Hey friends!
I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. Between work, fundraising efforts, preparations for leaving Indiana, and the fair (!) I feel like I've been going non-stop for the past few weeks. That's not a bad thing-I like being busy and having "things" going on all the time, but it's definitely made for some exhausted days at work and left little time for fun things like blog posts!
Anyway, the garage sale I had a couple weekends ago was a huge success! I made around $700 in just one day. I was blown away. I'm so grateful for friends and family that stopped by, helped set-up/tear down, and donated some awesome stuff. I was so blessed that day, and seriously can't say thank you enough to those who contributed to a successful fundraising event.
A week at the fair was a bit of a distraction from planning/preparations for the upcoming months, but it was definitely a great way to spend some time with family and friends, say some good-byes, and just let myself breath in the last bit of time here at home-to remember the past and to realize how much I'm looking forward to the future.
I was telling a friend last night how I feel such a mix of emotions right now. I feel a definite finality about my time in Indiana-I think it's really coming to a close. I don't see myself returning here after my time abroad. I think that it's time for me to find a new home. Since my parents moved, it's been so strange figuring out just exactly where I belong. Being here is great-I have so many friends and family members here that I love so much and am so thankful for-but being here is also too weird. I probably sound like I'm rambling, because I'm not exactly sure how to put the way that I feel about this place into words. Needless to say, I've been more than a little emotional lately thinking about leaving this place that's been home for my whole life and being absolutely uncertain of what the future holds.
Moving right along...
Here's the part in the blog post that gets a little awkward, a little weird, a little uncomfortable.
I just have a quick question for you...
Would you consider giving financially to my mission?
There, I said it. Didn't want to, but I did.
I have a long way to go in the support-raising process. I have a few weeks before I leave the country. I know that I will probably leave without having the outreach portion of my DTS paid for, and that's ok. I am confident that God will provide..but it's going to take some miracles. If you feel able to give, in any way, I would be so incredibly grateful for your gift. In giving, you can be confident that your donation will be invested directly into my work with some incredible ministries. I strongly encourage you to visit this website to see first hand how I will be helping to end extreme poverty around the world and sharing the love of Jesus with lost people.
If you would like to give financially, please contact me via email at jenna.wisler@gmail.com. I can give you the most up-to-date info about where to send donations this way (as I will be moving soon) and can answers any questions that you have.
Lastly, prayer requests..
The aforementioned emotions have been running high. As I prepare to leave Indiana in just six short days, I will be saying a lot of painful goodbyes. I know that this is what the Lord has for me, and I know that my time away will be incredible, but it's still hard to leave. I hate the thought of missing Christmas in Wakarusa with all of my friends and family, and I am so sad that I won't be available to help Kel with every aspect of wedding planning in the coming months, and I want so badly to hold Baby Morales as soon as he/she arrives in February. These things make me sad...but not so much so that I doubt God's will for my life. I'm certain that I am to go to Germany, it's just difficult to think about missing so many beautiful moments in my friends' lives. Pray that I continue to feel peace about my decision and that lines of communication with friends and family members would remain open while I am gone.
Love, blessings, and many thanks.
Jenna
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Garage sale/fundraiser coming up!
Hellooo, everyone.
In a previous post I had mentioned that I may be having a garage sale at some point, and that time is quickly approaching! This coming Saturday, July 16th, from 9am-5pm I will be having a garage sale/fundraiser at Kelly Magers' house (407 W. Harrison St, Wakarusa). I'm going to be selling a bunch of my stuff that I'm basically sick of packing up and moving around all the time, as well as lots of greeting cards, button earrings, and other fun things that I have hand-made. I'm also taking donations of any items that you may want to get rid of. If you've got some things around the house just taking up space, I'd be more than happy to pick them up from you and get them out of your hair! All proceeds will benefit my trip to Germany.
I hope to see you all next Saturday at Kelly's house!
Love, blessings, and many thanks.
Jenna
In a previous post I had mentioned that I may be having a garage sale at some point, and that time is quickly approaching! This coming Saturday, July 16th, from 9am-5pm I will be having a garage sale/fundraiser at Kelly Magers' house (407 W. Harrison St, Wakarusa). I'm going to be selling a bunch of my stuff that I'm basically sick of packing up and moving around all the time, as well as lots of greeting cards, button earrings, and other fun things that I have hand-made. I'm also taking donations of any items that you may want to get rid of. If you've got some things around the house just taking up space, I'd be more than happy to pick them up from you and get them out of your hair! All proceeds will benefit my trip to Germany.
I hope to see you all next Saturday at Kelly's house!
Love, blessings, and many thanks.
Jenna
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
I want to be friends with C.S. Lewis. (And I think that he would want to be friends with me.)
I love C.S. Lewis. I love how he thinks and how he writes and how he believes. I love that you can literally feel his conviction and his passion and sense his wisdom and his wit in every word he writes. As I was reading the last chapter of "Mere Christianity" last night, the following passage struck me in one of those.."Um..YEA" kind of ways. Like..."Woah, Clive, you are so right and you make so much sense." So I'm going to post it now because I feel that it is extremely relevant to my life journey over the last six months or so, and the journey that I am embarking on in the coming months as well.
...."The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of 'little Christs,' all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented-as an author invents characters in a novel-all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selvs are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to 'by myself' without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surrounding and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call 'Myself' becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call "my wishes' become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men's thoughts or even suggested to my by devils. Eggs and alcohol and a good night's sleep will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideas. I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I liek to believe: most of what I call 'me' can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.
....Unless you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most 'natural men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.
...The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."
I skipped around a bit and left out a few sentences here and there. You should definitely just read the whole book; it's life-changing. It's one of those that I always thought about reading and intended to read, but just hadn't. I'm glad I finally did. Oh Clive Staples Lewis, you are a stand-up guy.
Jenna
...."The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of 'little Christs,' all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented-as an author invents characters in a novel-all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selvs are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to 'by myself' without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surrounding and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call 'Myself' becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call "my wishes' become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men's thoughts or even suggested to my by devils. Eggs and alcohol and a good night's sleep will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideas. I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I liek to believe: most of what I call 'me' can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.
....Unless you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most 'natural men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.
...The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."
I skipped around a bit and left out a few sentences here and there. You should definitely just read the whole book; it's life-changing. It's one of those that I always thought about reading and intended to read, but just hadn't. I'm glad I finally did. Oh Clive Staples Lewis, you are a stand-up guy.
Jenna
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