Without Borders | Sin Fronteras

La estatua de madera más grande en todo el mundo - Los sevillanos lo llaman El Hongo.  |  The largest wooden statue in the world - The Sevillans call it The Mushroom. Aquí estoy en frente de La Giralda - es la catedral gótica más grande en todo el mundo.  |  Here I am in front of The Giralda - it is the largest gothic cathedral in the world.  Uno de los edificios en la Plaza Nueva cerca del Ayuntamiento de Sevilla  |  One of the buildings in the Plaza Nueva near the town hall of Sevilla.  Una de las vistas de mi camino a la escuela cada mañana  |  One of the views from my walk to school every morning.  El Torre de Oro - Uno de los edificios más famosos de Seville, fue construido en el siglo XIII y fue utilizado como cárcel  |  The Tower of Gold - One of the most famous buildings in Sevilla, it was constructed in the 13th century and it was used as a prison.  La Plaza de España ...

Pues...nuestro viaje a Sevilla fue una gran aventura! Salimos tarde de Chicago y nos perdimos nuestro segundo vuelo en Madrid. Entonces pasamos seis horas en el aeropuerto y volamos a Jerez en vez de Sevilla. Finalmente tomamos un autobús a Sevilla para conocer a nuestras familias anfitriones. Fue un día muy larga pero había mucho tiempo para conocer a las otras estudiantes en el programa!  Llegamos al apartamento de mi familia anfitriona a las 8:30 de la tarde (si todavía fue la tarde porque fue antes de la cena) y cenamos juntos--fue mi madre anfitriona, su hermana, mi compañera de cuarto y dos otras chicas de Alemania. Comimos sopa, ensalada y una tortilla española (es como un omelette con patatas y huevos) con naranjas para el postre. Las naranjas aquí son deliciosas y son famosas en todo el mundo. Hay arboles de naranjas en todas las calles y no puedo esperar a la primavera cuando el aire olerá como naranjas. En la mañana tuve un desayuno de pan con mermelada y zumo (jugo...

For those of you who don't know, I will be working for a Christian organization called YouthWorks over the summer! I am SO excited to be entering into this season of ministry as I have the opportunity to work alongside high school students as we serve the people of Kansas City, Kansas!  As I write this, I am in the midst of a week of training (called RAMP) in Minneapolis. My time at RAMP has mostly been spent getting to know my team and preparing for my role as a service coordinator. As a service coordinator, I will be working with different service partners (local ministries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc.) within Kansas City to organize service projects for the youth groups and high school students that will be coming to our site each week. I will also be working with my team to run meal times, devotionals, praise and worship, and everything else that goes into a typical mission trip. While we still have a lot to learn and figure out before the summer officially starts...

So apparently I am not so great at consistently updating my blog on a regular basis. It has been quite some time since I have written anything considering that it is now the day after Thanksgiving and the last time I posted was this summer while I was in Taiwan. This semester has been mostly busy and chaotic, and I am glad that I have finally found the time to put some of my thoughts into words.  _______________________________________________________________ In light of it being Thanksgiving break, I have decided to write a "thankful post" similar to those currently trending on social media (I apologize for the cliché-ness). God has blessed me abundantly in the past few months and I don't know if I can fully express my gratitude in words, but I will try my best.  To start with, I am thankful that I have the opportunity to be studying at Northwestern College. I am constantly challenged to grow in my relationship with Christ and with others. I am challenged to discu...

Today was definitely the best, yet most difficult, day of our trip so far. It was the last day of our camp in Pingtung (a city in southern Taiwan) and we had to say goodbye to all of the students and host families we spent the last five days with. I have never seen so many people cry or say "I love you" when saying goodbye. Even though we only spent a few days with these students, we created really strong bonds of friendships with each other. The first two days were spent doing presentations, news conferences, and MANY crazy songs and dances (they love the chicken dance). I had opportunities to share my faith in almost every group discussion because the topics talked, such as family, marriage, and blessings, always seemed to connect back to my own faith. My group seemed very open to hearing about my life as a Christian. On the third day we went on a tour of a solar power plant and on the fourth day we traveled to Kenting National Park and went to the beach! Of course, most Ta...

After more that 24 hours of traveling, we finally arrived at the airport in Taiwan at about 9:30 pm on Thursday night. We then took a half hour bus ride to the hotel in Taipei (the capital of Taiwan). Thankfully, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep right away and was able to get a good nights rest. In the morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel and then walked to the Mass Rapid Transit or MRT, which is similar to a subway system in the US. We rode on the MRT for about 20min to get to the high-speed rail train. The high-speed rail took us from Taipei in the north to Zuoying in the south in about an hour and a half, and there was beautiful scenery along the way. I found it interesting that most people in Taiwan seem to be very quiet in public places and then you have our little group talking non-stop, taking selfies, and generally being loud, typical Americans.             When we arrived in Zuoying, ...

I can't believe that I leave for Taiwan in one week! (which means that I should probably start packing) For those of you who haven't heard anything about my trip, I have the opportunity to go to Taiwan this summer and work with some high school students as we participate in the first Taiwanese and American Young Leaders' Camp. I will be going with fellow students and faculty members from NWC, along with a few other Americans. I leave on June 25th and will return on July 30th. For the first few days, we will be attending an orientation with other Americans who will be doing various missions work in Taiwan this summer. Then we will be leading/participating in several youth camps where we will discuss topics such as leadership, family, society, community, nation, and world. Our main responsibilities will be presenting on the topic of "community" and leading group discussions. An NWC alumnus has been working very hard to put these camps together and he hopes that we ...