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a_lil_iriish
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Name: Annie
Birthday: 3/4/1984
Gender: Female
Interests: Music and literature especially C.S. Lewis and any of the other "Inklings", Hospitality Magazines and Shakespeare! I also love scrapbooking, card making, picture taking, and free hand sketching and water colors! Sunsets are a passion and being in nature is a must, bring on those mountains fresh air and some vigorous activity!
Expertise: I don't know that I am an expert in anything, maybe on how to properly wait on a table of elderly people. . .
Occupation: Nomad. . . will be working in
Industry: Hospitality
Message: message me
Yahoo:  alilirish
Member Since:
1/16/2006
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| July 2009
I am sitting here in my new apartment in North Africa. I just finished journaling and my heart is a little bit heavy. I was trying to decided if I should share that or not, but I want to be honest and I never want to paint a picture that seems like my work here is sunshine and roses. The truth is that everyday has been wrought with stress and hard work. The local people that we work with here are kind and some are even followers, but they are still babies and Arabs and so their very culture dictates a code of behavior that is not usually easy to understand or swallow. I am trying to get used to how things are “done here” but the language barrier is hard and I often feel like I have taken a vow of silence. I usually learn quickly, but I feel like I am at a stand still and I know it is because the enemy is working to discourage me.
A fellow team mate told me that I should stay focused on Ephesians 6 everyday and I can see what he meant now. We are on the front lines like I have never seen before, and I know that I can not expect to learn everything in one day. I sure wish it was that easy.  So please pray for me, that I would have patience with myself, my teammates, and with this brand new world. For I desire to learn so badly. To become integrated into this culture and more passionate for what I have been called to do.
There are good things happening too and I would be remiss if I did not speak of God’s blessings! I am making a new friend with a young lady at work. She is a local and so sweet. She is very patient, has a beautiful servants heart, and is a natural language teacher. She loves to help me learn and will repeat it so that I can record it on my voice recorder and listen to it later. She is always full of smiles and makes me feel so welcome. We often laugh together as I try to learn. I hope to learn many things from her including how to get around the city and bargain in the souk and medina. Gradual independence would be my long term goal. I did however go to the store and was able to ask the grocer for 1/2 kilo of olives in Arabic. I was so proud! I didn’t even know I knew how to do that until I just walked up to him and spoke. And he understood me so that was very encouraging for my pronunciation!
Back to this young lady. We are close in age and both single working young women who love to work and learn. I desire so badly to learn how to communicate so that I can get to know her better. To be able to share my heart with her. She is also so close to coming to know my Father and I would love for her to meet Him. So please continue to ask that I would be a good model for her. Just showing love goes a long way here and no matter how frustrated or sad I am, I always want to start the day by singing, “This is the day that the Lord has made let me be glad and rejoice in it!” So that this truth will permeate the whole day.
That is the truth of the matter too, every day is a gift and I want to use it well, all the while becoming less so that my Father can become more. For Him to be proud of me that is the only reward I seek. I can hardly believe that I am here and there were so many miracles to get me here that I know He is already blessing my decision to obey Him. I was even blessed with an apartment right around the corner from the restaurant where I work and teach. This was last minute and I didn’t even know about it until I arrived. An answer to my request while I was flying over the ocean! He is taking care of me, He is showing me more and more that it is true, that, “even if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there His hand will guide me His right hand will hold me fast.” I can not escape His love for me no matter where I go.
I hope you are well. I miss you and hope to send another update soon. Juggling two different lives is hard, my life here and back in the US. However, just as I know that I am not forgotten there, you are not forgotten in my heart either. Thank you for your love and support!
From North Africa,
With purpose and HOPE!
Annie | | |
| I am sitting outside on a Beautiful African night and thinking how nice it is compared to the hot summer days and I hear it is only going to get worse. I suppose however that I should get used to it since I am going to be here for awhile. I am trying to catch my mom on facebook but we keep missing each other. I will have to go to bed soon because of the time difference and the fact that I am trying to get up in the mornings to swim before there are a million kids in the pool. Having the whole pool to myself with just the breeze, sunshine, and mountains is heaven.
I am working a lot at the moment and sometimes I feel a little trapped because of the restrictions on women and not having a vehicle, but at the same time I think about all the money that I am saving and that almost out weighs the need for independence. Right now my biggest frustration is that I cannot communicate. And I am learning solely by immersion. So it is a long process and feels a little foreign to me, but at the same time I am having fun with it and the locals here have really taken me in and accept me even though they do not know what I am saying half the time. I think it is easier to like people when you cannot talk to them. It takes longer to see their faults so you can enjoy the illusion of peace and tranquility longer. And since there is no way to gossip it keeps everyone happier longer. So for the time no communication is nice because they can not say anything bad to me about each other or other people. That is nice.
I do love the culture for the most part too though and the hospitality of everyone. The language though hard is not as hard as I once thought and things are beginning to make more sense to me everyday and when they see that I want to learn they make more of an effort to talk to me and help me to understand. We will see how good at language I really am. There is also a man that I work with that speaks spanish so I am able to work on that as well. I can understand Him about 70 % of the time, not word for word, but it helps to be able to understand something and learn more spanish everyday too. It is what you would call my second language the one that I am most comfortable with after English, so learning two languages at the same time can be hard, but thank the Lord for computer translators! When I hear a word that I don't know I look it up and add it to my spanish language dictionary in my head for later, but I am mainly concentrating on Arabic first.
SO many adventures good thing I have time. I have already learned so much I can't imagine how much more I am going to learn in the future and wherever there is a lot to learn that is where I love to be. I love to learn! So although it is hard it is very, very good!
B'Slama! From Africa!
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| It has been several months since my last entry, but now it is time to get back in the game because I know that there may be several of you wondering if I am going to keep this blog page up to date. The answer is yes, now that I know that people may be relying on this for updates from me from North Africa. So be encouraged. You will begin to see more info on this page! | | |
| I think that somehow I thought that when I got to Heaven that everyone was going to look like me, think like me, have everything in common with me. I never thought to look at all the faces of this world; black, white, Hispanic, Indian, Jew, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Middle Eastern, European, and I think," These are my brothers and sisters in Christ. They have the same Father, the same salvation. The same forgiveness and mercy that covers my life covers theirs. The same love that rescued me, healed their despair and brought them into the Kingdom as well. And now we are all co-heirs with Christ, our brother. I look at the world and begin to realize that there is so much that I do not know. There is so much outside my front door that I can not even begin to explain or fathom. I begin to see how small and insignificant I am and how much I am in need of Christ's blood, understanding, and forgiveness. I begin to see the true reality: that I was called by name and that I am nothing without the significance that God gives me. I begin to realize what I am with God and that I never want to know what I would be without Him. I have not a little to offer, but nothing, nothing at all. Nothing that I have is mine and nothing that I posses even matters without Him. Speak to me of Christ's love or speak to me of nothing at all. Speak to me of His life, His grace, His death, because nothing else matters. The only reason that I am worth anything is because of His sacrifice. I am not worthy of His notice, but He called me by name anyway, He loved me anyway, blessed, forgiven, loved, seen, free these are the things that I am within the realm of His Kingdom, these are my new names. And there is no where else that I would rather be. And my heart's deepest desire is to give everything back, everything for His Kingdom's cause. To quote Hillsong United:
"Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen,
Show me how to love like you have loved me.
Break my heart for what breaks Yours,
Everything I have for Your Kingdom's cause."
And some of my own:
Your love is all that matters, Your grace is all I need.
Let me love Your sons and daughters, the way You first loved me.
Help me see the broken hearted, the hurting ones with needs,
let my heart be broken for them, the way You were for me.
No sacrifice too great, every "inconvenience" small,
compared to the one You made for me, for all.
What have I to give? What do You desire?
Let my heart be open to Your consuming fire.
Burn me from within, fan the open flame,
till You consume each hurt and fear and rid me of my shame.
I hear Your voice within me Calling me true name.
You ask my to go farther, to let go of the pain.
You say that You are worth it and I believe that's true.
So help me to let go and cling to only You.
For no sacrifice is too great, every "inconvenience" small,
compared to the one You made for me, for all.
What have I to give? What do You desire?
Let my heart be open to Your consuming fire.
Burn me from within, fan the open flame,
till You consume each hurt and fear and rid me of my shame.
Till You consume each hurt and fear and I can hear You call my name.
Blessings on you all this Christmas season and may you all be reminded of what this "holiday" is all about.
Annie | | |
| Evergreen has been a real time for growth. So much to do and so much I need to learn about being an adult. Sometimes I just want to quote Peter Pan and say, "I want to always be a little (Girl) and have fun." But life doesn't work like that especially when God calls you out to do big things. I don't know why He picked me, but I can hear the words He spoke to Moses when Moses tried to convince God that he was the wrong one to be the deliverer of the Hebrew people in Egypt. Moses tried to make excuses, but I know better. God uses the weak to shame the strong and the foolish to shame the "wise". So under those terms I guess I am the perfect canidate! Just need a lot of prayer over the next year with fundraising and all that. Plus what do I know about being a missionary? | | |
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