Guatemala 2014 Medical Mission Trip

We made it home Sunday after 10 days in Guatemala and now almost a week later we are finally recovered enough that I am sitting down to give a little update.

It was a great way to celebrate 7 years of marriage serving alongside my hubby!  I feel so blessed (even though he is a goober and keeps his sunglasses on his nose for a picture at dusk).

Here is the team.

When you go on any mission trip I think managing expectations is one of the hardest parts.  First of all on a short-term trip you know you are going to see far more need than the help you can bring. Second, at least for me, I usually anticipate that all my "plans" will end up different than I imagined.  In this case though, as this was a medical mission trip, it was hard for me to actually have plans since I don't offer any medical skills and was just planning to be a helper.  But I certainly didn't know what was in store for my heart these 10 days.

Let's be Friends!

My mind is circling something. An observation I suppose. Maybe a beginning of a rant... I don't know. I don't want it to be a rant. I often find that people's rants are full of opinion stated as fact and actually lacking in actual fact. See what I did there? :) 

Anyway, my thought that started this need to blog/rant is: "I like Facebook". 

Why you may ask did I have this thought? Well let me tell you. I have recently found myself in a group preparing to go on a trip out of the country together and we don't hardly know one another at all. So I have been friending people trying to ask questions, I can see where they are from, what they care about on a daily basis etc.. So why are these thoughts warranting a blog post? Why is my head swimming with thoughts? 

Medical Mission Trip

I'm excited to share with you that in July Phil and I have the opportunity to join with a group from our church (The Village Church in Flower Mound, TX) to spend 10 days in Guatemala City, Guatemala on a medical mission trip.

As most of you already know in May 2012 Phil graduated PA school and has since been working in a Pediatric ER. One of the reoccurring dreams Phil had as he trudged through school was to serve on medical mission trips as much as possible. This trip is answer to that prayer and dream and I am thrilled, as his wife, to be able to join him even as a non-medical professional and serve alongside him in other capacities.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

Romans 10:13-15

I want to take a step back though and really walk through why go on a short term mission trip rather than just continuing to share the good news here at home. 

So why go? 

Radio Silence

I have created an enormous amount of radio silence on my little blog here.  I don't mean to be so distant but every time I have opened up a post to start writing I stop with the thought... I have nothing to say.  Don't get my wrong I can talk.  But I guess I have been feeling like sometimes I just talk without a good purpose or in a way that really anyone needs to care about.  To be honest that thought is still running through my mind.
Additionally, I think I drive myself crazy with my own thoughts and inner dialog so I figure if I'm annoyed with myself how much more annoying am I to everyone else.

So that being said I have been thinking about personalities a lot for the past several months. A while back posts were going social-media viral about being an extrovert or introvert and I would read the posts and admittedly chuckle at a few but I always ended up thinking hmmm that's just not me; which of course got me thinking why?

I mean aren't I supposed to be either an extrovert or an introvert?
So I took a personality quiz.  I know there are a million out there and when I was in highs school my Mom paid for us to take a very intense one to help us think about our careers. (the results were VERY creepy accurate)

Anyway, this time I took the Humanmetrics Jung Typology test (which is based on Briggs Myers) and this is what I scored.

Low and behold it explains why those darn extrovert/introvert things don't really apply to me.
So this is my report.  I'll let you read it... cause why not!?!  And I'll highlight the most applicable and interesting parts so you can skim or you can scroll to the bottom and just get to the point :)

Extraverted Sensing Thinking Judging - ESTJ

Extravert(22%)  Sensing(25%)  Thinking(1%)  Judging(67%)

• You have slight preference of Extraversion over Introversion (22%)
• You have moderate preference of Sensing over Intuition (25%)
• You have marginal or no preference of Thinking over Feeling (1%)
• You have distinctive preference of Judging over Perceiving (67%)

Ice Storm 2013 = New Bathroom for Me!

If you read my last blog entry you found out I joyously have a bit more time on my hands these days; and in case you don't know me too well then let me tell you extra time means I get a LOT done.  I'm not really very good and just "sitting around and eating bon-bons" as my husband would say.  Even when I am watching TV I like to be "doing" something.  So for some Christmas presents I have been making creations which is what dominated most of my time while iced in alone for four days (can't show you those yet, maybe after Christmas I'll blog about those).  Phil, my husband, works in an ER about an hour away so that means a couple things...
1. He HAS to go to work.  You can't really call in when you work in the ER.
2. You also can't drive back and forth when it is super icy and it's midnight so he stayed in a hotel and the dogs and I hunkered down trying to keep warm.

Arden was not a fan of the ice.

Frozen things are cool but I couldn't stay out long I'm a wuss. 

Change is in the Air

The past few months have flown by in a sort of whirlwind that has almost had my head spinning.  In fact, my last blog was in August and let me tell you since then my world has been rocked.    Let me give you a little update.

As you may know this year Phil and I were blessed to take several trips.  Starting in April we went on a cruise, followed by a weekend in May to Boston and then in July we went to Hawaii.  (I haven't yet blogged about Hawaii... but it's coming don't worry along with TONS of photos.)  These trips were truly amazing, fun and eye opening for me.  Within all of them there was a massive reoccurring theme that "something in my life had to give".  As we would approach returning from these trips rather than having a sense of excitement to return home I would panic, melt down and become very anxious that I was returning to a stress level that wasn't healthy and was in these moments crippling.  As the realization settled over me that I was over-committed, over-stressed and I was the only one who could change that.  So I began to pray, talk with Phil and walk toward making changes.

5 min Friday - Small...

It's that time again.  Five Minute Friday.  Last week I had a little more to say than 5 minutes of writing so I took a pause to blog about that.

TODAY'S PROMPT:
Small...