Sweet Jesus, Thank you for 2011.

A letter to Jesus

As I look back at the pictures that form in my head --all of things that came by this year, that I was a part of, that changed me, that changed others, that made me what I'm today, I feel myself breathing tranquilly by being reassured that you really know what to bring along.

Not everything was peaches and cream this last year, some things were plain ol’ mud and poop. There were times when I questioned your art and skill at writing my life’s story, “You’re ruining everything!” I cried. “Please be careful.” Ah but you knew all along. Thank you for not taking me out of the situation but instead helping me through it. I gained, discovered and learned so many things down that path. And what stands out the most is your love, your tender, deep, abiding, unconditional, caring, saving love. Nothing can save me like you do, nobody can make me feel as loved, secure, accompanied, understood, happy and well as you do. So well! It’s more than the feelings you give me. It’s the faith, the grace, the fulfillment, the power and love that makes it not just worth it all, but make me willing and desirous to do anything to have and keep it!

When I wake up in the morning, it’s for You that I want to be a better person. You give me so many gifts that I want to show you my thankfulness by living a life that makes You proud.

Thank you for everything this year, Jesus. Because the good and the bad, the lovely and the ugly, the joyous and the disheartening all translated into making me feel your love more than ever before.

Thank you for being at the helm of my ship, at the steering wheel in my car. Thank you for being the writer of my story. Thank you for knowing best and for not getting angry at me when I doubt that you do. But instead You call me, take me in your arms, and give me exactly what I need and in the way I need it to help my faith hang in there and believe that you have My best interests at heart. Thank you so much for that.

It’s a fact I couldn’t breathe without You, love without You or be happy without You. So thank you for every breath…an average of 10,541,200 this year? Probably much more, I mean, I did experience lots of exciting things this year, but we'd also have to subtract the moments that took my breath away!

All in all thank you for a well-rounded full year! I have so many things to thank you for!

Thank you for speaking to me.

Thank you for proving to me this year that there is no prayer too small or too big for you, by answering both! (Like when the bus passes by just on time, or when I asked you to bring my parents back together and give them a better marriage than they’ve ever have. It definitely felt like I was asking you to take me to live to Mars)

Thank you for helping me with university, for helping me to learn, to have good grades and to enjoy myself along the way! All of it is thanks to you! Thank you for my scholarship and for my loving parents who support and pay for my studies.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be part of an awesome team to change lives in particular places and times, while also carrying that spark back to my place and city.

Thank you for the privilege of loving and being loved by the guy who takes my breath away, who’s my partner in crime (bombarding the gates of Hell) and who makes me laugh more than any comedian (he’s not a comedian by the way).

Thank you so much for the time I spent with him this year. I treasure every little second of it! Thank you for making me the lucky girl who gets to love him with all her heart! And who gets to receive his love too! Thank You, Jesus, for being the love we have.

Thank you for bringing new people along my path, that became new friends.

Thank you for bringing me closer to old dear friends.

Thank you for giving me an amazing summer with my girlies.

Thank you for the privilege of seeing my best friend so happy, thank you for being her happiness and thank you for Keith!

Thank you for answering my prayer of giving Esther the right man (I started praying two years ago). She’s in South Africa with him right now.

Thank you for the strength, encouragement, love and help that you gave me through my dear friends!

Thank you for Windy and the inspiration she is to me!

Thank you for each of my friends and how they make me feel loved and appreciated for who I am.

Thank you for teaching me to appreciate life much more, that of others and mine as well. My baby could’ve died falling three stories down; but you protected him mightily and I believe you healed the unthinkable while he lay on the ground.

Thank you for your protection! Thank you for the amazing miracles of healing, supply and strength that you did for Kevin when the accident happened and during the months he spent recovering.

Thank you for mom, dad, Nina and Adrian, their presence, love, funny ways, different personalities and ways of interacting that make life with them interesting, enjoyable and a real learning and tuning experience.

Thank you for Sandy and for experiencing much of life with her!

Thank you for my friends in school.

Thank you for the opportunity to pray with and for people, trust you for the miracles and sometimes get to see them right away!

Thank you for the gift of giving to and hugging the needy.

Thank you for a grand year!

Can you believe it, Jesus? I actually wanna go back as if it were the end of a good movie or gripping book to experience little snippets of it again. Even some of the bad parts because I know that in the end it all turned out great (since the main character is better off and has learned much more and so have the people around her). It's those kinds of parts that bring the climax and make the story deep and meanigful in the end. Thank you, Jesus.

I'm honestly crazy excited that the sequels continues TODAY, 1st of January, 2012.

Happy New Year!

Dear family, friends, and fellowmen,
To those who are lonely: may you find love, both earthly and everlasting.
To those who are loved: may that love grow as you share it with others.
To those who are longing: may your heart's desires be sated by the things that truly satisfy.
To those who are in need: may this year be the beginning of better times.
To those who hurt: may you find peace - first with yourself, and then with the world.
To those who are unsure: just keep it real, and let your integrity be its own reward.
And to one and all: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

-Written by David Salas,
a man I admire and love!

Changed by a tale of strawberries and love

My little sister and I

The 3rd of January I made a resolution that I would pen down my commitments and my goals for the new year. Last year I had placed goals in front of me, which I´m happy to say became a reality in my life; but if I ever had more resolutions than the ones I´m thinking about then I don´t know. So being better to write them down, I wrote a letter to Jesus.

Did you think I was gonna post that letter?!
I´m sorry, it´s kinda long and it´s adressed to my Creator.
The thing is though, I read that very day an article titled "Strawberries, candles and new Resolutions" by Saskia Smith:

It was a bright summer day in South Africa, and the old year was coming to a close. Thoughts had turned from Christmas celebrations to New Year’s resolutions.

The farmhouse door clanged behind me as I went into the kitchen. My mother followed my gaze to a heaping bowl of strawberries on the table. “Yvonna brought those over,” she said. “A gift from her family.”

I found the generosity of our simple neighbors almost awkward. Our missionary center occupied the largest and most comfortable house in the neighborhood. With all the people we crammed into our house, we needed the space. We had six young missionaries in training plus a lot of children, so this small farming community with its low rent and utility rates was perfect for our needs.

Yvonna was a teenage girl who lived two houses down. Like most families in the village, I knew theirs had tended the strawberry fields behind their house for months. In the most celebrated strawberry-growing area in South Africa, they cultivated the plump ruby fruits in their off-hours to supplement their meager income. And yet every harvest, our neighbors showed up at the door with their arms full of strawberries.

What made me feel worse was that I knew Yvonna had wanted to join our youth group for Bible studies for some time, but we had been genuinely busy and kept putting it off. I sighed. Oh well, there was yet another resolution to file away in my mental filing cabinet.

My family always celebrated New Year’s Eve with a warm blend of merrymaking and sobriety. It had been our tradition since I could remember, in the final hours before the countdown, for family and close friends to participate in a candlelight gathering. Each person, down to the youngest, would have an opportunity to light a small candle from a large central one that symbolized Jesus. Then they would share the things they were most thankful for about the last year, and also their hopes and prayers for the New Year.

That night, as I’d planned, I publicly forgave a friend for a wrong that had made my life emotionally difficult for the previous few weeks. It felt so good to get it off my chest that I almost wished I had done it earlier.

Other people talked about wanting to do more for the local community. We all agreed. The New Year was the perfect time to start getting more involved.

I went to bed relieved. New Year’s Day dawned bright and full of promise. But Yvonna was not there to see it. She was killed in a tragic automobile accident in the early hours of the morning.

I still believe that resolutions are a good thing. But each year, when the fireworks have dissolved from the New Year sky, I think about Yvonna. And then my thoughts drift to how we often wait for a convenient time to do the things we should be doing today. I know people who wait for birthdays and holidays to send cards or to pick up the phone to tell loved ones just how much they mean to them. Some people wait for a special day to propose to their sweethearts. Others store gifts away, waiting for the “perfect moment.”

Today, let’s make a new resolution. Let’s resolve not to wait until the New Year to do the things that really matter.

It made an enormous difference in me. I had commited among other things, to love no matter what sacrifices must be done on my side, if Jesus sacrificed His life so that I could experience love eternally, then any type of sacrifice to give love is nothing compared to that.
Moments earlier I was thinking how much I love and appreciate certain ppl, thinking how much they mean to me and thinking I should better write it all down to later put it into card and give it to them in Valentine´s Day, which is soon approaching. But this story shook me and even changed my resolution for the new year.
I commit to love now.

"Welcome, New Year," said Captain Jim, bowing low as the last stroke died away. "I wish you all the best year of your lives, mates. I reckon that whatever the New Year brings us will be the best the Great Captain has for us--and somehow or other we'll all make port in a good harbor."

-chapter 16, Anne´s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)