Week One of Training in Akron, PA Completed!

Wow!

So, I bought a computer, sold my car, moved from Grand Rapids to Niles, packed my parents house full of my things and stayed with them for week before leaving for two weeks of training in Akron, PA with the Mennonite Central Committee.

I feel as though I cannot begin to tell you all that I am feeling. From leaving my girlfriends in Grand Rapids at our weekly ¨Ladies Sunday Brunch¨, to realizing on the airplane from South Bend to Detroit that I really wanted to have hugged my parents for a lot longer, the journey from Niles to Akron was one of emotions both of sadness and excitement. It still at times does not seem real that I am moving to Nicaragua for three years. Who does that? ... well, apparently I do! :)

Many of you know how much I loved working for the YMCA; how I appreciate what it stands for and how I see the great impact that it makes on the community. But, you also know that God has very much been preparing me for more than the YMCA. All of the skills and abilities that I developed from my time at the YMCA were all preparations for this new and exciting season of life.

Sitting in the room this week as more than 30 ¨Service Workers¨from around the United States, Canada, Germany and the Ukraine, I became encouraged at how many people see the world. Many times in the trainings over the last week my eyes welled up with tears as I felt more and more secure in the decision that I made to follow God´s call to Nicaragua. I was especially encouraged to hear of the advocacy work that the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) does in our nations capital to help the people of the countries in which we serve.

It is not just about going to a country to ¨do service¨, it is about developing a relationship with a people who are equally like me! No matter what our backgrounds, our goal is to work toward equality of power by each willingly giving up our ¨roles¨and make the choice to have a relationship based on peace.

This has been wonderfully challenging to evaluate many aspects of my ideology. From the issues of racism and white privilege, to what our call to peace should be and how the dimensions of our own wellness can drastically effect the outcome of our relationships to bringing about peace.

...uh, yeah, my brain is loving this, my emotions are at both ends and I am dead tired at the end of each day, but what I know for sure is that this is where I am supposed to be!

Tomorrow I travel to D.C. for a tour of our nations capital. I will be traveling with 20 plus other MCCers (Service Workers from MCC). There are three of us in the training that will be in the Latin American region: Enrique from Mexico, Johan from Columbia and me, now from Nicaragua. (That is SO weird to say).

I plan to put weekly updates on this lovely blog. So, if you would like to get updates about ¨The Eclectic Adventures of the Most Amazing Beth¨, you can sign up for automatic alerts to your email under the ¨subscribe to¨section to the left of my blog page.

Please keep me posted on your lives. I will try and make these a bit shorter that this one. :)

Te quiero mucho. (I love you lots).

Beth Ann

Praise God!