Real love, true peace

How do you really love other people? And what does true peace, God's peace, look like? Things to think about.



I'm now in Akron, PA with my fellow SALTers (Serving & Learning Together - young adults from the USA and Canada serving abroad) and IVEPers (International Volunteer Exchange Program - they have come from other countries to serve in the USA and Canada) participating in a week long orientation before we go out to our various sites for the next year.

Fun random facts:

• The USA's women's soccer team had a bit of redemption yesterday when they played the gold-medal match against Japan. Due to their incredible last-30 second win against Canada, all the Canadians (there are a lot of them) were watching the game with me and cheering for Japan. But the USA won. Hah. My small moment of pride for my country. 
• I ended up helping lead worship for devotions this morning. So last night our practice turned into many renditions of songs like "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele and "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Also the song at the end of Shrek, "Bad to the Bone" (the beginning since we didn't know any other words) and "the Cell Block Tango" from Chicago. I'm excited for the talent show. 
• Small world connections. Yep, happening all the time.
• This campus is ridiculous. Pictures soon to come on nandaellen.tumblr.com

The most challenging thing presented to me this morning was in the form of a talk about MCC's Mission and Vision. As a part of this, we were asked questions like these:

• Who are you?
• What do you want the world to be?
• What is your overall purpose? 
• What are your priorities?

So I sat there in the ten minutes that I was given to answer these questions (and a few more) realizing how difficult it is to openly and honestly answer these questions. Everyone knows how to answer the questions in relation to circumstance, but how would your answers look if situation and context was stripped away? Part of me wonders if all the answers said today would have been the same if people were not in a room full of Christians (says the cynical side of me). As for myself, I think these will be questions to take some quality time to answer. If you want to ask me the answers of these questions that I got in the three minutes, let me know and I'll let you know.