Kirsten Cleveland
My first blog
Tonight I sit here wondering what life will be like in a few short months! What city will I be in, who will my roommates be, and what will God be doing in my life?
My name is Kirsten Cleveland I’m 18 and I’ve lived in Utah for almost ten years. Right now I’m going to school studying Social Work and hopefully by the summer I’ll have my Associates Degree. I have great friends and a wonderful family that are encouraging me every step of the way. I also have a relationship with Jesus Christ, who made the ultimate sacrifice of dieing for all our sins. And because of His mercy and grace we are all set free. I want to live my life for Jesus everyday, but it’s not always that simple. We all have variables in our lives; things that can come in the way or distract us from what’s really important which is having a relationship with Jesus Christ!
So as for my family; I have an older brother Keith who just turned 22, he’s everything a big brother is suppose to be! He’s super over protective, and has always wanted what is best for me. My parents are anything but typical, and I love them for that. Their fun, outgoing, and really into the outdoors. I enjoy snowboarding with my dad in the winter, and taking hikes with my mom during the spring and summer.
Many people have asked me why Mission Year? So here’s my answer…in September last year (08) I went on a two week mission trip to India, and it was amazing, there were times that it wasn’t easy but God was there with me the whole time. After returning home I really began praying about what God wanted me to do with all the things He showed me about myself, and what He wanted me to do with the rest of my life. I felt like he was telling me to do missions; not mass evangelism but building meaningful relationships with the people that I’m surrounded by, and sharing my relationship that I have with Jesus Christ with them. (run on, I’m sorry) :) Mission Year was the first missions website I found, actually it found me…on facebook of all places. I started reading people’s blogs and what it was all about, and I knew this what God was calling me to do.
I want to see my neighbors the way Jesus see’s them-not for who they are on the outside but who they are on the inside. I want to accept them at wherever they happen to be with their walk with God, because he accepts me..even when I fall. I want to pray with and encourage these people to look to God, and not to the world for answers and comfort. But mostly, I want to show them the love of Jesus Christ!
I know this is going to be an amazing experience, and I can’t wait to get started!
Faith, Hope & Love
Kirsten
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…
Kirsten Cleveland's Blog
Journal entries and such / Dec 29, 12:24 PM
I hear Little Johnny’s raspy voice singing ‘Rise up and love your neighbor…you need to pray with your neighbor today’ those words are so powerful, yet so many times it’s easy for us to over look the people that are right in front of us.
There’s so much to say about the past four months, but I don’t know where to start. I can tell you it has been really hard. But, at the same time so amazing! I feel like I have grown so much. I tend to look to God more now then I ever have before. I have learned to trust, and give everything to God. I have been stretched and my eyes have been opened to so many injustices. Here’s a few journal entries from the past few months… I think this would be a lot easier if I could just video tape my life for ya’ll
9/16/09
I turned down Thirkield St. and saw an older gentleman (Little Johnny) about halfway down. He wore a blue button up, slacks, a white hat tipped to side and in his right hand he carried a large walking stick. As we got closer he said hello and I replied “good morning sir!” He slowly walked to the side of the street I was on and began to talk to me. We exchanged “how are you’s?” and he proceeded to ask me if I was a Christian woman. I said yes and with a smirk he said you believe in Jesus?? I laughed and said yes and again. With his raspy voice he asked me if he could sing me a song. He stepped off the curb, closed his eyes and in the middle of Thirkield St. He began to sing “when I die I want to see Jesus”
9/20/09
It’s not always the story you tell, but the story your living
9/29/09
The past few days I feel like I’ve done a horrible job at everything. Pastor Cobb talked about forgiveness tonight at Bible Study, and the importance of Repentance. I really felt like he was talking to me. I feel like I’m hanging on to something. We’re called to give our entire lives to Christ, not just the easy parts. God what haven’t I given to you? What am I not doing? Or what am I doing just the wrong way? I want you to be in control. I suck being in control of anything. I want your will for my life.
10/25/09
Choose today who you’re going to serve.
10/31/09
I feel so overwhelmed and I don’t know what to do. God what can we do? How can we better serve this community? How can we love them more?
I just want to get away from it all. I don’t want to run away from problems- but I don’t feel like I am. I want to be somewhere quiet. I don’t want to hear cars on the freeway, sirens and my roommates. I just want to be where you are…but I know your right here in the midst of all the noise. I just need to be quiet.
11/13/09
Jeremiah 15:19 Therefore, this is what the Lord says; if you return, I will restore you; you will stand in my presence.
12/14/09
I can’t believe I’m going home on Thursday night. I’m nervous, excited and scared…what does that mean if I’m scared to go home?
Tears of the Saints
There are many prodigal sons
On our city street they run
Searching for shelter
There are homes broken down
Peoples hopes have fallen to the ground
From Failures
This is an Emergency
There are tears
From the Saints
For the Lost and Unsaved
We’re crying for them come back home
We’re crying for them come back home
All your children will stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father we will lead them home
Father we will lead them home
There are souls full of hatred
Even churches have forsaken
Love and Mercy
May we see this generation
In it’s state of desperation
For your glory
This is an emergency
There are tears
From the saints
For the lost and unsaved
We’re crying for them come back home
We’re crying for them come back home
And all your children stretch out their hands
And pick up the crippled man
Father we will lead them home
Father we will lead them home
Sinner Reach out your hands
Children in Christ you stand
And sinner reach out your hands
Children in Christ you stand
May God bless you this Holiday Season!
Faith, Hope, Love
(All money donated in the month of December will be matched by Mission Year) :)
Comment [8]
Tattoo's and Fun / Oct 5, 10:08 PM
So, I’m here in the ATL and I seriously love everything about it. Really, the food here is amazing and I feel like I’ve missed out on something my entire life. But the people here are even better then the food…which says alot lol. The first Sunday we were here, after church they fed us SLAW DOGS. I’m pretty sure it’s up there with Chinese food. So you take a hot dog in a bun, put a whole mess of chili on top, and on top of that you put slaw (cole slaw)….sounds delicious right??? Well it is, and I suggest everyone tries one at some point. :)
But really, I have never felt so welcomed and loved from people I didnt even know. I feel blessed to be living in this neighborhood among all the culture & diversity.
This year is all about community, actually the rest of my life is. I love intentional community. Try to intentionally love someone, go out of your way to help a neighbor…..or just ask a neighbor how their doing. I always wanted the American Dream, the cute house with the picket fence. But I’m realizing that’s not for me. We all live in our own little worlds, with homes so big multiple families can live in, cell phones, internet and vehicles. It’s all things I have taken for granted. But when you take a step back do you really need all that? I’m not saying it’s bad to have big homes or cell phones but I feel like we all, me included need to realize what our necessities really are. What do we need to survive?
Last week I started working at my service site which is T.H. Slater Elementary School. Right now I’m mostly working with the computer teacher Mrs. Mitchell, and in the mornings I am reading with students that are at a lower level then they should be at. I love it, and they all have such a desire to learn so it’s awesome. Mrs. Mitchell is also the head of the Girl Scouts for Slater so on Monday’s after school for about an hour and a half I’ll be helping there. Haha I think it’s kind of funny that the girl that made fun of them in elementary school is now a part of it. God has such a sense of humor.
The flower tattoo that I got on my foot a few months before coming was defiantly something that I didn’t think threw. Everyone asked why I did it and honestly it was a spur of the moment decision, that I never regretted but I’ve defiantly asked myself ‘why’ a thousand times. I am an avid flip flop wearer and I will be until the day I stop wearing shoes I suppose. I wear them pretty much whenever I’m walking, and surprisingly many conversations have been started because of it. I’m not saying everyone should go out and get tattoos or piercings just so people will start a conversation with them, but the tattoo that everyone asked me about is now leading to great conversations that mostly happen on MARTA (my source of transportation for the most part).
Wow there is so much I can talk about it’s crazy.
So in our house we have no TV, our source of entertainment is each other and music. It totally makes sense not to have a tv, and really I’m loving it. We have to get creative but we have learned so much about each other in less then a month because we don’t have a tv to entertain us. We play aloooot of: Pictionary, Charades, and Truth or Dare..and one night we spun in circles holding a pen up towards the light then we had to drop the pen & try and jump over it…..its pretty much ridiculous. But it was hilarious.
We’ve had some pretty epic and hilarious things said and done during these games. And therefore we created a Quote Board that hangs in our living room. Truth or Dare has also gotten pretty interesting, with off the wall questions about yourself and ridiculous dares. I’ll pretty much answer any question and at this point they know nearly everything about me…my last turn I asked for a dare. That was my first mistake. Nicole had me take a tea bag (any flavor I wanted) and try and eat it dry. My second mistake was agreeing to it, and my third mistake was having confidence in myself that I could actually succeed at something so ridiculous. It was horrible, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to drink peach tea again. The dare ended with me dry heaving in the bathroom and like alot of other things that happen in our house it has been filmed. At some point I will have it on my facebook if you’d like to check it out lol.
Our latest adventure was trying to get on the roof….it almost worked. Somewhere in our handbook it said we could get on our roof early in the morning or late at night, so we figured we would try it. Me, Matt and Alicia ventured into the front yard and were trying to figure out where we could climb up. We didn’t see anything obvious so we had Matt get on the trash can… that wasn’t quite tall enough, so Alicia had the idea of putting a chair on top of the trash can. I’m still surprised Matt agreed to this, bit he did so we put the green school chair on top of the flimsy tall green trash can then had Matt get up on top of them as we held it all up. He was about to pull himself up but realized that the rain gutters are too loose to pull on. After about five minutes of us going back and forth about whether we think he could get up or not we decided it wouldn’t work. I’m confident that by the end of the year we will figure out a way to get up there, I think we’ll just have to invest in some sort of ladder.
We also had an epic dance party for one of our family nights. We dressed up in 70’s clothing/the most ridiculous thing you could find. Turned on some oldies or not so old tunes pressed record, and danced until we were about to pass out.
Besides keeping each other entertained we also have two others that keep us on our toes. Elasia (6) & Serenity (3) live across the street from us and are absolutely adorable. We go threw side walk chalk like it is no ones business but it’s well worth it. After tracing all of us, the first day we arrived Elasia drew a dragon and proceeded to tell us it was to protect our home. Cute right?
Elasia’s witty comments and adorable smile mixed with Serenity’s hilarious
dance moves and poses for the camera keep me laughing 24/7. On Sunday (the 20th) it was Serenity’s 3rd birthday. After eating cake and ice cream she began tearing threw her presents. She oohed & awwwed at all the Dora Explorer outfits she received and as she sat on the kitchen counter her mom came around the corner with a little pink bike with training wheels. The look on her face as she got on it and rode it up & down the wood floored hallway was priceless. Celebrating a birthday with their family was such an awesome experience. I was so thankful and am excited for more birthdays and events that we are able to share with them.
Please pray for my team and I throughout the week as we go to our different work sites, and serve Him.
Thanks for all the love & support.
Faith, Hope, Love
Kirsten-
Comment [1]
59 days and counting... / Jul 2, 09:42 AM
Before I start I’m just going to throw it out there that I’m not much of a blogger, and my thoughts are sporadic and random. So, sorry in advance.
Now that we all know where we will be spending the next year of our lives, it seems like we have all become more anxious (at least I have) for what awaits us in our cities and what God will do in us over the next year. I feel like God has been getting me ready for this for awhile, but now that I’m sending out support letters, talking to different people at church and trying to figure out what I’m going to do with the piles of junk I’ve cumulated over the years it all seems that much more real for me. I’ve been trying to imagine what the hot humid days of Atlanta will be like…..it sounds a little miserable not going to lie. But, I know I’m going to love it. And I know that the relationships made over this next year will be ones forever.
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