Introduction To An Adventure

Hello to the interested and amused public--
You have come to a very dangerous place-- a place where Rachel's head and heart leak out through words onto a screen to be read and over-analyzed by far too many people (Haha). No, really this is a place for me to maintain a bit of a flow for those that are interested to know how life in California is, immersed in the crazy adventure Jesus is inviting me into. I've been asked to let you know how I am, what I am learning, and what life is like so my goal is to keep a fairly regular update churning out. I highly doubt that I will continue to write over the next month, but once everything is settled "out there," you will know.

Bethel and California are less than a month out and the days are closing in quickly. I still do not have housing completely worked out, although I have potential roommates and a situation in the works. My job has not been transferred yet, but again, it is in the process. Right now, I am packing my room and labeling boxes for either Texas or California, knowing that many of my dear books will miss me for nine months or so. It was so difficult packing away Dostoevsky, Tolkien, and my other dear "friends" as they have become. (Lewis, however, along with some Dostoevsky, Dickens, and a few others are managing to run away to the West Coast with me). Nearly everything in life is changing right now, and it truly is a beautiful place to be. By no stretch of the imagination is it easy, but there is something about the windy mountain, something about the expanse of desert, something about the adventure of not knowing what's on the other side, that keeps me going.

The passion that has been simmering in me is this desire for awareness and change to occur in the broken region of Darfur. Oddly enough, some people know of the current state of events and simply are not motivated to even pray for this dying, hateful place. I am learning more about it as time goes on and hoping to get plugged in with aide and ministry in any way I can. (If you know of anything relating to this, please share it with me; I am very interested). I've been sharing this video from youtube.com that illustrates alot of what is happening over there:


Recently alot has been stirring up in my spiritually and trying to articulate it here would be nearly impossible, simply knowing that it would be misunderstood because I am only beginning to grasp it myself. My prayer life is this soup bowl with ambiguous vegetables and foreign spices that I never would have chosen, but somehow when Jesus stirs the pot, an aroma wafts through the air that smells much better than the zucchini does on its own. The meat is simply a desire for deeper; the nourishment, a growing faith in God's goodness; the spices, a passion for the nations and people that has so much further to go. Psalm 34:8 is in league with this crazy metaphor: "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." It is fascinating to me that the Lord's goodness is associated with refuge. Again and again I've found my comfort and my wake-up call in the stillness of worship, the desperation of repentance, and the loss of my comfort zone. May it always be so! I pray to have the grace in every situation to count it all joy, no matter the circumstances or the horizon.

Prayer Request: peace that surpasses all understanding and motivation to follow-through on passion.