have arrived!! What a journey so far!
those of you who like the day to day of what is going on, this paragraph is for
you (the rest who would rather just read the heart stuff, skip to paragraph 2 :).
After realizing that my carryon was too big (I really thought I got those
measurements right) and $35 extra for the checked bag later, my sweet friend
Nella dropped me off at the airport to catch my 6am flight. From there, I flew
into Newark, NY, before flying onto Baltimore. In Baltimore, I tracked down the
Metro B 30 bus to take me to the Metro.
Once
there, I took the metro to my friends stop to where both the amazing Blake
Rushing and Samantha Moore (World Racers) picked me up! We went and dropped my
stuff off and then headed to Samantha’s bible study (Awesome women there by the
way!). From there, Blake picked me up and then gave me a little driving tour of
the city, amazing! Couldn’t fall asleep
until 2:30 or so last night (yay time change), and then this morning went for a
long walk exploring the SE of DC. Needless to say it has been an awesome first
part of my trip. Getting up at 4am yesterday to spend time in the word and just
really devoting this trip to Him before Nella came to pick me up, and also
getting to spend some me and Jesus time wandering the city today, I feel like I
am off to an amazing start.
Rathkey, an amazing pastor from Solid Rock church, gave those interested in
becoming mentors for college age students a book called Worlds Apart, by Chuck Bomar
(Highly recommend it if you are trying to get a better grasp on
parenting/mentoring/working with 18-25 year olds).
Not
only is this book really preparing my heart for the other interns in my
program, the interns I will be working with on the Hill, but also just some
really good personal discovery. Being 24, I still fit into that age bracket. It
would take too long to describe everything I am learning from the book, but the
main thing is that this age is SUCH a time of self discovery. This is the age
in which we finally have the cognitive ability to really start to process the
questions of ‘Who am I?’ ‘What is important to me?’ ‘How did God create me?’
and so on (check out 1 Peter 1:13, 1 Peter 2:4-11 and Ephesians 1:3-14). It’s a time when we are looking to role models (whether we realize
it or not), and really just need to process through a LOT. A lot of this
processing comes from watching people’s lives that we want to maybe someday be
like, or aspects of them we want to integrate into our own
life/personality/character. Really it is a time of where we are searching for identity. The book states, and I very
much agree, that the answers to these questions will not be found until your
identity is truly in God alone; not sociological pursuits, not relationships,
job, circumstances…these things matter, but they will never answer the deepest
questions of ‘Who am I?’ ‘Why am I here?’ ‘What do I place my hope in?’ ‘What
commitments do I want to shape my life?’
God is so good and so faithful to walk through this
processing time with us all. Maybe you are fifty and still need to walk through
this processing time. Either way, I would love for you to join me on this
journey through D.C. as I attempt to help others as they wrestle through these
big questions, and myself as I take time to learn not only about myself but
really who God is and who He says I am 🙂.
Tomorrow evening I go to meet up with the others in my
program and then we will be off for a retreat weekend to all get to know each
other and talk about this summer! As always, I truly appreciate your prayers
and look forward to going on this journey with you!! 🙂
Grace, peace and many blessings,
Natalie
adorable town house neighborhood!
little duck pond to spend some time with Jesus 🙂
Memorial Statue
beautiful walk today 🙂
is everywhere!
