this is the day - the last day!

Whelp, this is the day (pun intended). Not only is it the first update to my blog in about 4 months (oops), it’s also my very last day of missionary service! I thought it would be appropriate to post a little update on my life since it’s been so long. By-the-month highlights - here we go:

March

• March Madness at the Seminar Program: hosted 9 groups from Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
• Bucket showers for lent: experienced a deep appreciation for water as a resource and gift from God, and remembered my baptism pretty much every day as I poured water over my head.

April

• Visited home for a few days and hosted my family in DC for a few days.
• Finished physical therapy with great improvements in strength in mobility associated with my spinal arthritis.

May

• Married off one housemate and welcomed a new housemate into our home.
• Experienced US-2 End-Terms, the final formal gathering of our missionary class.
• Summer season at the Seminar Program begins with 4 seminar groups.

June

• Began co-leading a Bible study and fellowship small group with The District Church, studying the book of Ecclesiastes.
• Spoke at Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference on my call to mission, my work, and Generation Transformation programs.
• Facilitated a workshop and screened a film, both on human trafficking, at the Youth2015 conference in Orlando, FL.
• Hosted 5 more seminar groups.
• Had the first ever “Find-a-Dave-a-Job-a-Thon,” where my generous friends volunteered to gather at my house to look up jobs they thought I would be good at, and then explain to me why I should apply. Discernment is best done in community. I highly recommend this for anyone engaged in a job search.

July

• For the first time in 3 years, rode a century (100 mile bike ride) with my roommate, fulfilling one of my little known DC goals of biking to the beach and back.
• Celebrated Independence Day with my roommates and friends here in DC.
• Hosted my last seminar group.
• Had the honor of witnessing a good friend be baptized.

What’s next? My first item of business is a bike ride across Iowa called RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa). This is simply a huge bike tour I’m doing for fun with 3 friends from DC and about 15,000 new friends I’ll meet there on the journey. The ride will take 7 days and cover 585 miles.

After that, I’ll continue the job search, focusing here in DC for the near term, but expanding beyond as needed. As always, if you know of something at the intersection of engineering, education, and ministry which provides ample time for working with people or hands-on work, please let me know!

I have so many more things I would like to share, but this is all for now. Blessings friends!

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So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God.
Ecclesiastes 2:24 NLT

creative: one in seven

This is a poem I wrote during our US-2 midterms back in September 2014, which was a time for the missionaries in my class to come together in NYC for a time of reunion, reflection, and equipping. During one session, we were asked to write a short poem or prose about Sabbath, and this was my response. I pray we could all find a little more time for Sabbath in each day and each week.

One in Seven

Six days of the week are planned, scheduled, outlined, and detailed. The alarm rocks me to consciousness at 7:00am. These days are crammed with meetings, works, chores, duties, things to be excited about and things to deplore. It’s a race – can I get everything done that I said I would do before it’s time for lights out, tap out, conk out?

One day,
just one,
in seven is left,
set apart,
unstructured.
I finally get to sleep in!
With nothing but a blank slate ahead of me,
I get to decide with God what we will do together today.
My biggest responsibility is to make sure I get the rest and rejuvenation I need.

But that’s a huge responsibility in itself. It becomes a burden to set aside that time. I permit commitments and responsibilities to slowly leak in, crowding out the Sabbath, breaking the plan for having no plans.

But why do I allow this day called holy to become much like the other six?

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If you refrain from trampling the sabbath,
   from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;
if you call the sabbath a delight
   and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
   serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
   and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13-14

back in action + creative

 

Welp, it's been almost 3 months since my last blog post. Oops. So much for posts every Wednesday. It has been good to take some sabbath from the blog, and I've also had some pretty major life events in the mean time which have distracted me a bit.

In August, I moved from the Capitol Hill neighborhood to an amazing group house with 5 other Christian young adults in Petworth. We live in "intentional community" - we take turns cooking for the whole house, share all our groceries and food, split up house chores fairly systematically, pray together before meals, and generally enjoy life together. It's actually a lot like living with great family.

I've struggled with severe back pain, which kept me from going to work for about 3 weeks in September. The doctors diagnosed me with axial/ankylosing spondylitis, or spinal arthritis, which could lead to spinal fusion if left unchecked. This is chronic, and is likely a complication of another condition I have called ulcerative colitis, or inflammation of the large intestine. Both are inflammation and immune system related. My pain level is much decreased after a course of steroids, I'm back to work, and I hope to start some longer-term treatment with medicine soon. My roommates have been extremely supportive as they have surrounded me with care and food!

Near the end of September, I started to recover and felt well enough to go to New York City for US-2 midterms, which is the halfway-through-the-missionary-program time of gathering, reflection, equipping, and sending. I had a blast hanging out with my sisters in mission again. And yes - I'm the only male US-2 in my class.

Through The District Church, I've also started a small group book study with a friend. The group is based around Dallas Willard's book "Hearing God." We're all about listening for God's voice and guidance through forming a closer relationship with God as we discern our various callings in life. We also spend time just enjoying each others' company and eating snacks. Let me know if you think you'd like to join us!

Finally, I'm coming to the realization that I've only got 9 months left as a US-2. Just 9 months! The natural question is: what comes next? I'm still quite interested in engineering and think about it almost daily. My work as a US-2 has sharpened my understanding about the many struggles humanity faces, and how Christians have a general calling toward ending those struggles. There are a number of ways I see to integrate the two worlds of engineering and faith-based justice, and I've enjoyed the opportunity to explore those intersections.

Over the next weeks and months, I'm going to share more about these and all of the other things I'm thinking about and experiencing. I just wanted to take a moment to catch up and summarize. I hope to be back in action on at least a semi-regular basis going forward.

I also want to introduce a new feature of my blog. I think I'll just call them "creative" posts. I discovered that one of my great joys in life is doing work with my hands - manual dexterity - tactile thinking and learning and processing. I actually do some artsy things on occasion, like drawing, writing, poetry, alternative prayer styles, cooking, and I might even try my hand at brewing beer at some point. I've kept many of these things tucked away, but I plan on sharing more of them.

One type of drawing I like to do is graffiti-style sketches. Below is one I did on Sunday while I took some sabbath time.

Prayer requests:

• That I am released from or can make peace with the pain I experience with the spinal arthritis
• Continued guidance on finding a fulfilling vocation when I finish the US-2 program
• Relief for our may friends, brothers, and sisters in West Africa who struggle with Ebola

sabbath post: sunset over capitol hill east

Spring is one of my favorite times of year. After a long, cold winter, 50 degrees feels like t-shirt weather. On top of that, I find that when the seasons change, that's when the best sunsets happen!

Below is a view from my doorstep in the Capitol Hill East neighborhood from last Friday. The yellows, pinks, and purples echoed down A Street as I walked up to the front door, and I couldn't resist pulling out my camera.

I was exhausted by the end of the day. I bolted out of work just after 5:00pm, knowing that a crazy two weeks of seminars would be just around the corner. As I headed out from the United Methodist Building, I noticed the sun setting in spectacular color over the Capitol Dome as the Washington Monument peeked up over the horizon a little behind. I thought to myself, it would be awesome to climb the steps of the Supreme Court and check out the view. I decided to buzz home instead, and probably missed a great opportunity to observe the beauty of creation and catch a glimpse of God.

It's a crazy season at the UM Seminar Program. We'll have eight seminars over the next two weeks. It sometimes feels like survival mode, just doing everything necessary to make sure the seminars flow well, and if they don't, taking corrective action.

I decided over Lent to focus on making sure I get enough rest. Mostly I am hoping to get eight hours of sleep per night. Sometimes, it's just not practical, but I try as a spiritual discipline to make it happen. I think that rest also extends to taking a few minutes to appreciate God's creation.

After work on Monday, the first day of "March Madness" at the Seminar Program, it was 60 degrees and sunny, plus we had an extra hour of daylight thanks to Daylight Savings Time. I made some dinner and ate outside, enjoying the fresh air, sunshine, some music in my headphones, and food. It was a great recharge, even for a moderate extrovert like myself. I'm looking forward to appreciating the beauty of life and creation more often.

Take time to be holy; the world rushes on.