In Eden for a Mere Moment....

I believe that there is a bit of beauty to behold in everyone and every situation. Even if it's just a milligram.. it's there if you look hard enough. Life and all creation are laced with it...

Today was one of those days that I didn't have to try very hard to see it... I found that beautiful was all around me I woke up to a brooding sky filled with heavy clouds but there was such a brightness beneath it all... it lit everything up with this beautiful dark yet bright light. It's starting to be spring here too so the almond blossoms are blooming and the rains have come so the green has followed. I was walking down a backroad through the village early this morning to the house I teach at and I felt like I was in the middle of the country side shown in the cinematography in the newer version of Pride and Prejudice... with the chickens wandering everywhere and green rolling along the rocky hillside.

So other than spending my days being a teacher, on a bus, observing the lovely world of scenery around me, problem solving, exercising my patience yet again with my lovely students, or shaking my fist futilely in the air at the challenges of this unconventional life... I will be run/walking the Antalya 10K race this sunday with 2 of my girl friends here and let me tell you- we're pumped! It will be a first for all of us and that will be great. It's also great that we're doing it together. When you make good friends over here- you stick to them like peanut butter sticks to jelly... mmmm, I think I'm hungry.

Spring Has Sprung... Almost.

Well, I’ve been back from my wonderful break in Germany for about 2 weeks now and I feel as if I’ve plunged back into life here at full speed. I will attempt to catch you up now on what life has been like since I’ve returned. It’s taken ME about two weeks now to catch up on what life is like since I’ve returned : ) A lot of changes have taken place yet much remains the same. Such is the nature of life I suppose.

The 2 week break time for me signified a lot of things. It marked the renewing of my visa for another three months time here, it put a period to the end of my first three months of adjusting, learning the culture and just learning the “game” that I play in everyday here; What the players are as far as challenges and requirements and benefits go for life, teaching, and living in the Turkish village community, my group’s community and the international Church community that have become my friends in Antalya. It was so good to be removed for awhile to give my mind a rest from constantly processing all the new here. I played, spent time with friends, enjoyed some of the amenities of an already developed and settled place, and rested. It was beautiful. By the end of my time there I was ready to return and anxious to see my community here, feel the warmer weather, and get back to my room (which was on loan for 3 weeks to a visiting couple here) which feels the closest thing to home and grounded-ness that I’ve got here.

Antalya welcomed me warmly with wonderful and smooth travels back and a warm evening breeze. I was delighted to see some of the new construction that went up even in my short time away and also comforted to see all of the familiar sights that only 3 months ago had seemed so strange and foreign. I surprised all the kids the next day by coming over to the house in the evening when they were all over playing together. They welcomed me with a huge dog pile on top of me and I felt loved. For the next week I went over to the Hudson’s each day to teach them alone, as the Albers still had some family visiting from Canada. For Valentine’s Day I threw a little party for the Hudson girls and Judah complete with pink popcorn, heart pizza, sugar cookies, and “I Love Lucy” while the lucky parents went out on a date. We had a blast even if we did spend half the night in candlelight due to the finicky power supply. This week I started back into the “normal” schedule with all the kids back over at the Albers and we are all re-adjusting to having our school focus and best attitudes on.

All in all, I feel like I’ve taken 2 steps forward and 1 step back. You see when I first arrived back in Antalya I was so refreshed and the air was so warm and beautiful… I would wake up each day and the birds were singing and the flowers on the almond trees even beginning to bloom. But I should have known and taken into account that it is only February still. The rain and cold has come back here and there- both in the weather and also in my everyday life. Things are better in the way that now even if I realize that I STILL can’t understand much Turkish, and the buses are STILL unreliable, and I still have to work hard at motivating the kids- I now have relationships here, and can see how God is working and blessing the time. He is teaching me volumes and hopefully blessing those I work with through me. He is stretching and molding my character and giving me awesome experience and a different world perspective in the meantime. These are huge gifts that I know God is giving me and I am so grateful. This week I have been helping out by watching the kids and cooking extra in order to help the Hudson’s prepare for the birth of their new little one this weekend. Gail will go into the hospital Saturday morning to have a C-section performed and then they will be a family of 6. I will also be helping out more during this time. Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts and encouragements… they make me stronger and sustain me!

All my love,
Ashley

Living Green.

Life here in Munich has been interesting for sure. Since I've been here, It's been sort of a joke in the household I live in that everything is all-natural and I am being constantly reminded to do things the "green" way. Haha- It sort of cracks me up but also makes so much sense and kicks my complacent brain into gear to really think about what I'm eating and how I'm living. It's definitely a distinctive change from life in Turkey. Here everything is modern and there is lot's more available as far as food and products go so it's easier to choose to live green whereas in Turkey I just sort of take what I can get.

Another thing that makes me laugh is that I am definitely learning that most "American" english sayings make absolutely no sense. I have been helping my friends here with their english and in trying to explain things to them, it shows me almost every time, how ridiculous some of the things we say are. I hope by the time I return to the states my english will have improved : ) haha!

Chocolate Hearts...

Well here I am in Munich and it is amazing. I love the friends that I am staying with, I love the snowy weather, I love the sights in this old city, I love learning German, and I love just having a change in pace. Today I went to church with the Mundl family and I learned something silly on the outside but if given a second look can actually teach us something I think. It is the parable of the candy heart. Today, because I was new at church, I got a small chocolate heart wrapped up in red foil. I looked at it and then because it brings me joy to share with others and make them happy- I decided to give it away… in the hopes that I could share my joy with someone else. The first try said no thank you…. The second try said yes, thanks but I can’t eat it. The third try said no again because I had interrupted them and went back to their task…. And then the fourth try I was so scared that someone would say no that I just carelessly tossed the chocolate heart through the air to the next person I saw. I think that this is a parable for the way our real hearts are treated sometimes… We look for someone to open our hearts to and share our joy with- but sometimes they say no, or they say yes, but can’t, or they just sort of ignore you, or we get so weary of being turned away that we just cast our beautiful precious hearts so carelessly in the wind to fall upon whomever they might. None of this is good. It is a problem that I can’t seem to figure out. I really wish I could. I’m not sure which is more distressing- the fact that we aren’t capable of opening our hearts to others or the fact that we get so scared of rejection that we are careless. I suppose our only hope is to love each other as brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and to know that He who created us loves us more than we can ever fathom, and to press on to learn how to love and be loved.