Sarah Quezada
Sarah Quezada's Blog
The Relationship with God You Crave / Dec 2, 09:46 AM
Sometimes when I hear people share reasons why you should be a believer – peace that passes all understanding, a personal God who walks with you through life’s unpredictability, an experience of deep forgiveness, to name a few – I think, “Yeah, I want that.”
But…. I’m already a believer.
So what’s my deal? Why do I still panic and freak out about any unknown in my life? Why do I moan that no one loves me? Why do I seek my value in my work, my relationships, or a million other things?
As I continue my roller coaster ride of growth, which I always hope is a least moving forward, I’ve noticed a few things that, when absent, contribute to distance in my relationship with God. You probably already know and participate in all these practices because, well, you’re a spiritual ninja. But… if… just sometimes… you, like me, need a reminder (or swift kick), here you go:
The Bible
It should probably go without saying that the Good Book refocuses my attention on God, but its importance simply cannot be passed over. When I bypass time in the Word, I am forced to orient my life around the Scriptures that I remember, or think that I recall. This often leads to my own personal distortions and quickly leads me down a different path.
Christian Community
I am a verbal processor. I best understand myself and life in general through dialogue and relationship with others. When I become isolated, or worse, surrounded by people but interacting without vulnerability, I am left with only my own perceptions, which are more than often shortsighted.
Service
During my melodramatic high school years (sure… they ended at graduation…), my mom used to say to me that when I was thinking too much about myself, I needed to get out and do something for someone else. This could possibly be the best advice I’ve ever received. Getting my eyes off myself allows me to see God at work in the world and the lives of others. Partnering with Him by loving and caring for others, draws me into deeper relationship.
Diversity
Age, ethnicity, socioeconomic… you name it. When I only hang out with people like me, with experiences like mine, I see only a sliver reflection of the image of God. This truth became extremely evident to me when I, coming from the Wesleyan Holiness tradition of Christianity, married a Guatemalan charismatic. My view of God became so much bigger when I heard testimonies of healing, blessing, and miracles. God is bigger than my limited experiences.
I am thankful for all these practices in my life. My experience participating in Mission Year nurtured me in these areas through committed time for personal growth and study, intentional emphasis on community and service, and a wealth of new relationships to teach me. If you are searching for a way to infuse your faith walk, you should consider a year of service and discipleship. You should apply for Mission Year.
What about you? Do you find the practices on my list valuable in your spiritual life? What would you add?
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Sarah is the Recruitment Director for Mission Year. This post is part of our 15 Dreams blog series supporting The 15 Campaign addressing Dream #10: That Relationships with Christ Would Deepen. (Originally published 6.29.11)
The Dignity of Work / Nov 21, 07:32 AM
When my husband Billy and I were first married, I was working at a university, engaging college students around issues of poverty, homelessness, immigration, and criminal justice. He was working as a supervisor of underground drilling for fiber optics. Similar, right?
I was organizing trips to Tijuana to have dinner with deportees or taking students downtown to spend the afternoon talking with the homeless. He was avoiding gas lines and water mains and pulling fiber cables.
Sometimes I wrestled with this chasm-like difference between our work. I had often assumed I would marry a youth pastor or a social worker or something in that general “ministry/helping people” category. I sometimes not-so-subtly hinted to Billy that he should quit that job and work for a non-profit organization.
Then one Saturday, he invited several of his co-workers to our apartment for lunch. He made his signature tacos. Someone picked up the guitar and sang folksongs to everyone’s delight. The women helped me clean the kitchen. The men unveiled a cake they had brought celebrating a promotion Billy was rumored to be receiving.
Everyone chattered in Spanish around me, and I basked in the joy of a community of friends, even though I understood very little. Then Billy exited the room, and everyone went silent.
I realized they were all looking at me.
Finally, the guest with the strongest English turned to me and said that he wanted me to know how much they appreciated Billy’s leadership. That he never yelled or screamed at them. That he was always joyful and nice to everyone. That he taught them new skills and wanted to see them succeed.
As you can imagine, I was proud of my husband, but in reality, that experience completely transformed my view of what it means to help people. Yes, I was discussing the challenges of immigration with my students, but Billy was offering immigrants work where they could provide for their families, were treated with dignity, and could learn new skills to seek out promotions with higher pay and greater freedoms.
This lunch shed new light for me on the dignity of work. Providing jobs is certainly a way to help people. Writing it out like that makes the concept seem painfully obvious, but I must confess I didn’t always see the connection between business and management skills and service to others.
Mission Year sees that clear connection and dreams of a world where everyone experiences the dignity of work. One of our Atlanta partners, Community Economic Development, is seeking to provide jobs locally through the creation of a thrift store and community coffee shop. Mission Year volunteers have helped sort inventory, served drinks, and enjoyed the bustle of the annual Christmas toy sale.
Providing quality employment opportunities for workers is significant. Mission Year is thankful to be a part of this important work.
Photo Credit: michaelaw
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Sarah Quezada is the Recruitment and Admissions Director for Mission Year. This blog post is part of the 15 Dreams series. This series supports The 15 Campaign as Mission Year celebrates 15 Years!
Supporting Quality Education / Nov 10, 10:01 AM
During my Mission Year, I volunteered with Coan Middle School in Atlanta. I figured working with pre-teens, we’d be studying American history… learning some pre-Algebra… buying mock stocks… and writing essays that would later become the feature film Titanic. (I promise I turned in the framework for that movie… without all that icky romance… during a state-wide essay test in the 7th grade.)
Imagine my surprise when I was matched with two 6th graders who could not read… at all. Eventually, the teachers chose to move the three of us into our own storage closet/classroom because their inability to read was limiting them in every subject area.
They could not follow along in Science textbooks. They were hopelessly lost in English class. And they even struggled to read directions and explanations in Math.
So we spent that year sounding out words, memorizing site words, and reading plays aloud because they liked to take turns. It’s painfully difficult to find material written at a 5-year old reading level that is engaging to a 12-year old .
I adored these two students, and we had a good time together. And by the end of the year, I distinctly remember that one of them read “party”… a word that he had been unable to even sound out at the beginning. I was so happy I wanted to throw one!
At Mission Year, we envision a world where all children receive a quality education.
Many of us are aware that the US educational system is not keeping pace with expectations, job market needs, or the rest of the world. Literacy is a major component of strong education.
Some statistics note that 68% of US public school 4th graders are not reading at grade level (Ref). This number holds for 8th graders (Ref), suggesting that they are not catching up later. Among minority students, 89% of Latino and 86% of African American middle and high school students read below grade level (Ref).
This need for strong education is foundational to countless other social needs. Therefore, Mission Year team members spend hundreds of hours each year tutoring, teaching, and supporting students.
We connect with dedicated partners, such as SAY Yes!, The Stewart Center, Hunting Park Christian Academy, Center City Academy, Spruce Hill Christian School, Roseland Christian School, Agape Development Ministries, Forge for Families, Yellowstone Academy, and Generation One. These educational organizations are committed to seeing students succeed, and our team members come alongside them providing resources for the next generation of leaders.
When you give to Mission Year, you are make it possible for after-school programs to be staffed with consistent, committed volunteers each year. You provide classroom assistance to schools who desire and need this support. You join in the movement to educate urban children with excellence, creativity, and dedication. Be a part of the solution! Join The 15 Campaign and give to Mission Year.
The commitment of Mission Year to quality education is #4 in a list of 15 Dreams we’re sharing as part of this campaign.
How to Get Kicked Out of a Community Garden / Sep 12, 08:50 AM
Community gardening is all the rage. It’s the perfect way to combine environmentalism, local food, and good neighboring in one fell swoop.
I was thrilled when I saw the hand painted invitation on a piece of plywood hanging from the chain link fence of an empty lot on my street.
I was the first one to respond, the organizer told me.
When that first workday rolled around, I walked over to the lot and checked in. I met a lovely woman named Perla who was willing to decipher my makeshift Spanish and chat with me about the neighborhood, gardening, and her life. She even promised to teach me how to make tortillas a mano (by hand) – something I had always wanted to learn how to do.
I planted four stalks of corn, but ants enjoyed three of them since it was an entirely organic gardening community. Of course, Perla made me promise not to “tell” when I saw her spray ant and roach killer directly on her plants, which I knew would eventually make their way to the community compost. I didn’t tell, and she had terrific looking vegetables.
I also got to know her sweet son. Rico would sit next to my garden and talk to me about soccer in Spanish but then sing English Christmas songs to me that he’d learned in school. As time went on, I watched him grow taller and witnessed the magnificent power of children to learn a second language as his time in public school honed his English.
My husband and I also chatted with a man from Guatemala who was excited to meet another Guatemalan in my husband. He explained to me how he had created a grid in his garden. He secretly let me try a natural sugar he had grown, begging me not to tell others. He was certain everyone would steal it if they found out!
Another family – a dad with two daughters – shared their woes as birds nibbled away at their blueberries. They also shared their excess of herbs that grew like wildflowers in their full and delicately cared for plot.
It wasn’t long before I received an email telling me my section of the garden was “under planted and under cared for” and that they would like to give my plot to someone else who could make better use of it. Actually, I think it was Perla since she was displaying stellar gardening skills.
At first I was hurt. I had been the first person to sign up after all. But, it turned out I was more interested in the community part than the gardening part. Most everything I had grown ended up in the compost pile. Bugs had eaten it. Or I’d waited too long to water it, or weeds had choked it to death.
I suppose I was in the garden a lot, but doing very little actual gardening.
And so I accepted my dismissal from the garden, but I remember it fondly as the place I met terrific neighbors, heard a wonderful child sing, and even did manage to grow enough zucchini to share with anyone who would take it.
Does your community have a garden? Have you tried it out and if so, what’s been your experience? Are you a green thumb or do you find yourself in my hungry camp? How have you seen a community garden impact your relationships?
Photo credit: Zsuzsanna Kilian
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Are You Longing for Something...More? / May 25, 09:32 AM
Near the end of my freshman year of college, I informed my parents I was interested in Mission Year.
I believe my mother’s response was, “It’s finals weeks. You’re stressed. It’ll all be fine.”
My suggestion that I take a year off of school to serve the urban poor was unconventional at best. I was registered for classes in the fall and had agreed to be roommates with a good friend. I was making excellent grades and was right on track to keep moving through the academic system.
And yet….
I kept feeling a stirring in my heart for something…else…
something different…
something… dare I say…
more.
College, for all its hype during high school, had left me a bit disappointed. I enjoyed classes, but I often felt like I still wasn’t studying things I really wanted to know, nor did I experience the intense academic challenge about which my high school English teacher had gravely warned.
I was attending a well-respected Christian school and yet my faith felt stale, succumbing to the same cycle of spiritual highs and lows without ever feeling much closer to the God I was seeking.
Friendships were fun, but I still often felt alone. Testimonies of college being “the best years of your life” and a time for forming life-long relationships often made me feel like I was failing.
I could’ve gone back to college for my sophomore year.
Everything would’ve worked out. I would’ve lived with my friend and continued developing my relationships. I would’ve taken more classes in my major and less general education classes that bored me. And I probably would’ve continued learned more and know God more.
But I didn’t.
I chose Mission Year.
It was a dynamic experience that met me in my place of longing and introduced me to a life hanging on Jesus’ every word, seeking God’s face in every situation, and serving beyond myself in a way only God could sustain. I devoured the Word as it became alive to me in a completely new way. I wrestled with community and learned how to be vulnerable, to confront, and to love people that challenged me.
I formed friendships with neighbors that have carried me and inspired me ever since. I discovered direction and calling in my life that I couldn’t hear before. I saw skills and talents in myself that I was encouraged to develop.
Before I committed to Mission Year, I was scared about stepping out of the norm. What would people think? Would I let them down? Would people accept me when I returned to college? Would I ever return, would I finish school?
I did go back to school the year after Mission Year, although I did transfer colleges. I even went on to complete a Masters degree. Looking back, now eleven years in hindsight, I realize Mission Year was a such a short time in those years of the early 20’s.
It didn’t derail my education, it enhanced it. It gave me direction that actually inspired my studying because I knew more clearly what I wanted to learn and how that education could benefit the vulnerable in society.
And my friendships survived the year apart. And actually, the things I learned in Mission Year about how to be a good friend and neighbor helped me go deeper in those relationships and encouraged me to form new bonds with dear friends I might have never encountered otherwise.
It’s a decision I never regretted. I went off-book a little in the scripted “plan” for my life, but it turned out I was right where Christ was calling me.
What about you? Are you content in your life, but there’s a small stirring in your heart calling you to consider something radical? Have you considered giving a year to serve God and the urban poor?
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