1st'

This year has been a year of firsts'

I started actually a little before this year started...in fact this blog has been part of that journey.

I realized that I have lived in this town Santa Cruz as a college student 5 summers, and as an adult, now starting my 3rd year. Its this third year and the third thought of: Why do we, (being myself and friends) always go to the same locations to eat and play? Why not explore? Why not be open to all that is out there. Going to new places that I have never been is part of that journey.

I have always been safe and practical. i walk in life very very carefully. I am afraid of many things, but the unknown scares me the most. So when I started writing this blog the Theme "Be Open" was something God had really been impressing on my heart for months before. Its a total God thing that this year for our Mexico team, our theme that we stumbled across was and is "Wide open", Todd had no idea where God was taking my heart in this year 3. That has only encouraged my journey.

So as I have walked through this year it indeed has been full of mixed emotions, and trying to listen to my heart, trying to mend things as soon as they need to be mended, changes in life in love, changes in friendships, changes in ministry, changes in students lives, changes in family. All things are not easy, but this year has been about being open to things for the first time. My eyes have been in awe daily, and my heart has been in a fragile place. 

But this I know as truth:

"But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently." Romans 8:25

I cannot say that this wait in life has been or will be something where patience is easy...because that has proven to not be true. Alas for the first time in my life God is working on helping me understand what it means to wait. He for the first time is granting me some of the desires of my heart. He for the first time is teaching me how to Trust Him more than I care to admit or acknowledge until now. He is granting me Hope through people and Vistas in my life. How grateful a

nd how intrigued i am for what lies ahead.  Mi Vida is an Open Road. I have not idea what lies ahead but I am Taking this Journey forward, and honestly thats a first.