New Realities

The G42 House on Calle San Sebastian is always bustling and teeming with interns and guests who are running around the house, laughing, cooking, working, and talking. It's rare that the house is ever empty or left alone to one person, but right now that's where I've found myself. The whole group, including some of the G42 staff members, has gone to hang out at a local pub, something I would normally love to do. All the G42 interns here are well aware of my enthusiasm for social events and have quickly learned how keen I am on getting out of the house, going new places, and meeting new people. However, tonight I had to decline the invitation to go be a social butterfly and be a part of all the excitement and interaction. Instead I decided to stay home and have some alone time.

So the house is quiet. And I'm enjoying sitting here and having the chance to reflect.

A lot has gone on in the last couple weeks. I think I've experienced a little bit of every emotion possible. After I got back from London, we had an incredible and intense week with a teacher from the U.S. named Ted Hanson. Ted is from Bellingham, Washington where he has founded House of Bread Ministry and a training school called the School of Eagles, both ministries in which he is currently involved. In addition, Ted is an apostle and a prophet and does much international travel and public speaking in order to train, activate, and release people into the future God has planned for them.

While he was here, he taught on New Covenant Realities - basically the differences between the old covenant God made with the Israelites and the new covenant that has been established through Jesus Christ. The way he taught was innovative and offered a brand new interpretation on things that I had never considered before. As a result, I found myself mentally and spiritually challenged every moment we were in class. Most of the interns left class every day overwhelmed by the amount of new information that we heard and exhausted by trying to keep up with Ted and understand it all, yet we still felt full and satisfied because we knew that we were retaining and understanding exactly what we needed to for the time being. Throughout that week, I frequently heard phrases along these things: "I have no idea what's going on, but my spirit is getting it and I'm feeling really good about what I am catching onto!"

Basically, we knew we were hearing truth and being changed, but our minds were being blown beyond our comprehension. All that to say, I can't really explain yet what I learned that week. I'm still processing it all, still trying to make sense of it, and still recognizing places that it has hit me in my life and seeing the changes it has caused in my mindset and actions. The good thing is, Ted is coming back next semester and we get another chance to soak up the wisdom and passion that are dripping off of him. That's gonna be another intense, but insanely good week.

The whole week that Ted was here, we had a group of seven people from England visiting to check out G42. I was also cooking dinner that week, so my afternoons were spent cooking and my evenings were spent making new friends :) 

cooking dinner

While cooking, I realized these important things:

              1. I like cooking (even when it's for 22 people!)

              2. I'm not that bad at cooking

              3. Cooking can actually be kind of fun

I know... not all that novel of thoughts, but they were quite revolutionary for me! I always hated cooking and thought I was never capable of doing it, but I actually found last week that not only can I do it, but I can do it without anxiety and stress and can actually have a decent result! Of course, it helps a whole bunch having AnnieRose, my cooking partner, working alongside me in the kitchen with her easygoing and peaceful demeanor, because we always figured out a way to deal with whatever went wrong... and it was never a big deal! 

setting out the yummy food!

I also had a ton of fun with all the English folks visiting, and spent lots of time discussing different English dialects, accents, and odd phrases. It was also really nice having some extra people to hang out with throughout the week. On Friday night after tapas, we all headed down to the local pub (the one where everyone is at now) and hung out there for a bit. When they kicked us out at closing time, we then relocated to the terrace at home where we could sit in the cool night air and look up at the stars. It was brilliant.

dinner with our English friends

Dave Hearn

In the midst of all the fun and excitement with visitors and the thought provoking times with Ted, we were assigned a vision project. I've known about this project since before I even arrived at G42, and I knew that it was going to be a lot of work and a big deal, but I was really looking forward to the day when I actually created it and completed it.

Basically, our vision projects are an opportunity for us to communicate to others what our passion is and what we want to do about it. As I've explained before, this can be anything from a business to a non-profit organization to a ministry - essentially something that we want to start and put into effect in order to share God's love with people around the world. 

Bec Hearn

We haven't presented our projects to each other yet, so I haven't seen or heard about everyone's vision specifics yet, although I know that there are some really cool ideas that have been thought up. During the moments when I wasn't racking my brain to make sense of Ted's life-changing wisdom, cooking dinner, or hanging out with new friends, I was spending time with Andrew or his daughter Bec and son-in-law Dave to try to refine and sharpen my vision. I had a general idea of where I wanted my focus to be, but I had a lot of options and wasn't sure how to narrow it down. A nice conversation with Bec over lunch helped open my eyes to where my heart and passion truly lie and almost instantly provided me with more direction and plans for the future. After recognizing where my heart is and what I want to do, I had a much easier time sitting down to complete my project.

The project itself is simply a five page magazine article that explains our vision and includes the problem, existing solutions, and what our solution to the problem is. Sounds simple, but there's a lot of heart and passion that go into this article, so I definitely took my time with it. I wrote several pages about the problem and how it needs to be fixed, and then I got to the end and suddenly realized I didn't have a concrete solution. Another visit over to Dave and Bec's house, and I walked away with a crystal clear idea for how to materialize my plan. 

the awesome Hearn family

Of course, the plan is flexible and subject to change over time as I grow in my vision and define it more specifically, but for now I have a good lead that will take me where I need to start, and then I can proceed from there. I am quite anxious and excited to share this project with you, as it expresses my heart and is the beginning of what might be something really big in my life. I have a few changes to make still, but be looking for my article to be posted in the next week or two so that you will be able to read it and hear about my vision!

In the meantime, I am going to get some rest and relax and enjoy the last few weeks of the semester!