I was meandering through this ole blog of mine, and found my way to my bio. I decided to write a little bit of an update, because although most of that stuff is true that I wrote initially, life has moved forward since the World Race. I got back from the Race at the end of June 2010 and a week later started dating a guy from my team. If you think you're going to die because you like someone on your team and you don't think you can survive a year of repressed feelings, feel free to email me for tips, because I'm here to testify that it is possible!
I'm now a happily married California girl. I'm in grad school and I'm teaching ESL. Life is grand.
You can find out more at my new blog here.
(Updated 09/01/2012)
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My name is Chelsea, but I love my middle name, so I often refer to myself as Chelsea Kim. I love Jesus, peace, Spanish, and community. I'm 22 and just finished my final year of school at the University of Toledo in Ohio. I graduated with a dual degree in Communications and Spanish. I've known since high school that I wanted to do some type of missions after I graduate from college, and I'm so excited that the time is actually here to be able to do that!
I have a huge heart for international missions, which I attribute in part to my background in a strong Christian family and missions-focused church. I love traveling and have had the opportunity to do ministry in Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Rome. I've traveled to Spain for a week-long trip in high school, Korea for a one week conference through Campus Crusade for Christ, and last spring semester I spent 4 months in Costa Rica studying Spanish and loving life at the beach. 🙂 Here's a picture of a sunset I witnessed on Isla Venado, in Costa Rica.
I grew up in a solid Christian family and attended a Christian high school. That gave me a good background, but I chose to attend a public university because I wanted to get out of the environment where everyone had a kind of similar point of view. I love diversity and talking to people who think and believe differently than me, so going on the World Race seems like the ideal ministry opportunity. I can't believe that I could travel, live in community, and serve God for an entire year. I'm not sure where I'll end up long term, whether in the United States of overseas, but I know that I want to serve God throughout my life, and I think the World Race is a good first step for my journey in trusting God post-graduation.
I've been learning a lot lately about what it means to be a pilgrim traveling the straight and narrow. I actually read this great article on the Wrecked for the Ordinary website about learning to be a pilgrim and it really struck a chord with me. I love Romans 8:15 in the Message version. It reads, "This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, 'what's next, Papa?'" As I await what God has for me, I am excited, knowing that what He has in store is much better than anything I could think of for myself.
A little more about me…
*My family is a huge part of my life and I love them very much! I'm the second oldest out of my siblings. I have 4 sisters, ranging from age 23 all the way down to 5 and I love spending time with them. Here's a family pic. From the top left is Kayleigh, Shanna, me, Dad in the middle, and then on the bottom from the left is Kira, my mom, and Eva.
*I love to eat. Some of my favorite foods are goldfish, chocolate covered pretzels, Chipotle burritos, and broccoli cheddar soup from Panera. Those are probably the foods that I'm going to crave when we're traveling around the world.
*I love reading, too! I'm always in the middle of about 6 books at a time, and sometimes I have the problem of never finishing a book. I always feel like there's never enough time in the day to read everything I want to read.
*I have an obsession with Spanish. I hope to use it in some way for the rest of my life. I was kinda bummed when they put up our race route and saw that we aren't going to any Spanish-speaking countries, but I'm sure I'll find a way to use it at some point during the year.
I think that's all for now. I'm really happy with life at the moment and content to be finishing up my senior year of school, but I'm also bursting with enthusiasm thinking about the World Race and all that we're going to experience throughout the year.
