so, last weekend...

Something kinda crazy happened to me. I knew it was going to happen, but I still found myself surprised by it. I've spent all week trying to get in touch with my loved ones, to tell them about it, to explain what has happened, and what will happen...

Last weekend I found out that I'm moving to Mexico.

Last weekend was the DIP event for Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM is the acronym I'll be using for the program. Confusingly, YAGMs is the acronym I'll be using for myself & my fellow young adult missionaries. Sorry.). I went to Lake Geneva, WI with 50-ish other young adults & a bunch of Global Missions Staff to figure out where we ought to spend next year. It was pretty intense. I've rehashed the weekend so many times that I'm losing the energy to tell every detail any more (which is probably for the best, but if you really wanna know more, just email me and I'll be happy to oblige. You know how I love to talk). Essentially, it was a really difficult, emotional four days filled with inexplicable tears and gushing personal details at strangers. It was a very affirming four days, in which people I had just met made it a point to discover & appreciate my gifts, to prayerfully consider how & where those gifts might best be put to use. I have never been with so many of my peers that I felt truly honored to be spending time with. Everyone that was at the DIP event was so genuinely awesome, & I'm both excited to now know these people who will be going to do awesome things in Slovakia, Hungary, the West Bank, South Africa, Malaysia, the UK, Argentina, & Uruguay... places I might never see. I'm excited to see how their journey is different from mine, and how it will be similar. I'm also a little sad that some of them will be so far away, when I would have liked to get to know them better.

I interviewed for the YAGM program in Slovakia/Hungary as well as Mexico. I know my friends in Germany were, largely, excited about the possibility that I'd be nearer to them in Central Europe; I was excited, too. But I think Mexico is the much better fit for me right now, I'm feeling both a little nervous & insanely excited, both totally ready & completely unprepared. So here's the scoop on Mexico:

• I leave in mid-August for a week orientation in Chicago, & then off to Mexico.
• I don't speak Spanish... YET! So they're sending me to language school in Guatemala for a month this summer (I know. Summer in Antigua. Total bummer, right?! haha...)
• I'll be living in Cuernavaca, the City of Eternal Spring! It's just a little bit south of Mexico City in the state of Morelos. It looks gorgeous, & the weather... pinch me.
• I'll have home-stays in Guatemala & Mexico, which I'm SUPER excited about. Being in someone's home is such awesome way to really learn language & culture. Also, cooking. So pumped.
  
• All the YAGMs will be in or near Cuernavaca, too, & our country director lives there with her husband. This is probably the piece I'm most excited about. I went into the DIP process thinking that it would be awesome to be living completely isolated from other Americans, to really immerse myself in a new culture. But I realized pretty quickly, as I assessed the things that I missed & didn't miss about the last 3 years, that I feel like the intentional community time I experienced in Border Servant Corps, although it had its own special kind of stress, is something that I really feel is missing from my life now. The Mexico YAGMs get together at least once a month for community time, and if I really need some time with them, everyone will be within a few hours on public transit!

So, I'm super excited. I'm super nervous. I'm still waiting for a lot of the critical information to find its way to me. But this blog will once again be my main communication point for all the people I love who are much too far away from me. YAGM requires us to publish monthly newsletters, & I plan on doing a printable paper format as well as online, so I'll be putting up information about how to get your hands on those for those who are interested. My personal goal is to write on this blog once a week both during the preparation phase & my service year. I know my track record for keeping up with those goals isn't the best, but I think I'll work harder at it this time, since smaller, more frequent updates will make monthly newsletters a much smaller task. Anyway, you'll be hearing information as soon as I do. For now, please keep me & my fellow 2010-11 YAGMs in your prayers however you see fit during this tense time of waiting before we get details about our placements.