The group of us up on the cement ship before we jumped off two weeks ago
The prices at Triple J
Price at Triple J again
Prolonged Fasting
6 years ago
Friday, June 5, 2009
Even More Pictures
The group of us up on the cement ship before we jumped off two weeks ago
The prices at Triple J
Price at Triple J again
More Pictures
The price of a chocolate cake mix
The price of Crest toothpaste
The price of oatmeal
The price of Froot Loops (although we never bought Froot Loops)
The price of one Ramen package
Various Pictures
The cost of rice at Triple J
The cost of Band-Aids at Triple J
Mr. Jordan, Tante, and Terry at our picnic
Our apartment
Me and Sammy
What I've Learned...
6/5/09 This is my last post for this blog (because I've gotten hooked on this whole blog thing and plan to start a new one about my life in general). I keep finding out that more people than I was expected have been reading my blog this year--it was pretty amazing.
Thank you to those who read, to those who prayed, to those who wrote comments and e-mails, to those who sent packages, and to those who tacitly supported me all year. Of course, I accomplished what I did through God's power, but I'm quite sure that your support also played a role. Thank you very much!
I have learned a lot this year, and I have tried to distill it into a list. I just spent about an hour doing so, re-reading my old posts and thinking about the past year. I may not have gotten everything that I've learned, and not everything I learned is able to be put into words. A lot of the learning took place inside me and about me, but I wrote the list of things learned in third person (because I think it can apply to more than just me). I thought that for this last post, I needed to put a summary of the lessons learned and whatnot. There are good things about Ebeye, and there are bad things about Ebeye, but I can unequivocally state that I had a good year there, and I appreciate the fact that God sent me there for the last ten months.
Things I Learned this Past Year
1. Make do with what you have. Don't constantly pine for what you don't have.
2. Water, exercise, and healthy food really are good for a person, and are worth paying for, be that in money, time, or sore muscles.
3. Be patient when things aren't going the way they were supposed to. Build relationships instead. People matter more than punctuality.
4. It is important to stay connected to God, no matter what. He is the only Source of strength, patience, and whatever else a person needs to get through daily life. Life cannot be lived without Him, and that's on more than just one level.
5. The focus should be on where a person is and what they're doing, not where they were and did, and not where they could have been and could have been doing. A person chooses their attitude about situations.
6. It's not about being in foreign missions, but about not being foreign to missions. It's a lifestyle, not a once in a while thing. Thus, "SM-ing," or "student missionary-ing," is a verb, albeit a partially grammatically incorrect one.
7. Being inadequate is not equal to being a failure. Failure is not letting God use a person despite their inadequacies. God excels in taking raw, messy, imperfect people and using them for His work.
8. When a person trusts God, they obey Him, whether they can see the big picture or not. (Usually they can't.) Because of that trust and obedience, God gives back joy, despite difficulties that may be looming.
9. Negativity affects everyone and everything, even if it wasn't intended to do so.
10. Life is, if a person decides to live, is completely full of risks. However, life is also completely worth taking the risks. Life is an adventure worth taking.
11. A person may be completely safe from being hurt if they aren't open with other people, but they're also completely alone. People need people. That's just the truth.
12. Spiritual lessons can be found anywhere in daily life, if one is open to be told them.
13. Anything that affects great change is inconvenient. However, if that great change is a good change, inconvenience is totally worth it.
So, like I said, I don't know if that's everything I learned. It is a large chunk of it, however. I will really miss keeping this blog--one of the reasons that I plan to keep posting in a new one. :) So, I bid all my readers a fond farewell. A good number of you will probably see me soon enough, and I look forward to that. I'm very tan in this world of pale people. :P (And very cold. I've been shivering.)
~Ashlee
Thank you to those who read, to those who prayed, to those who wrote comments and e-mails, to those who sent packages, and to those who tacitly supported me all year. Of course, I accomplished what I did through God's power, but I'm quite sure that your support also played a role. Thank you very much!
I have learned a lot this year, and I have tried to distill it into a list. I just spent about an hour doing so, re-reading my old posts and thinking about the past year. I may not have gotten everything that I've learned, and not everything I learned is able to be put into words. A lot of the learning took place inside me and about me, but I wrote the list of things learned in third person (because I think it can apply to more than just me). I thought that for this last post, I needed to put a summary of the lessons learned and whatnot. There are good things about Ebeye, and there are bad things about Ebeye, but I can unequivocally state that I had a good year there, and I appreciate the fact that God sent me there for the last ten months.
Things I Learned this Past Year
1. Make do with what you have. Don't constantly pine for what you don't have.
2. Water, exercise, and healthy food really are good for a person, and are worth paying for, be that in money, time, or sore muscles.
3. Be patient when things aren't going the way they were supposed to. Build relationships instead. People matter more than punctuality.
4. It is important to stay connected to God, no matter what. He is the only Source of strength, patience, and whatever else a person needs to get through daily life. Life cannot be lived without Him, and that's on more than just one level.
5. The focus should be on where a person is and what they're doing, not where they were and did, and not where they could have been and could have been doing. A person chooses their attitude about situations.
6. It's not about being in foreign missions, but about not being foreign to missions. It's a lifestyle, not a once in a while thing. Thus, "SM-ing," or "student missionary-ing," is a verb, albeit a partially grammatically incorrect one.
7. Being inadequate is not equal to being a failure. Failure is not letting God use a person despite their inadequacies. God excels in taking raw, messy, imperfect people and using them for His work.
8. When a person trusts God, they obey Him, whether they can see the big picture or not. (Usually they can't.) Because of that trust and obedience, God gives back joy, despite difficulties that may be looming.
9. Negativity affects everyone and everything, even if it wasn't intended to do so.
10. Life is, if a person decides to live, is completely full of risks. However, life is also completely worth taking the risks. Life is an adventure worth taking.
11. A person may be completely safe from being hurt if they aren't open with other people, but they're also completely alone. People need people. That's just the truth.
12. Spiritual lessons can be found anywhere in daily life, if one is open to be told them.
13. Anything that affects great change is inconvenient. However, if that great change is a good change, inconvenience is totally worth it.
So, like I said, I don't know if that's everything I learned. It is a large chunk of it, however. I will really miss keeping this blog--one of the reasons that I plan to keep posting in a new one. :) So, I bid all my readers a fond farewell. A good number of you will probably see me soon enough, and I look forward to that. I'm very tan in this world of pale people. :P (And very cold. I've been shivering.)
~Ashlee
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Traveling Back (Second to Last Post)
6-4-09 Sorry for the long break between posts. But I am happy to report that I am safely back in the United States. I left Friday Ebeye time, and arrived two days later on Saturday evening.
I actually had a very nice surprise when Alan, Jordan, and I got onto the plane at Kwajalein. Two friends who had been SMs in Chuuk were on the plane--one of which is a friend from Southern. We spent the flight to Majuro talking back and forth. Then, on Majuro, another "Southern"er got on the plane. He'd been on a outer island and had been traveling for over a week to get to his plane. Eight hours later and a day earlier we arrived in Honolulu. At 2:30 AM.
Jordan's parents (I think) had set the three of us up with two hotel rooms. We took the airport/hotel shuttle, checked in, and went to sleep. We all slept in a bit, and ate at the continental breakfast. Then we checked out (or else we would have had to pay more). However, the hotel let us store our luggage (we had ALL of it), and then we took the city bus and went to Pearl Harbor. It's free to visit the USS Arizona Memorial, and so we did. It started out with a half hour documentary about what happened at Pearl Harbor, and then we took a ferry ride to the memorial, walked around, and came back. Then we headed toward Waikiki so we could eat. However, we had hit some traffic (besides not truly knowing how the city bus system worked) and realized we couldn't make it to Waikiki before I had to check into my next flight. So we ended up at a shopping centre, got our supper, and tried to make our way back to the hotel (to get my bags and the shuttle). We ended up taking a cab back to the hotel. It was very hard to say goodbye to Alan and Jordan at the airport, partially because it was the end-end (if you know what I mean) of our time on Ebeye. Thus ended my second Friday of last week.
I spent all of Saturday sitting in Terminal C of the Houston airport. My flight to Chicago was a little turbulent, but we still ended up coming in ten minutes early (and then spent that time taxiing!). My parents were right there at baggage claim (where my bags had been sitting since the earlier flight [the one I didn't take]). We took the shuttle bus back to Michigan City, my parents took me out to dinner, and then I finally made it back to the house. It had been a long two days.
Sunday I went and bought clothes that fit. I don't think that unless it's happened to you, it's difficult to understand how NICE it is to have clothes that fit properly. It is very nice! So I've been sleeping and getting unpacked and buying things I need (like getting a new cell phone; my other died while I was gone. I now have a new number). I am looking forward to camp, which starts in a week from today.
There will be at least one more post after this one. More later.
~Ashlee
I actually had a very nice surprise when Alan, Jordan, and I got onto the plane at Kwajalein. Two friends who had been SMs in Chuuk were on the plane--one of which is a friend from Southern. We spent the flight to Majuro talking back and forth. Then, on Majuro, another "Southern"er got on the plane. He'd been on a outer island and had been traveling for over a week to get to his plane. Eight hours later and a day earlier we arrived in Honolulu. At 2:30 AM.
Jordan's parents (I think) had set the three of us up with two hotel rooms. We took the airport/hotel shuttle, checked in, and went to sleep. We all slept in a bit, and ate at the continental breakfast. Then we checked out (or else we would have had to pay more). However, the hotel let us store our luggage (we had ALL of it), and then we took the city bus and went to Pearl Harbor. It's free to visit the USS Arizona Memorial, and so we did. It started out with a half hour documentary about what happened at Pearl Harbor, and then we took a ferry ride to the memorial, walked around, and came back. Then we headed toward Waikiki so we could eat. However, we had hit some traffic (besides not truly knowing how the city bus system worked) and realized we couldn't make it to Waikiki before I had to check into my next flight. So we ended up at a shopping centre, got our supper, and tried to make our way back to the hotel (to get my bags and the shuttle). We ended up taking a cab back to the hotel. It was very hard to say goodbye to Alan and Jordan at the airport, partially because it was the end-end (if you know what I mean) of our time on Ebeye. Thus ended my second Friday of last week.
I spent all of Saturday sitting in Terminal C of the Houston airport. My flight to Chicago was a little turbulent, but we still ended up coming in ten minutes early (and then spent that time taxiing!). My parents were right there at baggage claim (where my bags had been sitting since the earlier flight [the one I didn't take]). We took the shuttle bus back to Michigan City, my parents took me out to dinner, and then I finally made it back to the house. It had been a long two days.
Sunday I went and bought clothes that fit. I don't think that unless it's happened to you, it's difficult to understand how NICE it is to have clothes that fit properly. It is very nice! So I've been sleeping and getting unpacked and buying things I need (like getting a new cell phone; my other died while I was gone. I now have a new number). I am looking forward to camp, which starts in a week from today.
There will be at least one more post after this one. More later.
~Ashlee
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