Lots of Lasts with Fantastic Firsts just around the Corner!

Junior year is officially done. It has been one crazy year but full of so many fun experiences and great relationships. There is never a shortage of things to do on campus and in the community and my plate was certainly loaded with good things. The hectic schedules do not last forever - thank goodness - and over the last couple of weeks everything has been winding down and finishing up. No more A Rocha Wheaton, no more tutoring, no more small group, no more classes! I suppose it feels like the end of every other year of college except there is a twist: I won't be coming back for 8 months!

This terrific twist in the storyline is the real reason for this blog and probably the reason why you are following along. Next Friday my grand adventure begins as I fly to Seattle to start my 12 week internship with the Environmental Protection Agency. Wahoo! Here I come Pacific Northwest. I will be working with the Tribal Trust unit at the regional headquarters and will have the opportunity to fly to Anchorage, Alaska to work with the office there for a couple of weeks mid-summer. If that does not sound exciting enough, I also get to fly to Kona, Hawaii for a week to attend an interdisciplinary environmental conference in late June/early July. By the beginning of August I will have added 3 new states to my "visited" list and will have hopefully hiked around in some beautiful national parks.

Mid-August life goes through another transition as I fly to Lima, Peru to start my four month internship with A Rocha Peru, a chapter of an international conservation organization. This experience is part of Wheaton's Human Needs and Global Resources Program which sends students to the global south to be challenged holistically and to learn from others through transformational ministry. I will be working with A Rocha to develop a new ecological restoration project outside Lima near the sprawling slums. I finish just in time for Christmas - December 24th to be exact - and then go back home to Grand Rapids before my final semester at Wheaton College begins in January.

What a ride! I cannot wait to get started. Praise God for everything that he has done and everything that he will continue to do throughout the next summer and fall. He has amazingly opened up these doors of opportunity and it is my job to walk through them with eyes wide open to the work he is doing throughout the world. 

So, enjoy the blog. I'll be sure to post pictures and amusing stories along the way and share part of my journey with you. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers and don't forget to shoot me an email once in a while to keep me updated on what is going on in your life!

Spring semester in a few pictures looked like this:

My roommates have been such a blessing and we have certainly enjoyed ourselves thoroughly :)

Halimeh and Sabir are my new Iranian parents! Every week I tutored Halimeh in English and I learned a little Farsi along the way. She would always make something special to eat and we had our fair share of laughs as I tried to cook and eat Iranian style! 

 Hope and I enjoyed Spring Break this year in the Bahamas on a cruise. It was the first time for both of us and we made sure to soak up the sun. We also learned how to pick grapefruit in Jacksonville, Florida with my Aunt Janice and smuggled them back to IL with us.  

For Easter the roommates, plus Emily, Mark, & Chris, went to Hope's house in Minnesota. We enjoyed long car rides, delicious food, excursions around the twin cities area and a nice break before the end of the school year.