospel.  To the nations that I get a really sweet opportunity to visit, and to my neighbors on Myrtle Drive in Rock Hill.  Sure we’ll fix up a yard or paint a house while we’re there.  We’ll play soccer with some kids. We’ll come back loving hot showers and looking at our lives as though we've been blessed with more than we could ever ask for, because that’s true.  But that’s not why I've been called to a mission trip overseas.  Jesus has been changing my heart little by little for foreign missions in a way that I've never looked at over the past year or so.  He wants me to care about the nations because He does.  He cares more about the souls of the few Colombians we’ll meet WAY more than we ever will and He wants the 6 of us to go.  He wants us believers to say yes to the nations from our couch in America by giving or praying, and if we get called to GO, then even more yes.  I’m going to Colombia because if I say I love Jesus then I have to love my neighbor, and I don’t get to choose who that is.  Those who are fortunate enough to give their life to serve overseas for several years are awesome, but they aren't the only ones who are called to love other countries.  I've been given this 8 day opportunity, so I’m taking it.  Not for a pat on the back, not for an extra batch of rewards in heaven, and nothing good that may come of it will be to our credit. I don't want God to change the way I view my stuff.  I want him to constantly be changing the way I view other people because they have souls, they're loved just as much as I am, and they're far away without the Gospel.

Also, the temperature will be in the 90's the whole week, so, that's reason enough to go. See yall in a week.