A Dream Fulfilled

 Some of the most defining and memorable moments in life happen in the most random and unexpected places. For me this was in Panera Bread a few years back. It was a sunny spring Sunday afternoon, and I had set up encampment at a corner table to eat a delicious lunch and spend a few hours studying. As I sat going over notes from class and listening to 311's Amber on repeat, a boisterous and lively group of about ten or twelve people walked in. They all seemed a few years older than me, in their twenties and thirties, and I watched them closely as they pulled some tables together next to me and gathered around to enjoy their Sunday afternoon meal.

I don't know what it was about this group that stood out so much to me. In fact, I still can't really pinpoint exactly what it was that enthralled me so much, but I must admit, I was captivated.

Just some pictures of our group at the beginning of Graduation night

They were nicely dressed, and I could have guessed that they had just come from church. Not only that, but they all seemed to be attractive and well-kept people. But I don't think it was their clothes or looks that intrigued me. I couldn't help but watch out of the corner of my eye and notice how lively this bunch was. The calm and peacefulness that had permeated the restaurant earlier in the morning while I sat in my lonely little corner was now invaded by joyful eruptions of laughter and an excitement and enthusiasm that victoriously dominated the atmosphere.

The Amber song I was listening to seemed to be the perfect score to accompany the scene that was set before me: good friends, enjoying a meal together, enjoying each others' company, laughing,

celebrating and cherishing life.

Playing a game at the dinner table. Guess who won that one! ;-)

My words lack in describing what I saw. But maybe it's not my words, maybe it was just as simple as that - a group of great friends that lived life together and ate together. What I can't explain though is how it affected me so much. For years, I have remembered this brief experience. I have pondered it, dreamt about it, and continually find it being brought back up in my mind at the most unexpected moments. Why such an impacting moment from such a simple encounter? I think something in my heart deeply yearned for what I witnessed that day. Somewhere deep inside me, I knew that this was what life was all about; it's what life was meant for, and everything in me wanted nothing more than to experience the vibrancy and abundance of having a thrilling loving, and exciting community to be a part of one day, just like the one that crossed my path.

I can say with incredible awe and amazement that that dream was finally fulfilled for me recently. And was it ever so unexpected!

All the G42 interns from October-December 2011

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. We had our last week of classes, winding down our lessons and summing up all that we have learned. Many of us scheduled one on one dates to spend time together as our departures neared, on top of planning several group hang outs just for fun. We cleaned, packed, moved out, and all the while prepared for our graduation on Thursday afternoon. It's not a formal ceremony or anything, but simply a chance to get dressed up and celebrate together the change that had happened in each of our lives since we’ve been at G42 and to send off the graduates into the exciting future they have ahead of them. For my graduation I was fortunate enough to be able to have my dad and sister come visit Spain for a few days and participate in my community at G42 during our last week, as well as attend our graduation dinner.

We began the celebrations at Andrew's house for drinks and appetizers. As the sun was setting off the coast of the azul Mediterranean, we snapped some photos of everyone all dolled up in their shnazzy outfits and then relocated inside where it was warm and toasty. People grouped up and began their conversations. I walked around on my own for a bit, capturing some precious moments through my camera lens and feeling revitalized and joyful at the sight of so many of my good friends together, alongside my family, enjoying a beautiful Christmassy night.

December 2011 G42 Graduates!

After everyone was sufficiently full from the appetizers and snacks, we set out for the restaurant where we had a delicious three course dinner awaiting us. Upon walking into the restaurant, I encountered a large square table, beautifully set up for all 20-something of us. It was ironically reminiscent of the romantic Italian dinner table set up in Castagnola, Italy where I celebrated Christmas and several other holidays last year. We took our seats at the table, and the feast began.

Throughout the dinner, we talked, joked, told stories, and played games. We even had a surprise visit from Santa Claus himself, who looked strangely like one of our teachers at G42... ;-)

 

After the main course, we began the handing out of our "diplomas" and the delivery of the graduates' speeches, basically just sharing our heart about what we've experienced and learned in G42 and what we are now walking away with. I am not usually one to be shaky or apprehensive speaking in front of groups, but it took me a few minutes of nervously fumbling through words before I finally settled in the flow of what I was trying to communicate. I think that's what happens when you have something of great value (and great emotion) to share with people you greatly love and respect.

The atmosphere was glamorous and joyful, and filled with a peace that flowed freely between these wonderful people sitting around me.  As my eyes panned around the square table, my heart was warmed at the bright smiling faces of my laughing friends - faces wet with hot sticky tears of overwhelming laughter and sentiments for the special moments we were sharing from our hearts. In a moment, my heart was suddenly aware, and the revelation snuck up on me before I was even prepared to bear it.

This was it. This was the scene I had been dreaming about and hoping for for years... the same magical scene I had seen in those lively people in Panera that Sunday afternoon four years ago – A table of good friends, dressed to their finest and looking sharp as ever, laughing, eating, reminiscing, sharing their hearts,
 Living.

Another simple moment. A special occasion, to be sure, but nothing extraordinary besides a group of loving and joyful friends.

And yet my heart found fulfillment in that moment like it never has before.

 
To be sure, that night will long be a night that I cherish close to my heart for many years to come. One can never forget the feeling of a dream fulfilled.

Life at G42

As I was laying out on the beach this weekend, basking in the sunshine of the Costa del Sol and soaking up the spray of the Mediterranean, I suddenly realized the urgency of communicating what exactly I'm doing here in Spain. I know I've mentioned G42, but most of you are probably still pretty much in the dark as to what it is and what I'm doing and learning, so I'm hoping to shed some light on that today :)

First and foremost, G42 is a leadership academy for young adults (at 23, I'm the youngest one here) who are yearning to bring life and freedom to a world where we too often see poverty, destitution, and bondage reigning. God created the earth with the desire for his beloved creation - human beings - to fill it, subdue it, and bring LIFE. Our goal here at G42 is to share this abundant life of hope, joy, and excitement by building God's kingdom here on earth and acting as Christ's hands and feet to make dead things come alive and to restore the earth to what God originally intended it to be - full of life! This ambition may be worked out in a variety of ways in each of the interns' lives. For some, it will mean planting churches around the world. For others, it may mean starting a non-profit organization or ministry to provide help, love, and stability to troubled people. For others still, it might mean venturing into the corporate world or starting a business of their own to change their community from within. Whatever or wherever it may be that each person ends up, our goal at G42 is to equip and prepare ourselves to reach the potential of who God created us to be and to accomplish on earth the vision he put in each of our hearts!

We start by attending classes in a building down the road (the Epicentro) four days a week, Monday through Thursday. In the mornings, we begin class at 9:30 and go until 12:00 when we break for lunch. The interns all usually head back to our house to make lunch, nap, read, or hang out until 2:00 when we go back for our second session of class for the day. At 4:00, we finish and are free until dinner at 7:00. Dinner time is one of the best parts of the day, because all ten of the interns, plus whatever guests we have over for dinner that night, gather around our table out on the patio and eat, laugh, and chat for as long as we want. Dinner here is never a short affair, but rather we linger, take our time, and relish in good company and great food. While classes and teaching are important, G42 has recognized that some of the most influential times and conversations of our lives happen around the dinner table, amongst community and friends, so we make sure to enjoy and delight in these times.

Fridays are our cleaning and grocery days, and we all split up the chores around the house so that it gets cleaned at least once a week. Throughout the week, we are paired up with a partner (the same person for the whole semester) and assigned the nightly duties of cooking, taking out the trash, or doing dishes. Since we have four teams but only three tasks, that means each team gets one week a month off :) The cooking team always has the most work for the week, since they have to spend every evening cooking for 10-15 people, but preparations are made well in advance - the menu is planned out and the grocery shopping is completed on Friday morning - so things actually go quite smoothly. Most of us don't have much experience cooking for ourselves, let alone for fifteen people, but we enjoy the adventure and the learning experience, and somehow we always end up with delicious food on the table!

Dinners are every night of the week except Saturday (and sometimes Sunday), since most people are usually doing their own thing (which oftentimes involves the beach!). On Fridays the house has dinner together and then everyone involved with G42 comes over for tapas (Spanish tradition) around 8:00. That includes the founder of G42, Andrew Shearman, and his wife Mo, and all of the G42 staff and their families, plus whichever guest teachers may be in town for the week or whatever friends we may have invited that we met on various outings or in town. It's a great and relaxing time - everyone just gets together and hangs out on the terrace enjoying the tapas and drinks everyone has brought over.

 

As you can see from our schedule, we do have quite a bit of free time, but somehow living with 7 other people and being in Spain leaves me busy almost every minute of the day. In between and after classes, we spend lots of time hanging out with each other, reflecting on what we've learned, talking, watching movies, reading together, having dance parties, or wandering around Mijas. During the summer months here in Mijas, you can get tapas and a small drink at any restaurant for only 1.50 euro, so several nights of the week after dinner we hop from restaurant to restaurant to sample a little taste of everything. Some nights we'll worship together, some nights we'll play card games, some nights we'll work on assignments for class, and other nights everyone is in bed by 10:30 (except me of course!). On the weekends, we interns spend a lot of time catching up on life - contacting family members, writing blogs, responding to emails, journaling, and sleeping. When we've had enough time inside, we like to go out to nearby towns and find whatever festivals may be going on that weekend, go shopping, go dancing, and of course.... go to the beach!

Last week all the girls from the house took the bus down to Benalmadena, a town we hadn't been to before, and walked around near the beach. We found a company offering hour-long boat tours for only ten euros a person, so we all hopped on and sailed out onto the Mediterranean for the afternoon. It was such a beautiful day! We even got a chance to stop the boat and jump out into the water and swim around for a bit. The water was freezing, but it was totally worth it :) That may have been the farthest out I've ever been in the open water before! After our boat ride, we walked around a little more until we found a beach that was packed with people and staked a prime spot right in front of the waves. Three or four hours later, completely sunburned and waterlogged, we packed up our things and headed back home on the bus, exhausted but thrilled by our long sunny day at the beach.

Besides our awesome days soaking up the sun on the beach, we also spend a lot of time soaking up new information in class as well. Each week, we have a different teacher or guest speaker that comes in to share with us their stories, knowledge, and advice, gained from years of practical experience in their specialized fields. G42 is structured into four three-month semesters per year, starting in January, April, July, and October. The full program is six months long, or two semesters, and an intern can start at the beginning of any one of the terms. January and July are identical terms, focusing more on the business side of things and trying to build up our entrepreneurial skills. Likewise, the April and October terms are the same, really concentrating on personal spiritual growth and developing the vision that God has put in our hearts.

Andrew and Brook, one of the interns, playing a game of cornhole

Over the past three weeks that I've been here, we have had three different speakers, two of which live in Mijas and are full-time staff at G42. The first week, we were taught by Andrew Shearman, who introduced to us the basic vision and premise of G42. We talked about core values of G42, what God's point is for us on this earth, our inheritance as children of God, and what exactly the 42nd Generation is (be watching for a future blog on this). His teachings are radical and thought-provoking, and I left class every day overwhelmed by the all the new information I was taking in. He absolutely blew my mind with his interpretations and life-giving attitude, stretching me to think about things in a way I have never even thought of before.

For more information on Andrew (and David below), you can read their bios on G42's website here.

The next week, we had David Fredickz, originally from Holland, teach us on the topic of leadership. He started by discussing leadership roles within the church and then moved on to cover Christian leadership and servant leadership (flashback to my DBU days!), leading in difficult times, character, attitude, communication, and leadership development. We had several great discussions in class about each person's opinion on church structure and what works best, and we also got a chance to practice our public speaking and communication skills by giving a ten minute presentation in class on any subject of our choice.

This past week, we had a guest speaker named Steve Holmes come in from England. Steve is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word and has begun dozens of different businesses and organizations over the years, all for the betterment of his community. After pastoring a church for several years and starting a charity, Steve pursued a dream of bringing free dentistry to the people of his hometown in the East Midlands, England. Now, several years later, Genesis Enterprise Foundation offers everything from dentistry to a family and community center, a resource center, and a Hall that serves as an event venue, only to name a few. Steve was able to share his story with us and offer us advice and tips on how to present a business pitch or get going on starting our own business if that is something we desire to do. After two days of lecturing in class, we were split into groups and assigned a project: develop a plot of land that had been "donated" to us (all hypothetical) into a probable business plan and then present that plan to a panel of judges that would decide which of the three groups they wanted to support by offering grants, loans, and the opportunity to actually develop the property into our plan.

Needless to say, it was a slightly stressful day or two as each group worked to come up with a creative and unique plan that would be more likely than the other groups to receive an offer of a grant or loan (still hypothetical). Unfortunately, my group didn't win, but we all definitely learned a ton about what it takes to actually start up a successful business!

Next week, Andrew is teaching us again, and I'm really looking forward being challenged and stretched by his teachings once again.

Hopefully that gives you a little better idea of G42 and what I'm learning and doing here. I am so excited for how God is working in my life and heart and for where He is going to take me in this whole process. At the end of this semester, in September, we have to present a vision project of what we want to do to bring God's love to life on this earth. At the moment, I'm still pretty unsure what exactly I'm called to do and where I want to end up, but I know that as we seek to hear the voice of God speaking into our lives over the next few weeks and months, it is going to become more and more clear. After all, my vision is just a part of God's vision anyways, and there are so many different ways I can jump in and help it to come alive!

Surprises

After a late night out with my friends on Saturday night, I woke up with a start early on Sunday morning when my door burst open. Before I had time to squint and try to figure out who it was, two little arms flung around my neck and I heard a tiny voice cry out, "Sarah!!" It was Cesare, prancing into my room either to look for his toys, or just out of sheer excitement... I can't remember very clearly considering the sleepy state I was in. Either way, I really didn't mind so much. Zoila ended up shooing him out of the room so I could get a few more hours of sleep (which I ended up being very thankful for later), and I woke up a little later to Zoila telling me lunch would be ready soon :) 

It was a lazy Sunday morning - the whole family was still in our pajamas at noon - but we had exciting plans for lunch. For weeks we have been trying to plan a chili day (some good all-American food) and today was finally the day. The grandparents came over, the cousins and aunt and uncle joined, and we all sat down to plates of steamy, spicy, red-hot chili and cornbread. This was true American chili - not Italian style chili (we can leave out the fact that there was a little olive oil included), and everyone loved it. I squeezed the last few bites from my bowl into my overstuffed stomach, pushed away my plate, and thought, "I am quite satisfied." As everyone else finished their second helpings and I started on the dishes, I was summoned back to the table. "There's more!" they told me.

I sat back in my chair wondering how I would fit anymore food in my stomach and a plate with a quiche-like tart was placed in front of me. It looked delicious and was cooked by Zoila's mom with artichoke, cheese, and prosciutto, so there was no way I could pass it up. I kept wondering how I could it more food in me, but I just kept piling it in. I followed up the tart with a nice big piece of Italian style cheesecake.

In the afternoon I really took it easy, because it's been a busy week and I just wanted to rest. I spent some time in my room, watched a movie with the kids, and danced with Maria Vittoria. I also had a nice conversation with Shaila on Skype, but she got off in a hurry when she realized she still had to do some cleaning her mom had asked her to do. At one point in the afternoon, Zoila asked me for Andrea's phone number because he was having lunch with Patrizia who didn't have her phone on her, and Zoila needed to get something to Patrizia. I gave it to her and went back to doing whatever I was doing. 

Zoila told me I didn't have to eat dinner later, but she called me up to join the kids and hang out as they ate. I wanted to eat, but my stomach still felt so full that I just couldn't even fit a snack in. I decided I would wait until 9:30 or 10 to eat because I would probably start feeling hungry around then. In the meantime, we all hung out together and laughed and played. Zoila mentioned that she heard a strange sound and thought my cell phone may have rung, but I was too lazy to go check. A few minutes later, I saw that Aurelio had brought my cell phone upstairs to the kitchen from my room. As I was looking at it, the doorbell rang. I glanced over at Zoila and Aurelio to see if they knew who would be knocking on our door at 8:30 at night, but they looked just as surprised as I was and they asked me to go check and see who it could be.

When I went to go look at the monitor to see who was waiting outside (we have a video camera to see who is outside the apartment building), I was shocked to see all of my friends standing there, looking up at me and smiling. A huge smile then spread across my own face, and I excitedly asked them what they were all doing over at my house. When I looked over at Zoila to see if it was okay if they came in, it finally all clicked. They had all been planning this the whole day, and everyone had been in on the secret except me.

Andrea, Shaila, Martina, and Martina's cousin Eleonora came up into the house and patiently waited while I hurriedly got ready to go out to a surprise location. Luckily I hadn't gotten ready for bed yet, even though earlier in the evening I had decided I was too tired to try to plan anything for that evening. I knew I should have taken advantage of my last weekend night in Foligno, but I hadn't communicated with any of my friends so I figured it was too late to try to make something happen. It was a good thing I didn't plan anything, because they all got together and planned it for me!

As I got ready, I got a chance to talk to Martina and catch up with her. We haven't seen each other in about a month, because she went to New York with her dad for 10 days and when she got back my family was in town, so I was really really happy to finally get to see her again and hear about her trip. When I was ready, I asked everyone where we were going but all they would tell me is that it was a surprise.

They ended up taking me to a nice restaurant in town, and right as we walked in, I got hungry. Everything had worked out perfectly. Complete success in surprising me and perfect timing for everything! We had a really nice dinner (although of course I ate way too much), tried lots of different food, and laughed a ton. I kept smiling the whole night because I was so touched by all the planning and organizing that had gone into a special night just for me. Throughout the evening I kept having lightbulb moments realizing all the suspicious things that had happened during the day that I never picked up on. Maybe I'm a little clueless for falling for everything... or maybe they were all just that good! Sometime during the meal, the guys got up and went outside for a minute. Once again, I thought nothing of it, but sure enough they came back with another suprise... a big package just for me. I excitedly opened the gift to find a big cardboard cutout of a man holding a book. A few weeks ago, I told Andrea that one of my lifelong goals is to learn how to play piano. Therefore, they got me a teach-yourself piano book (in Italian of course) presented to me by Jim Brickman himself. I asked Andrea how I was supposed to learn if it was all in Italian, and he said, "You can learn two things with this book: piano and Italian." Looks like I have some work to do ;-)

 

The sweet night left me beaming and feeling quite blessed when I got home, but the contentment and joy were slightly overshadowed by an unfortunate fact: the last days have begun.