Kimberly Rixon
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Kimberly Rixon's Blog
last year right now / Nov 14, 04:06 PM
It weird for me thinking that this time last year I was applying for Mission Year… and now here I am. I dutifully stalked all the people I could who were doing it at the time, reading all their blogs and looking at their facebooks. I have been called a creeper before, and I gladly accept that title.
It’s so different now. I am in such a different place, in my understanding of Mission Year, of what it actually means to live in community, of God, and of myself.
So to everyone who may possibly be stalking all our blogs: Welcome! Stalk away. And find us on facebook, we will probably talk to you. Oh, and do Mission Year :)
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Halloween is a big deal / Nov 14, 04:06 PM
(Sorry I haven’t blogged on here at all since I got here! You can read my other blog at www.kimberlyrixon.blogger.com)
All our kids were so excited about Halloween, it made all of us get excited too. Actually, Kelly was already excited. If we didn’t even have kids in our neighborhood we probably would have still dressed up and done something. But since there are lots of kids and we spend so much time with them, we have a good excuse for how into it we got haha. I think Kelly started talking about it in her class at the beginning of October, they even had a countdown chain that they took a loop off of everyday. My Kindergarteners were pretty excited as well, even though they didn’t really have a concept of when Halloween actually was (everyday of October is Halloween apparently). The Wednesday before Halloween, we took the Kindergarten class, minus two students, to a fall carnival at Tara’s church in Decatur. They got to go on pony rides, do rock climbing, jump in a bouncy castle, and of course get candy for playing pointless games! I hung out with Marlen and Stephanie, two of the sweetest and best-behaved girls in our class. All the girls wore princess costumes that Tara bought them, and the Crystian and Brallan (pronounced Brian, I love the Hispanic spelling haha) wore GI Joe costumes. They were all so adorable.
Sometimes I feel like what I am doing is so ridiculous, walking around a carnival in a pretty rich, nice area, with two bilingual Hispanic kindergarten girls who live in a trailer park. Someone referred to me as their mom, and I just felt like laughing at the whole thing. Who does this? Seriously, so many of the things we have been doing are things I wouldn’t ever have done at home, and that so many people just don’t have the opportunity to do. That’s a great thing about Mission Year I guess. Tara jokes about how her goal is to take videos of us doing the most random things possible. So far we have video of me and Chelsea driving a Bobcat bulldozer, some of us hitting piñatas, and some of us hanging out in an Emory University frat house, with 50 plus or minus children in costumes making a mess of themselves with college students helping them.
About the frat house thing… So on Saturday, Halloween, we got up and did devos and then rode to the church where we do the afterschool program with some of the older girls to make penguin ornaments for Tara to sell at a missions conference thing. The girls made them, with our help (I was in charge of the hot glue gun assembly line) and then we went back home to prepare for the afternoons Halloween shenanigans. Rachael, Andrew, Joseph, and I left at about one with the 5th graders , because there were too many kids to take all at once. So we went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant near the college. This was another one of those weird situations that make me laugh and wonder what the heck I am doing. We are in the restaurant with 10+ 5th graders, eating Mexican food and watching soccer on the tv… in Spanish. I took a great video there as well.
When the other van loads got there they picked us up and we went to the fraternity. The kids carved and painted pumpkins and caused general havoc and destruction before going trick-or-treating with the students. It was really fun, both the kids and the students had a great time. And we had a great time because we didn’t have to watch all the kids constantly. They were the college students problems haha. All the kids, especially the older boys, got a crazy amount of candy.
Afterwards the 5th graders had to wait to go home, becasue of the same van probem, so we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood surrounding Emory. It was a really nice, wealthy area, and it was weird for me… taking our kids there felt so out of place and really made me sad. Those people probably have never experienced the things our kids have, their worlds are so far apart. It made me think a lot. Our kids noticed too, mentioning how nice the houses were and how rich they all were. At the same time though, I don’t think they really understand the difference between their lives and the lives of the kids who live in there, in that beautiful, safe neighborhood. Kinda ramble-y, but these are the things I am thinking about lately.
I didn’t really edit this post, so sorry for the typos and weird grammar. My Sabbath is too precious to spend time spell-checking haha. Love you all.
Instead of going to college next year.... / Aug 17, 03:00 PM
Hey everyone! For those of you who don’t know me and just happened upon this blog, I am 18, I graduated high school in 2008 and just received my Associates degree this winter quarter. I love all forms of art, folk/indie music, the Arabic language, and most of all… Jesus! I have a passion for service and social justice and am excited to try out community living.
If you’re reading this blog you probably already know something about my plans for 2009-2010. Last September as I approached the last few quarters of my time at Bellevue Community College and started making plans about what I would do next, I came across the website for Mission Year. The idea of spending a year in service to some of the poorest communities in the US immediately caught my interest and I think I read every single page of the website in one sitting.. and then read it all again the next day. After a few months I decided to register, after talking about it with my parents, emailing some of the staff with questions, and praying about it.
I hope to learn how to live in community with other believers, understand the viewpoint of the poor, and be able to translate my love for Jesus into purposefully living to serve others. I want to be challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone. I have become so dissatisfied with our culture and the way I see myself conform to its ideas of consumerism and “every man for himself.” I know that isn’t the way Jesus has called me to live and I think Mission Year is a great way to take the time to focus on being counter-cultural and just seeing loving God and others as my main goal in life. I can’t wait for this fall and all the things I will learn as I go through this year, and I hope any of you who read this will enjoy going through them with me!
I don’t know how much I will write here, but you can also follow my other blog at www.kimberlyrixon.blogspot.com
East Point forever! / Jul 31, 02:15 PM
So….. last week we found out where we are living and who we are living with! We didn’t know that we were going to, so it was a big surprise and we all freaked out with excitement.. kinda like when the early placement people got our city assignments. Haha. I was with my friend Abbie when I opened the email and I kept telling her, “I’m so happy! I’m so excited!” like a million times. Haha.
I’m on the East Point team! My housemates are Chelsea, Rachel, Kelly, Andrew, and Joseph! I love them (Yes, I’m talking to you guys, I love you) and am so excited to meet them in person on August 27th!
Knowing where I am living also makes the whole thing a little more real… and scary. I am actually doing this! It’s for real! It’s a month away!
Packing is scary too. Haha. I have too much stuff… Which means free clothes for Abbie and Janna, who are planning to wear everything I leave behind.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has supported me and donated! You are the reason I can go on this crazy adventure.
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