No subliminal messages here/Photo Essay Part 2

The last few days have been quite incredible. "Incredible" could be an overstatement, to which I say please provide a word that encompasses "humbling," "overwhelming," shocking," "emotional," and "blessed" all into one. You have until the end of this post to come up with an alternative.

Ever since I created the Facebook group late Sunday night I have been blown away (add that term to the above list, thanks) by the support I have received from my friends. The most shocking part of that process has been seeing where this support is coming from. I have received around 10 contributions as a direct result of the group, and most of those are from people I have not talked to in the last 6 months, some in the last year, and others in over 2 years. This is where "overwhelming" comes in. One of my biggest fears at the beginning of this process was that the people whom I asked to support me would not believe in this work as strongly as I do. Not only have I been proven dead wrong, but I believe God has used this to show me that not only do I have support, but I have support from people who are not even a part of my day to day life. Insert "blessed" and "humbled" and "emotional" here.

Now on to more introductions. These are my two teammates, Jeff and Ragan, and our tour guide extraordinairre, Sergio/Bob/Bobby. Sergio/Bob/Bobby is one person, the Brazilian-looking one in the middle. He was given his English names by the LST team of older ladies who came the summer before us. They had difficulty pronouncing his name, so they took matters into their own hands and named him Bob. Bob, a quadri-lingual university student who also teaches English on the side, embraced his new name to the point that even the other Brazilians from the church often call him Bobby. Bobby worked at a hotel, so he was immersed in the business of tourism and took it upon himself to jam-pack our days off (2 days per week) with "touristy" activities to do around Natal. In this particular picture we had just finished doing a little snorkeling. Bobby is one of the kindest, most generous people I know. He takes the call of servanthood seriously and delights in serving others. He always seemed to show up at the church building just as we were getting ready to break for lunch or dinner, ready to accompany us to the grocery store, local buffet, or just keep us company. He spent significant amounts of his free time helping us with anything and everything, and any time we commented that he didn't need to feel obligated to do so, he would stop us mid-sentence and say "it's my privilege to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ. There is nothing I would rather be doing right now." Most of my memories with Bobby involve laughing, laughing, and more laughing.


This is another of my most precious readers, Roberto. In the last post I said that when I think of Natal, Michelle and Patricia are the first two faces I see, but I would also add Roberto to that image. When I first met him, I could tell that he was very shy, very nervous, but very sweet. He usually showed up to every reading session early but sweating. I finally found out the last week we were in Natal that he was sweating because he would run to the church building from the bus stop, afraid he would be late. Roberto and I had amazing conversations about faith and what it means to follow God. He would come to the sessions uber-prepared, having read the lesson ahead of time and also having read the same passage from Luke in Portuguese to verify his comprehension of the English. He was so excited when he began doing this, telling me he had never read his own Bible so much. His hunger was very evident and I pray that it has continued. I can't wait to pick up with him where we left off!

I just realized that perhaps I should define some of LST lingo I have been using. If you know it all already, this post is over, so you can go ahead and comment, contribute, and move on to your next blog. :) Stay tuned for more introductions...

Definitions:
Reader(s): the locals in the community (not from the church) who respond to the advertisement for Let's Start Talking to practice their conversational English for free
Reading session: a 45 minute session in which the reader and worker (me) read one lesson from the Luke workbook together. Depending on what the reader chooses and what the worker's schedule allows, some readers come for a reading session every day, some come only once per week.
Luke workbook: the reading material LST provides, a simple English translation of the book of Luke bound into a workbook format. Each reader receives a workbook to keep for him/herself. Each "lesson" is a passage from Luke with a given message, or "seed thought." Each lesson also contains highlighted English vocabulary words and comprehension questions about the passage.

Photo Essay Part 1

Once again I am too jazzed to fall asleep. I'll give you one chance to guess what's keeping me awake...What else? Natal, of course! However, it occurred to me that, although I can talk about how excited I am to no end, really you, my reader(s) (the singular is probably more accurrate...) have no earthly idea of specifically what I am excited about. Allow me introduce to you what, or, rather, who, keeps me awake at night:

These are my two friends, Michelle (left) and Patricia (right). They are my Brazilian soulmates. They were the first two readers I met at the Information meeting and they instantly became like sisters to me. Michelle is more sarcastic than I am...and clearly there will be no need for further explanation for why I love her so much. :) Patricia is one of the godliest women I have ever known. She is a breast cancer survivor, single mother of three boys, owns her own business, and still manages to pour love and kindness over everyone she meets. Michelle and Patricia are the first faces I see when I think about Natal.

This is Andre. Andre lived with us at the church building and basically kept us alive for the month we were there. He taught us how to quit blowing the fuse every day, avoid running out of hot water, showed us the cheapest but most delightful neighborhood restaurants, and served as an excellent bodyguard any time we needed him (that's a joke, Mom) simply because he's oh, about 6'4. Andre and I became good friends and laughed together A LOT! He is an engineering student at the local university and teaches English. He was very interested in American slang, and would pick up on any new word or phrase he heard us use. His favorite new phrase was "I'm coughing up phlegm." My favorite phrase that we taught him was "I'm blowing up" any time his phone rang. Hahahaha...it's still hilarious to me. :) This picture was taken the last night we were in Natal, about 4 hours before we left to come home. I was a bit emotional that night (as you'll be able to tell in future pictures) so excuse my appearance please.

Look forward to a continuation of this photo essay over the next few days. I want you to know my friends and the reason why I just can't wait to be with them again. Adios!

The Most Exciting Day

In my quest to fundraise approximately $18,000 for a year's worth of missionary work, I can tell you right now that I will declare many different days The Most Exciting Day. However, you can be assured that this declaration will always, without a doubt, coincide with a jump in figures on my donation page.

It's just a fact.

Last night, at about 1:30 am, I was laying in bed, desperately trying to fall alseep but unable to rid my mind of racing thoughts surrounding my internship. It had been a while since this happened, so it was actually a welcomed, nostalgic dose of insomnia. Call me crazy, but I get the most excited when I'm losing sleep over it. :) Anyway, I've been thinking a lot lately about how best I can reach my friends to ask for support. I composed a mass email last week, but never sent it out. I knew that most of my friends, upon opening an email with oh, say 200 names in the address line, would delete it, assuming anything written to that many people must not be important. But oh, how important it is. So, I resisted as long as I could and then finally sold out, deciding to speak the language my generation knows best: Facebook.

I've created two Facebook groups in my life. The first, Chi Gamma Sub-T, was formed to poke healthy fun at the institution of social clubs on our campus. I won't go into the details of CGST, although it was wildly popular. Trust me. The second, With Your Help Cris Will Become a Missionary, I created last night, in the vain hope that my friends would join, see a precious picture of the little darling I met in Natal this summer, click on the simple link to my donation page, and begin supporting me. I invited about 350 of my closest friends to join, and by the time I woke up this morning at 9, my group already had 24 members.

By noon there were 45. By 2 there were 67. By 3:30 there were 85. Last I checked, at about 5:30, there were 96. This fact alone literally made my eyes well up with tears. I had no idea 96 people were willing to offer support, even if just emotional and prayerful, let alone join a group for it.

Now, remember what fact must coincide with a day being dubbed The Most Exciting Day? That's right, increase in monetary figures. Well. By noon I had received $10, by 4 I had received $30, and by 5 I had received a total of $130. From three people. Three people that would not even consider me one of their closer friends. I can't begin to tell you how much it means to me to have the support of my friends, let alone friends I don't even speak with that often. Today has been humbling, encouraging, happy, and, of course, THE MOST EXCITING DAY!!!!

If you give a Cris a book...

Inspired by my roommate Melanie, the most avid reader in our house, I decided to catch up a bit on some pleasure reading this weekend. And, apparently, by "catch up" I mean triple the amount of books I have read in the last three or four months in a mere 20 hours.

Although back in the day I used to be able to tear through one or two Babysitter's Club: Little Sister series' books in a week, I was unsure that 1. my hunger for reading hadn't changed since I was 9 and 2. I would be able to find enough good books that would make me want read that quickly. In hindsight, my ignorance is comical.

Although Karen Brewer (the Little Sister) enchanted me as a young pup, she hadn't deceived me: I still do have the hunger, although I do an excellent job of supressing it 11 months out of the year. In the "New Arrivals" section of the Abilene library, I found three books that looked interesting enough to keep me occupied over the next three weeks until they are due back.

I promptly came home, read one in an hour, and read the second over the course of last night/this afternoon.

Hmm. Is this book-bulimia? I binge for a weekend then purge my intellect of any more stimulation of the literary-type for a few more weeks? I'll have to get back to you on that, after I see what "a few more weeks" turns out. Perhaps Mel has inspired me enough to have been cured of my reading disorder.

Anyway, allow me to share with you the first of two incredibly interesting and quasi-life-changing books which engaged me so. The first, Letter to a Christian Nation, was one I had heard of only by reading Mike Cope's blog. The author, Sam Harris, a staunch and vocal atheist, wrote this as a response to the responses he received after his first book, The End of Faith, was published. It is composed as a letter to your average Joe Christian living in the United States, arguing all of the reasons that faith in God, any god, actually, is ludicrous. I assumed that anyone who writes a book like this would write very intelligently, very compellingly, and very convincingly, almost to the point at which I would struggle not to agree. This alone got me excited to read what Harris had to say. I welcome intelligent oppositions to what I think/believe/feel, because they encourage me challenge and work harder to legitimize what I think/believe/feel and make those thoughts/beliefs/feelings more authentic (either way).

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that, though some of Harris's arguments are piercingly legitimate and should make Christians think twice about the way we handle ourselves with respect to the rest of the world, he came across more as a child trying to argue why his dad could beat up my dad while we chewed on popsicles in a schoolyard.

Not exaggerating. Read here if you want some excerpts and responses to the book on a very well-read preacher's blog, but for now I'll spare you the specifics of what I really thought about his argument. Do I recommend it? That depends.

Yes, but only if you are in the mood to seriously contemplate (in a good way) the Why of your faith. No, however, if you're only looking for someone new to hate for persecuting Christians. Harris doesn't need any more hate mail citing chapter and verse of why he will spend eternity burning in hell. I recommend the book if you are capable of reading with a prayerfully open heart and mind, prepared to see the validity in some of the points he has to make.

Do I still believe in God? Yes. Do I still believe Jesus is the Son of God? Yes. Do I still want to be a missionary for the next two years of my life? Yes. Do I still want you to support me? Yes. Is my faith stronger after reading this book? Yes. Do I hope that Harris has a Saul/Paul conversion one day? Yes. Do I still hope that subliminal messages work? Let's hope so. :)

Ooooh man I apologize for the whiney tone of that last post. I actually intended more of a sarcastic sound, but after reading it I realize it just sounded like I was complaining. Perhaps I was. :)

God definitely worked through some incredible ways this past week with my LST internship fundraising. I learned a tremendous lesson (as always) and learned once again that I can't box him in to the little mold I have for him. He is always, always faithful. And even when I'm pretty sure He's done being faithful, and I give him an out to peace out on me, he just doesn't leave! I am so thankful for a God who doesn't ever forget about me and takes the time to remind me of it.

Spring break was absolutely delightful. Seeing Molly, my roommate from freshman and sophomore year, was the highlight of the semester. There we are up there ^^ just laying around on the floor, you know. I also developed a new appreciation for the San Antonio area. I had no idea it was so pretty! I've always said Austin is the only place in Texas I would voluntarily choose to live, but folks you can now add San Antonio to that list.

This post is so lame. Sorry.

Cris-orama?

WHY is it that when I go to create my new boring email address, cris.carpenter at gmail.com, it has already been taken? And WHY does Google suggest alternatives such as cris.carpenterorama, cris.carpenterernator, or cris.carpenterster? Am I 7? And am I a sleaze? These are questions that plague me in the internet world. I guess the two major league baseball players with whom I share my name have already taken the simple, straightforward email domains. Or the Cris Carpenter with whom I'm friends on Facebook. I guess it's back to the drawing board. Any new suggestions? I may just have to resort to the even more boring cris.m.carpenter. How do we feel about that?

At least it's not cRiScHiCkACU2007pie@gmail.com. :)

Shamed...?

What word is in between shameless and shameful? There has to be one. Shameless implies reckless disregard to tact and modesty, whereas shameful implies embarrassment and/or a plea for attention to be diverted elsewhere. I don't think it can be shamed, because that's more of a verb than an adjective; a verb that makes me uncomfortable, mind you.

Anyway, I want to know what's in the middle because in my fundraising efforts I sit upon this unknown word. I am not shameful, because I believe so strongly in LST and the work that I will be doing and I know there are people who want to help support me, but I am not shameless in that I try to be very mindful of the fact that people have worked hard for their money and have mouths to feed and that fact alone makes me feel uncomfortable asking for it.

You will notice that I posted the link to my donation page over there >>, but I also posted a link to SearchKindly.org, (an excellent search engine that raises money for a different non-profit each month while yielding Google's search results) as well as a clock to tell you the current time in Natal, and a counter, perhaps because I'm vain about my blog and want to know how many have visited despite the lack of comments. You could say I shamefully cluttered the sidebar in order to not call attention to the link, but that I am now shamelessly devoting an entire post to my fundraising efforts. I'm such a little paradox.

My fundraising efforts for my internship in Brazil pose this problem: even though I feel ____ (this word I can't put my finger on) about my fundraising, what's the next step? Do I email my friends with the link to my donation page and ask for their help? Do I ask if their parents might be interested in supporting my internship, even if they don't know me? Do I ask the wonderful people who have already contributed so much if they could give again?

I don't want to send the wrong impression here: my fundraising has already gone extremely well and I couldn't be more thankful for the generosity and support that I already feel so strongly. God has shown me several times already that He is faithful and will continue to bless me throughout this preparation process. I have received encouragement in the strangest ways and in the most conventional ways. However, there is still more money to be pledged in order for me to be able to begin the internship in September. I've already learned so many lessons in the three short months I have been fundraising, and my prayer is that it will continue to be a learning and growing process for me.

And, if you have any ideas on how to get people to give me money, send 'em my way. :)

Hey, look at me! Two posts in three days.

I need your help. As I prepare to leave this place we call college, or Abilene, or ACU, or the armpit of Texas (which, by the way, I do not agree with) I need to prepare for my life post-college. My preparations include many different elements, but one of them is how I will remain in contact with my friends and family. Hopefully, this blog will begin to serve as as a major source of contact for you to stay updated on my life in Natal, though I do need to build a stronger readership, because I'm pretty sure I'm writing to NO ONE right now. A major part of staying connected is acquiring a new name that will end in gmail.com rather than acu.edu. That's right, folks, I'm in the "get a new email" phase of my preparations. Come May 12, when I graduate, no longer will I (or ACU, eventually) allow cmc02f to serve me. This is where you come in. Any suggestions on what my new email address should be?

To save you some time, these are out:

• any name pertaining to ACU (Wildcat, ACU, Purple, Judge Ely, Westheimer, etc)
• any name including the word "girl" (ACUgirl, Brazilgirl, Crisgirl, etc)
• any name including the word "chick" (ACUchick, Brazilchick, Crischick, etc)
  
• anything including numbers (Cris2007, cris1985, Cris5, etc)
• anything including interests (LipGlossGirl7, ILoveCats1985, White01XTerra)

I will now be accepting suggestions. FYI, I like the way my first and middle name, Cristina Michelle, sound together.

GO! (And thank you.)

Let's face it...

If I played the Justin Scott "name that song that's the title of my post" game you could bust out the old but trusty Mighty Mighty Bosstones' album and win my contest. Too bad for you that I don't play that game, but I have an entirely newfound respect for you if you 1) know who the MMB even were and 2) knew them well enough to know that "Let's Face It" was the title of the album as well as one of the songs.

What I really wanted to say is: Let's face it. I am a terrible blogger. I've been a member of this little site for over a year now and have what seems to be less than 10 posts to show for it. It's not that I don't have anything to say...because we all know THAT'S not true...but I just can't seem to find enough things to write about on a consistent basis that will impress you. Because I want to impress you, despite what my previous post (note the date...) says.

However, with my upcoming move to Natal, Brazil I would like to be in the habit of blogging by the time I arrive in order to continue the habit to keep my friends and supporters informed on my LST internship there. (Shameless plug: if you or your parents or your friends are interested in helping contribute toward my support, PLEASE let me know. I'm posting the link as soon as I post this entry.) It hit me on Friday, March 2, that exactly 6 months from Saturday, March 3, I would be on a plane, headed to spend my year(s) in Natal. Now, while I am very, very, VERY excited, realizing it was a mere 6 months away gave me one of those deep, awkward feelings in the pit of my belly, the kind of feeling that tells me I wish it was tomorrow and I wish it would never come, all at the same time. Don't let this alarm you (especially if you were seriously considering a contribution,) because it's a good feeling. A very, very good one. It's the same feeling you get when you have been on an airplane for the last 3/6/8/14 hours, on your way to an exciting vacation or an exciting visit with family and the plane ride has gotten monotonous and miserable until the exact second the pilot tells you they have begun the descent and then all you can think about is the person you are about to see or the new place you are about to explore or how good it will feel to use the restroom in an area larger than 2 square feet.

THAT feeling.

On an entirely unrelated note, I find it curious how much I love using parentheses. I feel like parenthetical interjections are how my writing becomes a conversation with you. Leave a comment so it can feel more real. :)