Faith, Life, and Lessons

In general, one of the most notorious aspects of the Eastern culture and Islam is the treatment and perception of women. Coming into the culture, I was genuinely excited to see how the gender roles and beliefs would play out in my life personally and in my observations of others. This may sound odd since I just established that I expected inequality and possibly even harassment, but this is one of the interesting facets of my personality. I occasionally enjoy coming headfirst with difficulty, especially based others' doubts/prejudices. For instance, I absolutely loved going to the Air Force Academy summer seminar (for perspective students) exactly for the reason that dissuaded many others: the challenge. As a female in a males' world, I wanted to prove something to myself and others. Especially as a tall blonde, I stood out quite a bit, and there were certain instances where I felt that I was held to a different standard because of this. However, although I hated it at the t...

In order to give everyone a more tangible taste of my experiences in Jordan (since I've realized many may not know anything about my daily life etc), I've scribed one of my weekend days with my host family (about a week ago). During weekdays, I go to my internship at Princess Taghrid Institute (a relational and job-training center for orphans who have graduated the orphanage at the age of 18). I work in the tailoring unit as well as working as a model for the upcoming fashion show (an event in their East West and Africa Women's Initiatives Conference). I also attend group sessions and one-on-ones at Ithraa Relational Training, where I've been learning more about self-awareness and how I relate to others. Anyways, I hope this post is enlightening as far as my current life; it's been absolutely amazing so far, and I'm excited to see how I continue to learn and grow as I fall more in love with my host family, other gap year students, the world at large, and, above ...

Today I went to visit a mosque with the rest of the gap year group to learn more about Islam. Attempting to be as informed as possible, especially as I live in a Muslim home and am surrounded by a world to which I’m painfully oblivious, I have actually been studying history and Islam for the past few days on my own. However, this one visit was far more informative and inspiring than any of my Googling has been. Honestly, the more I learn, the more I respect certain principles of the Muslim lifestyle. Before your head explodes thinking that I’ve “gone off the deep end” or “switched sides” (which I haven't although I think that's the wrong way of thinking; this isn’t a game of football), let me explain myself. For starters, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all have the same roots historically speaking. Allah is Yaweh is God. Because of this, I found that my host sister and I have many of the same views on religion despite our differences. We both connect to God as the caring Crea...

Spiritual warfare. Oftentimes, I think the immediate connotations are overly zealous cult participants, preachy church people, or normal people who don’t mention it for fear of the first two stereotypes. I’ve been reminding myself to blog about spiritual warfare for months now (since Denver actually), but I kept putting it off. Who knows why… Maybe because the issue is so broad and beyond my comprehension. However, multiple times in my life, I’ve experienced warfare, and I think it’s necessary that Christ followers recognize and talk about this in order to encourage each other, realize the gravity of their life on earth, and stay close to the only One who can truly save.  One of my most obvious encounters with the supernatural recently was during my time living in a house/apartment with all the gap girls during our semester in Denver. We loved that house; it’s where we became a family. Our adorable home was rented out to us by an organization called the Open Door Ministries (w...