It ended up on a shelf and now years later I find myself still using the one given to me for my 8^th grade graduation.

There is something about using that same Bible, the one that brought me through my high school and college years. Underlined verses bring me back to situations when that specific piece of scripture was important to me. I am reminded of God’s abundant grace and how His word walked me through specific storms of life. Wrinkled pages remind me of tears shed while searching out God’s will, and a coffee stain brings me back to that time I sat in the garden with God and got a little excited about one of the Psalms.

A Bible can tell a lot about its reader. So, when I ask someone if that is their Bible, and they reply with “yeah, and I know I need a new one. This one looks terrible and is falling apart.” I usually respond with encouragement that I think it is something to be proud of and it proves hours spent turning pages and seeking truth.

 I guess there is a chance they could have thrown their Bible down the stairs ten times to make it look that way, but I think I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

So yes, I like ugly Bibles, but more so, I like the reasons they look that way. Mine still doesn’t look anything like my great-grandmother’s, but if that is the goal; I got 75 years to go!

http://urlm.in/eylh

A successful day? In a sense, but if you have 7 of these in a row and start it all over again, you might run into a problem.

This past Sunday I found myself declining offers to go hiking and then a movie night with friends. This is rare for me, but all I could think about was a little time to myself. I ended up walking around an Arts in the Park festival and stopping at the closest 7/11 for a slurpy. (Speaking of which, since when are they more than 89¢?)

The afternoon was liberating. I could go where I want, do what I want, and felt no obligation to anyone but myself.

Even the most extreme people-person needs days like this. The days and weeks can go by so quickly that we often don’t take time to appreciate life and everything that we have going on. We can learn so much, but when we jump from one thing to another, it is easy to forget the application part of our new found knowledge.

Take some time to be alone, feel the silence, and talk with your Creator. Think about your week and take time to let sink in some of the things you learned. We were made for community, but to be productive member, I think you also need to take some time to get to know yourself. Allowing some personal time will give you a better sense of where you fit into this crazy busy world.

But that is fun for me. I love getting to know new people and developing a sense of what makes them tick and how they got this way. I usually go about this by talking and not so much listening. Also, if someone has an embarrassing question to ask, they usually turn to me to ask they question. Take the following example:

“Hey, I really think that man looks like Bob Barker…Chels, why don’t you go ask him.”

Me- “Ok!”

“Hello sir, Are you Bob Barker”

Offended, “No! I’m Ed McMahon!”

True, but not so recent story.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that verbally communicating is what I do.

Until a few weeks ago.

After a few days spent alone trying to recover from what I thought was deadly strep throat (only slight sarcasm), I was more than excited to go to dinner at a friends’. It was a group of about 8 girls and usually this is a fun and exciting scene for me. Covering a lot of my favorite topics: shopping, God, boys, food, stupid boys, (not necessarily in this order) but you know, the usual girl talk. Dinner began and so did the conversation. I opened my mouth to insert my first words of wisdom for the night, when nothing really came out. I had forgotten my voice still hadn’t returned.

Now at a table of 8 girls, no one is really looking around to make sure everyone gets their two cents in. Comments came and went as I sat there with my wealth of knowledge that I had to keep to myself.

There I sat; silent. 

I ate and listened, and even if I felt I could squeak something out, my voice wasn’t loud enough to be heard over the masses. I quickly realized this was probably the first time I completely checked out of a conversation and hoped it would be the last.

But there was something about it, something about listening that began to grow on me.

Usually, in a conversation when someone begins to say something, I quickly start to rack my brain on how I can respond or make my own comment. The problem with this is I never completely hear out the other person and am selfishly planning out my response instead of hearing the initial comment.

Mute, I sat there that evening giving my vocal cords a rest, and let me tell you something; I learned a lot. I guess James knew what he was talking about when he said “…everyone should be quick to listen, and slow to speak”. (James 1:19) You can learn a lot about those around you and yourself if you take the time to listen. So even if you don’t have “deadly” strep throat, try it; sit back and listen.

Truth is, I have been given the opporunity to write some blogs for Focus on the Family’s www.boundless.org web-magazine. My first one was finally published online today http://bit.ly/aGk8pz !

I’m continuing to submit stuff and am hoping they like it

Here is a blog I wrote for today and am waiting on editors approval…what do you think?

Happy Social Media Day…?       by: Chelsey Munneke

Take a second to stop and think about your day so far. How many times have you checked your Facebook, updated your Twitter status, wrote on your blog, read someone else’s blog, and so on. If you have been involved in these activities, you have been actively promoting social media.

The best definition for social media I could find was on the college student’s greatest evil: Wikipedia. They define social media as,

“social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues. They support the democratization of knowledge and information and transform people from content consumers to content producers.”

Who knows, this could be an uneducated homeless man’s definition, but thanks to social media itself, he is now a published and quoted author.

This causes me to think about whether or not this is really a day of celebration. There are definitely a lot of postivies to social media, and in a way it has made my life a lot more simple when it comes to communicating. I can keep in touch with high school and college friends without even picking up the phone, update my blog so my relatives know where I am this month, and I am even able to video chat with friends from New York to the Netherlands.

Beyond just keeping in touch, it also lets people into my personal life and me into theirs. I am now able to let the world know when I find my lost keys, locate my long lost 1st grade teacher, and find out when and how people I don’t even know got engaged. If I’m lucky I might even get to see a video of it posted on youtube. Ok, so the last few things I mentioned may not necessarily be “positives” but the option is there, and for some reason taking part in them is additcting and and intruguing.

Social media now offers everyone the chance to be content producers instead of just consumers. We can let the world know our opinions and publish them with the click of the mouse; no editor required. This gives us a lot of power and eludes to some negatives that come with social media.

Although mediums like Twitter and Facebook have a way of keeping us connected to friends, I think we also lose an important personal connection. Taking the time and effort to give someone a call or write them a letter is a thing of the past. If you have something to say to someone, just mention them in your tweet or quickly write on their wall. This may be easier, but where is the effort and interpersonal connection? I find the “simplicity” of maintaining so many friendships over time becomes complex and leaves me with a lot of “friends” and not many FRIENDS … if you know what I mean.

Social media also gives us the opportunity to be so “involved” in other people’s lives that we would rather spend time reading about theirs than living our own. Think of all the time you can waste in a day reading Joe Blow’s blog, then, before you know it, you have been redirected to Janice Blow’s blog, to Jr. Blow’s facebook page, and suddenly an hour has passed and you find yourself looking at the Blow family’s vacation pictures from 2007! Maybe there is a reason “there just aren’t enough hours in a day” is such a common phrase.

So what do you think? Is it a day worth celebrating?

Maybe instead of baking a cake in this day’s honor, take a few moments to do a social media inventory on your own life. Try to calculate how much time you spend a day involved in social media, and ask yourself if you should cut back and maybe be a better steward of your time.

I guess a way we could celebrate this technological advancement in our lives would be to honor its roots. I challenge you; go buy a stamp and send a letter, or find a little extra time to call a friend who has only been recieving your tweet shout-outs.

So yes, be happy we have these options of communicating and making this world a little smaller, just keep moderation in mind as you begin your daily perusing.

So here goes…the next chapter in my ever-changing life:

 I made it home to sweet South Dakota and spent the last few weeks reconnecting with my farm-girl roots.  Referencing back to my Wizard of Oz post from earlier, I must say again, there really is no place like home.  I went from days of backpacking with friends around Europe to days alone on a 4-wheeler, sprayer in hand. It wasn’t too bad and offered me a lot of reflection time after 4 months of barely sitting still. (I was also very grateful to make a little $$$ after a jobless semester!)

My last post expressed how I wasn’t quite ready to leave and when I got home I struggled for a little while trying to adjust. It is hard to take 4 amazing months and just move on…going back to the life I had left behind. But I had to realize that life has seasons and it was time to move on to the next. I will never forget that semester and think of the people and experiences daily, but it is also time to look ahead. Just like when I was there, I couldn’t live at home and now that I am at home, I can’t live there.

Anyway, I could go on about this forever. So, before those who decided to give my blog a 3 paragraph trial, slowly move their mouse to the right-hand corner of the screen, I will just move on.

Where am I now? Colorado Springs, CO, interning at Focus on the Family in their Marriage and Family Formation Department. It has been amazing so far…and as much as I would love to fill you in on the details, this college girl isn’t used to working 8-5, 40hrs a week! So yes, my bedtime may have moved roughly 4 hours earlier. All I will say for now is that I have my own cubicle and if I stand on my tip-toes, a mountain view!

More to come,

Chelsey Rae Munneke

I spent a long time here as a visitor, a traveler passing through. I saw a lot of Europe and spent a good portion of my weekends living out of a backpack in foreign countries. I loved it. I saw so much and learned more than I thought was possible. But then I gave myself the opportunity to do something else. I stayed put. I did what I could to dive into this Dutch culture and embraced the words of that lady from the plane ride here- “…if you’re going to be there, then you really have to BE there.” I began spending more time with my host family and got to know people outside of circle of American friends. Then a few weeks ago I realized I saw myself no longer as visitor in the culture, but a part of it. I don’t really feel like I’m looking from the outside in anymore.

In strange places I run into people I know and see people on the street to stop and talk to. I understand the train system and could bike most places (note I said most in Zwolle without help. Sometimes I can pick up enough words in a conversation to understand what is going on and I could now explain to you the important details of the Dutch government and the eventful history this country clings to. I don’t get everything, but I get enough to understand and appreciate this culture more than ever. And now that I find myself just getting into the swing of things, it’s time to go.

Don’t get me wrong, the thought of seeing my family and friends quickens my heart rate and the excitement is pretty evident. I know that when Friday morning rolls around I’ll probably be ready, but right now, I’m still not. This weekend I actually chose not to go to Spain with friends, but stayed here, in Zwolle, with my host family and new friends. I was able to experience Queen’s Day and see more of Holland. Absolutely no regrets…took some time to smell the tulips you might say

I wish I could update you on everything that has happened in the last few weeks…but I wouldn’t really know how to do it justice in my limited time. Two weeks ago I went to Rome with all of the students on SPICE and some other Dutch students from our school. That crazy volcano granted us a 26.5 hour bus ride instead of a 2.5 hour plane ride. It was long, but I must say I was able to see a lot more of Europe through the windows of that bus than I would have from the sky!

Rome was…well here is the difficult part, it was simply amazing and by far my favorite trip of the semester! We saw everything and learned SO much. This is an experience that maybe when I have more time I can elaborate on and definitely will want to talk about in person, so I’m not going to say much more than this for now.

Thankfully the ride home was only 20ish hours and we started the next week right up with finals. They went really well and I was officially done with school last Thursday.

So now it’s Monday night and I have 3 days left. Wow. Well I’m going to get some sleep and enjoy my past moments here in Holland!

 PEACE

chels

Just a preview