Different

I've had a lot of downtime these past few days. It's been nice to do nothing for more than ten minutes. I don't think I could tell you the last time that I was able to just be. In my Dallas life, I go roughly a million miles an hour, every day, all of the time. This past weekend? I sat by a river, switching between shade and sun, and did nothing. Literally, nothing. For three hours. I am going to miss this pace of life, a pace where you have a list of things to do, but first, you need to drink a hot chocolate. Because, priorities.

In between periods of nothing, I've been doing a lot of praying and a lot of thinking. When I lead our debrief, we go through how to share the details of the summer trips - what God did, what you experienced, things you want to tell people. There are three different "levels" to sharing these stories: the thirty second version, the three minute version, and the thirty minute version. As I have been debriefing myself and sorting though all of my stories, I have found myself unable to formulate something of a thirty second version or even a three minute version. The closest that I have come to is a one word answer: different.

Different isn't bad. Different isn't negative. Different isn't even good. It's...different. Much of the trip was the same as it is every year: we competed in meets; we shared our stories with new friends and old; we had our regularly scheduled team time (where, I'm pretty sure that I can say that the Lord deepened each of our relationships with Him); we ate a lot of waffles and ice cream; we stayed up late chatting about things of varying levels of depth; we made daily trips to the grocery store. But this year, everything felt different.

So now continues the journey of me trying to formulate an answer that can be used in those situations where people ask, "How was the trip!?" but they only have (or are willing to give) a few seconds because the question they asked wasn't a genuine question, but more of a greeting and an acknowledgement of you. Much like the "Hey, how are you?" that we do so often in America. Squirrel moment: That is the nice thing about coming over here - greetings are greetings, so when you hear that question, people are genuinely wanting to hear how you are doing. I can see why people coming into American culture have a tough time getting used to it.

Back on topic. There really isn't a point to this blog post; I just needed to start processing outside of myself. Maybe I'm not supposed to have a shorter version of this summer to share. Maybe I'm supposed to just give long, detailed answers, full of stories about His provision. Because "different" isn't a description that you usually hear. And I shouldn't be trying to fit this trip into a box that I don't have for it. That seems to be a continuing lesson in my world right now - stop trying to put new things in old boxes. They won't fit and they're not supposed to fit. Square peg, round hole.

Welcome to my stream of consciousness. 

Leuven Staycation

When I left the States, 24 days ago, I thought that today I would be in Turkey, enjoying my first real vacation in two years and getting to connect with some relatives on my mom's side. I thought I'd be experiencing a traditional Turkish hamam and touring Ephesus. Maybe worshiping with believers in the city. The Lord, it seems, has other plans.

To make a very long story short, Jodi and I were confirmed to fly out this morning on a 5:55a flight to Izmir. Or so we thought. It turns out that we were confirmed on a flight yesterday (Thursday), and because we booked through a travel agent, we could not get our refund this morning. If we wanted to fly to Izmir, we would have to purchase another ticket, this time at the last minute. Since neither one of us could afford that, we are now back in Leuven.

We got back to the hostel around seven, and I promptly went back to bed. Jodi stayed up for a bit and saw the owners of the hostel. After telling them our story of yet another logistical snafu, they invited us to drive down with them to a little village in the south of Belgium, near the Belgium-France border. Roel, whom we have known now for five years, found a little B&B for us with a view of the river. He and Camilla, his wife, are staying in a neighboring village about 3km up the road. It may not be Turkey, but there are trails to hike, rivers to kayak, and relative peace. We are driving down tomorrow morning and spending Saturday night before coming back on Sunday.

While this was a relief that things are working out, I will confess to struggling to remember the truths that I know about God - He is a good God; He loves me; He doesn't take away just for the sake of taking; Everything can be redeemed for my good and His glory. It took every ounce of energy that I had, but I dragged myself out of bed around noon (I wasn't sleeping, I just didn't want to stand up) to find lunch and head over to the botanical gardens. The botanical gardens are my favorite spot in the whole of Leuven (even more than CrossFit Leuven, which is saying something), and today I found a new "favorite spot" in the back near their fruit & honey garden.

The Lord led me to Psalm 9:1-2, which I want to share with y'all:

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

And that's what I did for two hours this afternoon: I gave thanks to the Lord with my whole heart for this year's trip; I recounted all of His wonderful deeds that He did over our three and a half weeks together as a team; I was glad and praised Him above all; and He even gave me a song to sing. I know the song was from Him, because anyone who knows me can say that I don't have a lick of musical abilities. We can call a spade a spade here, it won't hurt my feelings. It was some of the sweetest time that I have had with Him on this trip. Apparently I needed to slam into a wall before I slowed down, since speed bumps weren't doing the trick.

I'm excited to share all that the Lord did this summer, but I don't know how much of it will make it on the blog. I probably have four or five blog entries worth of stories to tell. You'll hear a lot of it at the recap party, so if you're curious, you'll just have to come and listen. Or, we can Skype, but block out a solid two hours for me to talk your ear off. 

Chicken + Pasta + Salad

Tonight is the saddest night of the trip - the last night that I cook for our team. Our trip is winding down, with a meet tomorrow, debrief trip, and then we scatter on Wednesday. This year has flown by. I know that it was a shorter trip compared to last year, but it really does seem like just yesterday that we were sprawled out on the Newark airport floor waiting to fly out, not knowing that we would be facing a cancelled flight.

Tonight I kept it simple - chicken pasta salad. It's a nice summer dish of raw veggies, chicken, and pasta. A good pre-meet comfort food for the team as we have one last hurrah.

The Foodstuffs

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or three rotisserie chickens from the farmers' market!).
• 1 box noodles of your choice (I prefer the smaller ones, but spaghetti noodles would be fine).
• Four or five cups total of vegetables!! Whatever is in season, in your fridge that you need to use, on sale. Creative freedom! 
• Salad dressing of choice.
• Optional: Shredded parmesan cheese. 

The How-You-Do-It

• Cube chicken breasts into slightly-larger-than bite sized pieces. Place in skillet (grease that guy first!) and season with sea salt and pepper. Cook until pieces are no longer pink.
• Cook your pasta as directed on the box.
• While the chicken and noodles cook, start cutting your veggies. I split what I cook (broccoli, peas) and what is raw (peppers, cherry tomatoes, carrots). Do what you like here.
• In the biggest bowl that you can find, dump the chicken, pasta, and veggies in and mix together. 
• Allow your folks to add their own dressing and cheese. 
• If you need a gluten-free option, serve the noodles in a separate bowl, mixing only the chicken and veggies. 

My Second-Favorite Meal

I only have two more meals to cook in the hostel before the trip ends. I honestly can't believe it. Tomorrow we are at a meet, so we will eat out. Sunday will be a night of eating in, and then another meet Monday followed by a something special planned for Tuesday.

Today has been the first hot day of the summer. Well, "hot"being almost 90*. But when you don't have AC, it definitely feels warmer than that.

Tonight's meal is one of my favorites - Messy Pierre's, or the Euro-version of Sloppy Joe's. It's always fun throwing things in a pot and simmering, hoping that it turns out alright. This is a meal that was created out of borderline desperation on Year One, and it's been a staple ever since.

The Foodstuffs:

• One pound of ground meat.
• One red or orange bell pepper, chopped.
• Two carrots, chopped.
• One bottle mystery Belgian BBQ sauce.
• One can crushed tomatoes.
• Two cans of tomato paste.
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Buns.

The How-You-Do-It:

• Brown the ground beef. Add the sauce and tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes.
• Add the vegetables, stir together, and simmer for another 15-20 minutes. 
• Serve on a bun, as a sandwich or open-faced (filling on top of an open bun).

Bon appetite, y'all! :)

Hola! Bienvenidos!

I can't figure out how to get the exclamation point to flip upside down, so we're just going to roll with it. It's something I have yet to figure out back in Texas on my keyboard, and trying to figure out the keyboard in the hostel just isn't happening.

It finally felt like summer (or something closer to summer) here today - sunny and 85*. After the first part of the trip being cloudy, rainy, and 60*, I was running around in a tank top and shorts, much like everyone else in the country. I spend two and a half weeks in cool weather and suddenly I've lost all of my abilities to deal with warm weather.

We only had ten people tonight at dinner, which was odd. I'm so used to cooking for an army that it was a little odd to cook for so few. Then again, I don't think most people would use the word "only" when referring to cooking for ten hungry, hungry athletes.

The Foodstuffs:

• One pound ground beef.
• One packet American taco seasoning (I packed accordingly).
• Taco shells (I prefer hard shells, but whatever you like is great).
• Taco toppings (rice, beans, cheese, avocado, salsa, corn, etc.).

The How-You-Do-It

• Brown your ground beef in a skillet and drain off excess fat. 
• Add the seasoning packet, using as much or as little as you like.
• Slowly add water (a tablespoon-ish at a time) and mix the seasoning into the beef. 
• With the heat on low, cook until the water has evaporated and the seasoning is evenly distributed.
• Make yourself a taco assembly line and have at it!

Asia Drops By

I don't know why, but I am a terrible blogger on this trip. I have this back-dated to July 14, but it's actually the 17th as I type. Whoops.

There's not a whole lot to update on as far as happenings. We are coming into our stretch of back-to-back meets: Wednesday, Saturday, and Monday. I'm off duty on meet nights, and tomorrow (the 16th), the flock is cooking pizza. I'll be back on Thursday with another post and hopefully some updates.

Tonight's meal is stir fry - super easy and good for large groups. While our team may be only nine people large, we never seem to have less than thirteen people for dinner on a given night.

The Foodstuffs:

• One chicken breast (boneless, skinless if possible).
• Sugar snap peas/snow peas.
• Bell peppers, chopped (I prefer red/orange/yellow).
• Shredded carrots.
• Peanuts.
• Rice.
• Soy sauce (to taste).
• Olive oil.
• Salt and pepper.

The How-You-Do-It:

• Cook rice as directed on package. 
• Cube the chicken breast into bite-sized pieces
• Pour a quarter-sized amount of olive oil in a pan and let warm. Add chicken breast and cook until just slightly under-cooked. Add more oil if the chicken sticks.
• In a larger, separate pan, add olive oil and let warm. Add veggies and let cook until just tender. 
• Add chicken to the veggie pan, along with the soy sauce. Cook until chicken is done.

To prepare, put rice at the bottom of a bowl, add chicken and veggies, and top with more soy sauce if desired. Garnish with some peanuts and enjoy!

Stuffed

It's Friday! Which means one thing - the market is here in Leuven. I love Friday morning market adventures; it's such a fun time of people watching, delicious food, and snickering to yourself that you can buy underwear that is hanging up for the world to see for the bargain price of three Euro. I can't make this stuff up. But I think my favorite part about the market is walking past all of the flower stands. I stop and smell all of the flowers that are within my nose's reach. Being on the short side, it limits my options a little bit, but not enough to stop me. I may get looks from the people that own the stalls, but whatever. I'm an American and I'm used to standing out in a crowd.

Tonight we are eating another delicious creation - stuffed chicken breasts. I actually served these open-faced, so try this recipe whichever way you prefer. Since it's the day before a meet, I served a salad, broccoli, and garlic bread. Once again, we didn't have any leftovers to put away :)

The Foodstuffs

• Two chicken boneless skinless breasts
• One cup breadcrumbs (optional)
• Two eggs, beaten (optional)
• One bag of spinach
• One jar of pesto
• One cup mozzarella cheese
• Sea salt and pepper to taste

The How-You-Do-It

• Pre-heat the oven to 350*.
• Butterfly your chicken breast.
• Lay the chicken breast on a piece of plastic wrap. Sprinkle the top with water and lay another piece of plastic wrap on top.
• Using a meat hammer (or large metal can of food), flatten the chicken breast so that it is 1/4 of an inch thick.
• In a pan, saute your spinach and pesto until the spinach is just wilted.  
• Uncover the chicken breast and fill one side with pesto/spinach and cheese. 
• Roll the chicken breast up, jellyroll style, and secure with toothpicks. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Optional step: Place beaten eggs and breadcrumbs in separate bowls. Coat the rolled up chicken breast in egg then coat in breadcrumbs. 
• Place chicken breasts in a baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked all the way through.

My Favorite Meal

Sometimes you only have to cook for nine. Sometimes you cook for 13. And then there are nights where you cook for 20. Tonight was one of those nights. We have made a lot of friends so far this year - friends from Estonia, Nigeria, Belgium, the States. And they all came over to our place for brinner (breakfast for dinner)!! The sous chef tonight was one of our new friends, Eric, a runner from Minnesota by way of Cincinnati. He tackled to potatoes, which left the rest to me and the crew of helpers.

• Scrambled eggs
• Bratwurst. 
• Fruit salad.
• Oven roasted potatoes.
• Fruit + Nutella crepes. 

I think my favorite part of the dinner was our conversation that we had with two of our new Belgian tracklete friends. They stuck around for a while and it was a great opportunity for all parties to have a really, REALLY great discussion. You don't have too many opportunities to sit down with people from the country that you are visiting and get their opinions on all sorts of subjects. My money is on the fact that they don't get a group of Americans who are willing to sit for three hours fielding questions about their preconceived notions. We talked everything, from schooling to politics, culture to religion, track and holidays (vacations). They were even so kind to teach us some Flemish words and phrases. I don't know if it was because they wanted to help us with our language skills, or if they were in need of a laugh. And let me tell you, a bunch of Americans trying to sound out Flemish words that have sounds that our words don't have is pretty entertaining. 

Burrito Night!

Day three of rain, rain, and more rain. I keep telling myself that it could be worse - 100*+ and sunny instead of 65* and clouds/rain. There was one little glimmer of fun in my day: Derick and I went to go to CrossFit Leuven to get in some lifting and it ended up being a 4k bike ride in pouring rain. I had to lift barefoot since my shoes were (and still are) completely soaked. It was a nice test to see how my rehab/accessory work that I have been putting in is now finally paying off. For you nerds out there - my navicular didn't drop under weight and my adductors were solid. Woo!! :D

Tonight we had five friends join us for dinner, and tomorrow we have eleven who said they are in. For such a little team, we sure are making friends quickly!

The Foodstuffs

• Corn or flour tortillas/burrito wraps (whatever size you like).
• One pound ground beef (or shredded chicken, pulled pork, or even fish).
• Black beans (topping).
• Corn (topping).
• Radishes, diced (topping).
• Green or yellow zucchini squash (topping).
• Tomatoes, diced or sliced.
• Cheese - cheddar is always a good choice, or colby-jack (topping).
• Guacamole (topping; buy pre-made or Google a recipe).
• Salsa (topping; buy or Google a recipe). 
• Sour Cream (topping).
• One box of rice (for a side or topping).

The How-You-Do-It

• Thoroughly cook your meat of choice. Set aside in a bowl.
• Cook your rice as instructed by the box. Set aside in a bowl.
• Put each of the toppings in a different bowl or on a plate. To save room, use large serving plates and group things together.
• Assemble your buffet line however you like. I'm a fan of tortillas, beef, rice, toppings, then end with the guacamole, salsa, and sour cream.

Belgium Does BBQ

Tonight, we dine on BBQ. Well..."BBQ". Along with taco seasoning, BBQ sauce is something that I can't say Belgium has mastered. But, since I wasn't going to pack BBQ sauce in my checked baggage, I'm going to have to let the Belgian grocery store be enough. It's not bad sauce, but it's not Texas sauce.

We had six guests join us for dinner tonight - all guys. I was standing in the grocery store trying to figure out how much chicken that I needed to purchase for the night (at the time, we only had 12 confirmed guests), and I could hear the Holy Spirit telling me to buy all of the boneless, skinless chicken breasts that were in the chicken area. Twenty-three pieces, y'all. I looked like a crazy person, but I bought them all. By 530p, I was needed to start preparing food and we had added more to our numbers. When all was said and done, we had one chicken breast left over, with the rosemary potatoes and salad completely gone. Good thing I listened to the Holy Spirit or we would have had to turn people away.

The Foodstuffs:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
• 1 bottle of BBQ sauce.

The How-You-Do-It:

• In a plastic baggie (or the convenient packaging that the Belgian chicken comes in), place your chicken breasts and cover with BBQ sauce. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
• Pre-heat your oven to 350*.
• On a foil-lined cooking sheet (or glass baking dish), place your chicken.
• Bake for 24 minutes, checking at the end and adding more time if needed.

You have a couple of different options with this: eat the chicken as-is with a side of veggies; or, using a knife/fork, shred the chicken and serve on a bun. To make the rosemary potatoes, take three or four potatoes and cut them in to large bite-size chunks. Coat with olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder and cook at 405* for about 60 minutes.

A Peck of Pretty Peppers

Okay, this post should catch me up on dinners. We are finally falling into a rhythm and getting a daily routine established. Today was a pretty great day - we rented our bikes for the month (mine is named Grimace, if you were wondering), got waffles, then I worked out, and made a dinner that many people dubbed their Favorite Part of the Day, or FPD for short. It was a pretty great day.

This dinner of Facebook-status-worthy proportions is an oldie but a goodie - stuffed peppers. It's a fun recipe because my athletes get to be involved and build their own peppers and stuff them within an inch of their lives.

The Foodstuffs:

• Four bell peppers (I like orange), washed and either cut in half or remove the stem and seeds.
• One pound lean ground beef (or whatever).
• One can of black beans (if you aren't feeling the ground beef).
• One bag of spinach.
• One jar of salsa.
• Shredded cheese (colby jack or cheddar is always a good choice).
• Corn kernles.
• Rice.

The How-You-Do-It:

• Preheat the oven to 350*.
• Cook your pepper for 30 minutes. Remove and cool.
• In a pan, brown the ground beef. If you are using beans, rinse and drain them, and warm them through.
• Now for the rice. You can do one of two things - prepare the rice before hand and stuff it in the pepper with all of the other ingredients OR you can serve it as a side. Your call, just make sure you follow the cooking instructions on the packaging.
• Stuff your pepper! There isn't a right way to do it; be creative.
• Place your peppers back in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until the cheese melts. 

Hey! It's-a Me! Mario!

Sorry for the delays, y'all. We had quite the adventure getting all nine of us across the pond this year. Everyone arrived in Dayton without issue (for the most part) and we packed up all of the gear, poles included, Wednesday morning. Upon arriving at the Dayton airport, we found our that the Regional jet that United flew from Dayton to Newark would not be long enough to carry the pole vault poles. In addition to our poles not being accepted, severe weather was rolling in and our flight was delayed. It wouldn't have been so terrible, except that Jodi had used the delay to go back to the ticket counter to meet an AIA staff member who was coming up to deal with the poles while we flew to Newark.

After boarding the plane in honest-to-goodness ten minutes, we made it to Newark with just an hour to sort out the pole situation and then fly out to Belgium. After being denied by UPS, FedEx, Delta, and some pole vault speciality shipping company, we finally settled on Brian (the AIA staff member) flying Southwest with the poles and meeting Jodi in Newark. Jodi would fly out the following day while the rest of the team flew ahead. Everything was going according to plan, until more severe weather rolled in to Newark. We were delayed an hour, then another hour, and then two hours. By the time 1:00 AM rolled around, they cancelled the flight, so we spent the next hour and a half at the ticket desk being booked on the July 4th flight to Brussels, which would have been terrible had we flown out and arrived on Saturday morning with a track meet Saturday evening.

After three and a half hours of sleep, I was back up searching for other flights and calling the United main 800 number (not helpful at all, by the way) in an attempt to get the team to Brussels before Saturday. I found a few options, which Dave took to the airport to try and get us rebooked. We were successful in that we all ended up being booked on flights that got us to Brussels by Friday evening. The only downside was that six people went Newark - Manchester - surprise reroute to Frankfurt - Brussels. I went with our pole vaulter Newark - Edinburgh (with just enough time to go see the castle) - Brussels. Jodi landed at 10 AM on Thursday, with my flight getting in at 4:45 PM and the Manchester/Frankfurt flight coming in around 5:15 PM. Our baggage was flown over at some point and we had to track that down in the lost luggage area, which ended up working out perfectly, so the eight team members who were rerouted ended up arriving at the Leuven train station from the airport at the same time. Jodi met us at the hostel and we headed over to De Appel for dinner, because I sure was not going to be cooking dinner after 48 hours of shenanigans.

Our first meal in country was easy and mindless because, after a crazy two days of traveling and then not getting back from a track meet until 2:00 AM on Sunday morning meant that I was just fried. It was spaghetti and y'all, I used sauce from a jar. It nearly killed me. So, there's no recipe to post tonight. Just go out and buy (or make) some sauce, some ground beef, some pasta, some good veggies, and follow the instructions on how to cook it. My next post will be back up to my usual standards. 

BEL2014 Meet Schedule

T-10 days until the wild rumpus begins! Here is our meet schedule for our trip:

• 5th July - Oordegem
• 12th July - Kortrijk
• 16th July - Liege
• 19th July - Heusden
• 21st July - Ghent

Fun fact: "Kortrijk" is my favorite name of the list, but the most fun one to say is "Heusden". The "eu" is an "eww" sound, but it's short and abbreviated and carries the inflection. When you string it all together, it comes out "hEWs-den". 

Not every athlete will compete in every meet, but we will go to all of the above. Because this project has been around for a little while now, we will know people at each meet (be it meet directors, athletes friends that we make just being a team of loud Americans), which means lots of opportunities to share about Jesus.

Multiplied

This blog post is yet again brought to you by "Rivers in the Wasteland". At this rate, I am going to end up blogging through that entire album before I leave for the summer. Specifically, the song that inspired this post is entitled "Mulitpied" and it is my favorite song from the album. In an interview that I heard (Yes, I'm a total fangirl when it comes to NTB.), they were talking about what this song meant to them. The short version of the interview is that they want their music, their one little gift and offering, to be multiplied into something bigger than they are and could ever do.

I have spent the past few weeks praying that over this year's trip. At the end of the day, three weeks isn't a long time. Three weeks of building relationships, friendships, and memories doesn't really scratch the surface of the fifty-two weeks in the year. But I have seen what a small offering of saying, "Here you go, Lord. Three weeks of my life completely turned over to you. Take my giftings as an athletic trainer, decent cook, athlete, 'Paul'-ness, and organizer. Take them and multiply them." Looking back at previous years, He has done just that. And not only on the trips, but in my life as well. There are events that happened five years ago that I am now being allowed to see part of the reason behind. He is using the small offerings that I made then, when I really had no idea that I was even making an offering, and He is multiplying them right now. It is beautiful to watch and I am so thankful that I am a part of it.

Your love is like radiant diamonds, bursting inside us we cannot contain. Your love will surely come find us, like blazing wildfires singing Your name. God of mercy, sweet love of mine, I have surrendered to Your design. May this offering stretch across the sky, these hallelujahs be multiplied. - "Multiplied"

Rivers in the Wasteland

For those of y'all who are NEEDTOBREATHE fans, no, this blog entry is not about their new album (though I am streaming from their website it as I write this). Moving right along :)

I have been absolutely terrible about blogging for this year's trip. Part of it is my schedule and being over-comitted, though the main reason is that I just haven't had much to say. No, that's not true. I have too much to say and I had no idea what to write down. Until this week, that is.

The theme of my quiet times with the Lord this week have been reflection - reflection on the past few months, the past year, and the past few years. Many of those reflections have included my previous four summers. During those four summers, the Lord has taught me so much about Him, His character, how He is transforming me, how He has transformed me, the Church (and the church), sacrifice and trust. For those of y'all joining me this year, or have only been with me since last year, here's what you've missed. Or, if you have been with me for a while but need a recap:

• Belgium 2010 - The first trip. I learned so much that year about humility and how to be flexible. It was a hard trip, as most "first"s tend to be. Seeds were planted, relationships and friendships started, and a vision born. 
• Belgium 2011 - After a year of hard firsts, year two was a year of moving parts. We had four pole vaulters come with us, which means two 15'-long pole cases came with us as well. Three of the four competed, with the remaining one spending his summer rehabbing an injury with me. Praise the Lord for a summer of learning more about flexibility. And how to spin five different plates at the same time.
• Belgium 2012 - Halfway through my support raising process for the trip, my world was rocked. I changed jobs (with two and a half days' notice), which means I couldn't go to Belgium. The type of grief that is mentioned in the Old Testament - the shaving of the head and the wearing a sackcloth - I felt that when I had to say, "Not this year." That was amplified when I was told, on the day that I should have been leaving for Belgium, that my grandma was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. I spent July of 2012 flying back and forth between Cleveland and Dallas, with my grandma ultimately passing away halfway through the trip and the funeral during the last week. Trusting God when He asked me to lay down the trip and change jobs was one of the hardest things that He has asked me to do. Did I really trust Him? Did I really believe that He wouldn't take something away just for the sake of taking it away? Did I really believe that He is good? Hard lessons, but ones that I am incredibly thankful to learn.
• #BEL2013 - We got with the times and introduced hashtags to our trip. Year four was all about family. While each of the summers holds a special place in my heart, I will always treasure the 2013 family for just that reason - the Lord made us a family. To this day, we have monthly "family reunions" on Google chat. But that family status didn't come early. This was an incredibly challenging trip with lots of spiritual attack and heavy conversations. #BEL2013 was a summer of intense sanctification, seeing encouraging spiritual fruit, and learning what it means to be faithful. 

What the Lord keeps bringing to mind as I reflect back is portion of Scripture from Isaiah 43:

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the wasteland. - Isaiah 43:18-19

After three years of feeling like I am wandering in the dry, empty wilderness, I feel as if now I'm coming into a completely new time where I will have more areas to explore and wander. A place with lots of rivers and rushing water. While I have learned a lot from this past season, the Lord now wants me focused on what He has for me now, not what was.

Bring on BEL2014! With two healthy pole vaulters on the roster, as well as a heptathlete, two distance girls, and a South African sprinter, I know the stage is set for a fantastic summer. We still have three spots open, so we will see what develops between now and when we fly out!

To the Glory and Praise of God

*Blows off dust*

I'll be honest, the first journal entry of a new Belgium season is always the hardest for me to write. As it is only February, there isn't a lot of information to share, but I have so many thoughts and feelings that I want to tell people, I just don't know where to start. And then there's the conversation that I have with myself about what to share - "Oh...would they want to know about that?" "No, that's unnecessary, don't share that;" "Is this finalized? Can I share it, or will it change ten more times between now and next week?" Which is probably why it takes me such a long time to get entries up while I am on this side of the Atlantic.

As I prayed during the past few weeks, asking the Lord to help me kick things off, He replied with a question, "Where are you starting?" At first I thought He meant where am I physically starting - location, current athletic ambition, etc. But it goes deeper than that: where am I starting for this trip? Am I starting with focusing on raising support? Am I focusing on my responsibilities for the trip? Am I focusing on who will be added to the roster? Am I focused on how this will affect my job before I leave and after I come back? Where are my eyes? What is my focus? What is my foundation?

None of those things that I tend to focus on are necessarily bad, but at the end of the day, those are things should not make up the foundation of our trip. What I have asked the Lord to make the foundation is prayer. And not just prayer, but praying Scripture over the team and the trip:

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.- Philippians 1: 9-11

 I am not saying that the past trips were not for the glory or praise of God, because our hearts were for the Lord, that His story be shared and that lives are changed. We earnestly prayed that the Lord would move, that the Spirit would work. But speaking for only myself, I was not praying Scripture over the trip from the start.

My prayer for this trip is that the Lord would use this trip truly for His glory and praise. If that is the prayer and posture of my heart, I know that the details will be taken care of.

To the glory and praise of God!