Rebekah Hall's Blog
A New Year and a new apprection of simple gestures and small victories. / 02.03.10, 06:15 PM
How are those New Year resolutions going? Every year we make a long list of resolution varying from the sublime to the ridiculous from the achievable to the totally unattainable. In 2010 I am throwing down the gauntlet to add one of the following to your list of resolution and I promise you that not only are these far more realistic but you will definitely reap the rewards if you take up the challenge.
1. Go knock some doors.
Go visit your neighbour, have a hot beverage of your choice and find out how they are doing, what troubles they may be experiencing what help they may need. Often we are so busy trying to mentally check off everything in our list of daily activities that we miss opportunities to connect with the people around us. And yet our neighbours can enrich our lives so much, they can be there for us through so much more than when we need the occasional cup of sugar. Our society encourages us to be self sufficient and increasingly self centered; to only do things if you can get something out of the situation, only socialize with people who can help you in some way. This logic (or lack of) flies in the face of what Jesus taught us, he didn’t encourage us to be alone and hoard everything we have and facing everything by ourselves. No he showed us how to live in community, how to love people, and how to connect with people on even the most basic of levels.
So don’t worry about what type of biscuits you have in your cupboard or if the house is tidy enough, go knock on some doors and reach out in friendship – you never know how it could change your life!
P.S. if you have no neighbours go reconnect with a family member, or a friend you’ve lost touch with.
2. Stop buying things you don’t need.
I don’t know why society is so obsessed with having the most up to date, the shiniest, the latest trend but it is completely and utterly obsessed with new things and somehow that obsession quietly gets passed onto us via television, magazines and billboards. And before you know it your arms are full of clothes that don’t have a hope of fitting into your wardrobe, our bank accounts are drained of the money as soon as our paychecks clear and yet we never seem satisfied. Do these things really make us happy? Does it really matter if you watch your favourite TV show on a 15 inch or a 45 inch T.V. screen? Do you really need another pair of uncomfortably high shoes? Or another cook book when you barely opened that last one.
So I challenge you to stop buying everything you want and only buy what you need. I love only having a budget of 70 dollars to live off a month as it has completely revolutionized the value I put on things and what I do with my spare time. Don’t get me wrong for the first 3 months I had spent my monthly allowance within the first fortnight. However I have been wearing the same clothes for 5 months and people still like me! I have no idea what the latest fashion trend is and do you know what I’ve realized it is actually possible to live without Topshop. (n.b for those of you who are unaware I used to use the excuse of studying fashion to spend a lot of time shopping with my friends – my justification “clothes are my textbooks”) So for me to not have had the weekly distraction of finding something new each week has been an almost Road to Damascus experience. It is funny how when you are removed from a culture that to you seems completely normal you suddenly see it for what it is a waste of time and energy and money.
And what do you do with all that money you have saved by not buying new things you want but don’t need I hear you cry– well my friend you can help donate some of that hard earned cash to my support fund. As Tesco says every little helps no amount too great or small will be rejected.
www.missionyear.org/launch/rebekahhall
3. Stop taking God for granted.
I heard a great sermon about how we continually take God for granted. It made the comparison between our relationship with God and the relationship between a husband and wife. When a couple start dating they spend inordinate amounts of time planning dates, thinking about things to say that will make the other person feel good etc It can all be summed up in the term “wooing” Thoughts of the other person continually flood the mind and this continues and until one day enough wooing has occurred that they get engaged and then get married. And then somewhere along the way the flowers stop being bought and over time the company that was so eagerly sought at first is just merely taken for granted. A lot of the time we treat God the same way, we assume that he will always be there and we only really make contact with Him when we need or want something. So challenge number 3 is to seek God out more, to desire to spend time with Him not merely listing off the things you need help with but spending time in His word and in His presence.
So 3 resolutions that don’t require huge amounts of effort however they will revolutionize the way you live simply by spending time in community with people, with God and being more resourceful with what you have and learning to be content rather than endlessly seeking after things that are empty.
So what have I been doing since my last newsletter well after having 2 weeks back in Whitehead over Christmas which was lovely and it was great having the opportunity to catch with how things are going back home and spending time with friends and family. I flew back to Chicago on the 4th January and was greeted with freezing temperatures and lots of snow however even traipsing a suitcase and a big duffel bag over a bus and 2 train rides, my excitement at being back was still there. And as the 5 of us were reunited in our front room with luggage strewn all over the place it felt really good to be back and to get stuck back into the knitty gritty of Mission Year 2nd Trimester. And the very next day I was back at work and really my schedule hasn’t changed a huge amount since the first trimester except that on Wednesdays I work until 2pm at the clinic and then I work in Si Se Peude as a table tutor for Frankie, Jay, Lalo and Ruby.
I would just like to take this moment to take my proverbial hat off to anyone who is a parent and reading this, I now realize why bribery sometimes need to be used in order to get kids to behave. I think baptism of fire is the best way to describe my first week as a table tutor, Ruby who is absolutely no hassle wasn’t there so I had the task of trying to convince 3 boys that homework was an attractive option, Lalo didn’t need too much convincing and with a little help began his. Jay and Frankie have exactly the same homework which cause a bit of competitiveness until Frankie decided to hide his homework is his rucksack, after much pleading I mean encouragement he eventually brought it out and we began working on the sums or well what really involved was me asking Frankie what 9 +7 was over and over again until out of boredom or maybe pity he would answer correctly (of course)… after what felt like eternity I got him onside and he flew threw the questions. And Jay worked well on his sums until he decided to do handstands and backflips off the table. At this point all I could think of was child protection, broken neck, all while my blood pressure rose ever so slightly.
However the light at the end of the tunnel began when Frankie showed great enthusiasm for drawing a picture, our artistic masterpiece is Godzilla breathing fire while the aliens fly over his head shooting lazers at the people who are very scared. Hopefully our next masterpiece will involve less bloodshed. Week 2 was just as crazy and challenging but I love Si Se Peude and I really look forward spending time with the kids after working at the clinic all day.
Lego hasn’t started up again but hopefully in March I will be able to work with another 12 2nd grade boys and make more lego masterpieces.
Another highlight of the recent weeks has been convincing the boys to swap room with us one night, and no bribery or trickery were involved. Now why would we want to move everything out of one room and all that hassle that involves? I would like to remind you that our room was a very unattractive shade of brown and the boys got a really nice room that was baby blue – and actually the boys brown room kind of suits them.
Since my schedule hasn’t changed huge amounts I decided to kind of explain how I think Mission Year has impacted me so far and how I have changed (I will try to keep the clichés to a minimum)…
In February 2009 I decided to apply for Mission Year tin order o have an adventure, to just go somewhere totally unknown and let God put me into situations totally out of my comfort zone and try and focus more on God instead of being continually distracted. Mission year has enabled me to stop juggling jobs and commitments and University and friendship. It has taught me to be disciplined with what I commit myself to and to learn to live a slower paced life. Fear not I’m still 22 and although I have been learning to knit my life is not so slow and boring that you can stop reading this newsletter. Mission year has taught me the art of living simplistically.
Simple Living – Not having a huge amount of money to spend has made me value the little thing far more. For instance we went out to celebrate Tash’s birthday and so we all got dressed up and had a meal in a Thai restaurant downtown. Dinner for 5 people was 38 dollars and we shared 3 dishes between us and yet it was a great night and because we don’t have the budget to go out to restaurants to eat it made it so much more special. The same for going to the cinema, its something you save up to do and look forward to. I have also been more content to just go for a cup of tea downtown and spend time with someone that way instead of having to have an activity packed day in order for it to be entertaining.
It’s not just about spending less money. But we cook together and the fun that can had while preparing a meal or doing the washing up with one of my flatmates can sometimes turn out to be the highlight of my day. T.V doesn’t exist and we only have access to the internet on Mondays and every other Sunday but it means that I don’t spend hours glued to a computer screen, instead I read far more.Curriculum – each month we have a different book to read and discuss and this enables us to discuss a wide variety of issues and share our opinions as different as they sometimes can be from each other. And this enables dialogue and seeing different sides of a viewpoint and also see it in the context of why they feel that why, what have they gone through to make them view an issue in that way. I would encourage anyone to do this, bible studies, book groups or even just talking about something that’s happening in the news is something that doesn’t happen enough. Often its far easier to spend 30 minutes talking about the latest plot in a T.V series than it is to talk about what is going on in Haiti.
Fun – Often we have to create fun from a very small budget or a non existent one but this often isn’t a bad thing, with our neighbours and people from church we have played board games but also simple games that we have picked up from summer camps or youth groups that are never the same each time they are played due to peoples unique senses of humour. And hearing other people’s stories, how they have ended up in Chicago, why they are passionate about the work they do never gets boring. It is in the simple moments that my energy levels are refilled and I am so thankful to be able to say that in Chicago I have people who I can rely on, who I trust and who I love and if anyone had told me that 5 months ago that in such a short period of time complete strangers could become such important people in my lives I would have laughed at you.
Seeing God in the small moments – I have also come to realize that God can work in very simple ways and that before I came to Chicago I would always look for big miracles to show God working in my life, I wanted to see life changing events and I became easily bored by my everyday life. I thought God couldn’t work in me unless I was being a revolutionary, unless big sacrifices were made and then God could work. And being here I have realized that God works through even the simplest of gestures.
One day I was having such a bad day at work, there wasn’t just a cloud over my head there was a thunderstorm and I felt like I was useless and I was moaning to God about why was I in Chicago and generally having a pity party in the office where I was working by myself on a report. And then Jerry one of the HIV Case Managers walked past and then stopped and came into the room and we were talking about Christmas etc and then he asked if he could buy me lunch. At this point I was nearly crying not because he was going to buy me a small banquet for lunch but just at how such a simple gesture could totally turn my day and mood around. Lets just say I savoured every bite of that lunch and walked home through the snow smiling each step of the way. Jerry didn’t know I was miserable and yet by that simple gesture of generosity and love, God comforted me.
And if nothing else Mission Year has taught me to be in every moment, to savour the time you get to spend with people. One of my favourite parts of neighbourhood outreach involves Marisol my landlady’s niece painting my nails every colour in the rainbow. This usually takes the best part of an hour as we experiment with stripes and spots and sometimes we need to paint each nail 3 or 4 times before they are perfect. And so I paint Marisols nails and then she paints mine and it always reminds me of the story when the women washed Jesus feet with her tears. Even an 8 year old can restore a 22 year olds weary heart simply by painting her nails. And when I have to use nail varnish remover to wipe away the colour explosion on each nail as Test Counselors have to mature, grown up nails at the clinic, for the few days a week that I have crazy nails it helps remind me that God can use people of all ages to show how much he loves us.
Mission year has stopped me rushing around trying to do a hundred things at once. Instead I enjoy each moment as it comes some organized in advance, some come totally out of the blue and I know I will have a hundred more little moments to tell you about in the next newsletter but I just want to thank you for helping to make this possible by supporting me financially this year.
If you would like to support me please email me or you can donate using a credit card at www.missionyear.org/blog/rebekahhall and click donate now or OR Send Checks or
Money Orders to:
Mission Year
PO BOX 17628
Atlanta, GA 30316
Place: 09-0032 in the memo
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Great resolutions! Great reflections!
By Shawn Casselberry / Feb 4, 03:19 PM / #