Blog trail

Hello dear readers,

Please follow the blog trail back to megankhansen.blogspot.com for further insights from yours truly. Should be exciting, as I'll begin the journey of post-BA, post-gap year, real-world confusion, which, let's be honest, will likely end with me bubbling in "some post-grad education" on future surveys.

If you're reading on facebook--which very few of you probably are--you don't have to follow any trail cause it'll just keep importing to my notes.

xo
Megan

p.s. I'm gonna miss Ireland--but it is so so wonderful to back in sunshine!!

SHINE

Hi folks, clearly I am not finding time to write about Shine.

Here's the quick version. Shine is the name for the annual local missions week in Coleraine.
I helped organize it this year--it was two weeks this time.

We do most of the stuff we do all year long weekly, except we did it everyday for two straight weeks. That means, kids club every morning, prayer on the streets every afternoon, evangelism every afternoon, community service (my thing!) working on people's yards etc--though this was difficult to plan since it rains the whole time...can't exactly mow a lawn or paint a fence in the pouring rain!

There was some other stuff we did, too, but that's the main thing! We had 37 visitors from Anaheim (a little taste of home in NI) for week 1, and 6 Slovakians for week 2.

It was cool to get to be a part of what they do and see why they do it. It's a really simple way to get disconnected people in the church connected, and get the church connected with the community. We were working with the city council and a few other local support organizations to serve people. I really loved getting to meet folks in my neighborhood and do nice things for them. I made a few friends I would've like to keep, but moving back home makes it difficult and trying to get an 80-year-old widower on facebook is beyond my capabilities!

And that's the big finish! Internship over.

Home

I'm home!! And by home, I mean, driving all over the state. I'm currently in Santa Cruz, and enjoying the foggy morning after crashing for nearly 12 hours in my brother's room (thanks, daniel!). I'll drive down to San Luis Obispo soon to go to a friend's wedding and then I'll stick around to catch up the folks down there before finally getting back to my parents' house where I will reside in peace for an undetermined length of time.

I'll write more about Shine hopefully soon, so you can hear how my last couple weeks went. And again, I'll be soon changing my blog address back to a generic one. I don't think I'll create special blog addresses anymore for personal use--it's just silly, really.

Dream or Nightmare?

As previously noted, I have a cold, and quite possibly a fever--or so I think?? Last night I had a most disturbing dream. Possible reasons it was disturbing: 1) it reflects poorly on my health, or 2) it reflect poorly on my social life. I'll let you decide.

The dream was as follows-- I walking down the hospital corridor at Princeton Plainsboro with Dr. Gregory House explaining my woes while walking, as he was too busy/bored to diagnose me in a clinic room. He suddenly stopped and turned to look me straight in the eyes and he said, "The problem isn't in your head--it's in your legs." Naturally I was confused as to how a head cold could actually be a leg problem. I sent out my "but, but, Dr. House!?" at which point he cut me off with a cutting speech about his authority which broke the dream and I found myself awake in my bed--legs completely fine, still sniffling.

That's that.
9 days til homecoming.

Typical

Countdown??? 10 days. It's the 12th today, yes, I come home on the 22nd.

Helping with Shine this week and next. I'm organizing the community outreach, clean-up stuff. Also, I'm sick. Let's hope this doesn't persist or I'm not likely to have a very nice week.

Gutted

Jon Foreman is playing in SLO on 11th Aug.

This is the first time since I've been in Northern Ireland that I have seriously considered coming home early.

I absolutely canNOT believe it. Please, someone go for me.

Education

There isn't much about my time here in Ireland that I wouldn't share with you. And by share I mean I would happily have you come along and experience things with me, or I could tell you about them.

Presently, I have discovered a traybake (Americans might say cookie?) which tastes like cookie dough--but has not made me sick--I'm guessing there's no eggs in it.

I also discovered a band that sounds strangely exactly like Delirious. Not an Irish band... actually Bethany "became a fan" of them on facebook--apparently they are from San Diego. But they are brilliant. "Future of Forestry" and I fell in love immediately.

But beyond that, since my intern family left in June, I spend my time at Ground, like this...

With my tea in my face.





I've been considering my future a great deal, mostly while sitting with tea in my face, at Ground.

I've been considering how many coffee shops use the coffee-making process to inform their shop name: Higher Groundz, Ground, It's a Grind (by far, the worst name), The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, the Nautical Bean to name a few. I prefer shops named for people, or at least having people names: Roughans, Linnaea's, Steynberg Gallery, and much much more. A second best option to a human name, is a street name, or a random name: Starbucks, Jamba Juice... oh wait. I guess I'm digressing (Di-gres: verb [intrans.] to leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing) OH no. now I might be temped to go back through this document and change the size of words for effect.

Now I've done it.

Obviously I'm bored with this present Saturday. What you don't know is that I'm bored now after having watched Season 1 of House, mostly in the last two days. It's a great show. I believe I'm a better person for having seen it. But how much better could I be had I done something else??

seems to be the question facing me, and facing all of us who are so privileged that opportunity is like passing driftwood in a river on which we row steadily towards yet another bend. I mean, people who have the option to gainfully earn...specifically ones who want to do something besides earn, but who have a rich young ruler complex in spite of themselves.

In other news, I'm still in Ground, but my tea is all gone and the myspace music turned off, so there's no music coming through my headphones. I feel like I'm eavesdropping on the conversations around me, though I can tell they are dropping their voices, in spite of the fact that I shouldn't be able to hear them.

It's 4:48pm on a Saturday and they are about to come up here to start cleaning up so they can close at 5:30. It's okay though, I have books to read, vegetables to cook, scones to bake and more importantly, Alias Season 4.

(sorry the text become all tiny... not sure why it did that. c'est la blogger)

Stats

May = beautiful
1/2 June = beautiful
July so far = raaaaaaayne.

June:
I spent a week in London,
a week babysitting,
a long weekend in France,
half a week saying goodbye to my near-and-dear interns friends,
the last few days moving out of Turnberry Terrace
and welcoming my parents who are visiting!

This week I am traveling the west coast of Ireland with my parents, which is good craic minus the obvious pitfalls of traveling with one's parents :)

playing @ fete de la musique in Falicon (just outside Nice)
(video at blog.andyrogersmusic.com)

parents near carrick-a-rede

<3 Ireland

p.s. 7 weeks to Aug 22: SFO Aug 23: SLO

Interpretation?

This explains a lot about my family, I think. Here's a dream Daniel had the night before my birthday:

I woke from an interesting dream this morning. In it I had been at a meeting of an elite society of RC model airplane fliers (who, by the way, were the cast of American Idol). I happened to run into you at this event. A bunch of funny stuff happened but its all jumbled in my memory.

However, I do remember how it all ended. We decided to go down to the Beach to fly our planes. On the walk, you and I were skipping around, doing some free-style walking while talking in the Jelly Voice. The odd thing was that every time there was a lull in the conversation you would started saying "eep eep eep" in a very rhythmic sort of Jelly Voice. When I questioned you on it, you claimed that you had always done the "Jelly Chirp." And then I realized that my alarm clock makes the same rhythmic chirping when it goes off. This dreamland Megan was an imposter cast by my mind as a disguise for my real
world alarm clock.

Great Questions

I was lucky enough to catch the Swell Season in London last week. It was a truly jaw-dropping concert complete with an amazing opener who first sang in gaelic and then two other "pre-colonial" world languages.

You build a crack in the Tate Modern and everyone says, "That looks like a real crack." On the other side of the world an earth quake is causing mass devastation. We wouldn't know how to create a realistic-looking crack, if the things in our lives didn't fall apart. Then the invented cracks hanging on the wall help us see the cracks in our lives, which inspire more artistic cracks, and so on, in infinite reflections of disrepair until it's a razor cut on a blank canvas, framed and famous.

I'm afraid everything's been said, reflected into oblivion. Every conversation's been had and is recorded somewhere. That there are no new songs. Yes, sing to the Lord a new song. Behold, all things are made new. But I'm tromping through quotes to write a line. I'm filtering out movies to see my life. I'm stuck on the delete key to remove pages and pages of cliche which just pour out of me. See, they pour out. If I really wanted to be original I'd have to make up my own language--at which point I'd probably have to grow dreads and become a nomad together with my german shepherd.

last night with dear Rachel, whose face is responding to the camera

My neighborhood...

Surveying the Ground for Ants

It's raining again... I hope it's a fluke.

Three weeks of sunshine was truly wonderful, enough to forget how cold it is here. I'm having climate-shock again.

See we had a bbq!



and I went to the Northwest 200!



and I took a lovely walk yesterday (no pictures currently as I left the cord thingy back at my house).


California, I hope you are enjoying your heat wave.

Bristol

Last weekend I went with a group from my church in Northern Ireland to visit a new church in Bristol, England. This was my first time in England and I was happy to get a good idea of what totally normal, average English life is like for the average Bristolian.

Wick Court

Welcome to Wick Court, a 16th century manor, currently owned by a christian ex-rugby player and on loan to Church Next for two years--current value: £1.6 million. For this reason is is necessary to take good care of the property and to implement traditional security measures.

Watch out! He's got a feather in his helmet

There are certain things about these old houses which cannot be changed, as prescribed by the Quadracentennial Property Preservation and Protection Society. The walls can be painted only certain colours and the banister must be persevered with the grape carving which help date the house. Also preserved is the dog wheel, in which the energetic dog ran to turn the spit on which a pig roasted over a fire. The wheel sticks out of the wall just a bit above and to the right of the fireplace.

no animals were harmed in the lighting of that fireplace, or those candles

Reportedly, a BBC presenter came to look at Wick Court some time ago, but decided not to purchase the house because the dining room was too grey.

note: this is brightened badly with iphoto--was originally quite a vibrant grey

Walking the perimeter of the fields, I half expected to encounter Elizabeth Bennett tromping through a muddy field, though it is actually much more likely that I would have encountered the late King Charles hiding from Oliver Cromwell in the basement below the kitchen, as is rumoured to be truth. Fortunately I saw neither of them--the presence of either would be quite alarming.

King Charles' tree-house hideout swing

In the end, we did some work while we were there. Two of our church leaders taught on "outward-focused" church, and prayer. Then we went and prayer for people on the streets, and I went with a group to a local park to play games with kids because Jesus liked children! I got out the bubbles and simply let the little children come unto me. The church wants to get to know the community a bit more, so this was a first step to that end.

the distinguished Amy with bubbles

In the end, we did a lot of church, hung out with some lovely lovely people--I "smoked" some strawberry-vanilla hookah stuff with some Danish people who were also visiting, and was thoroughly unimpressed--and I blew bubbles with some kids.

Church Next appreciated us visiting as they had never seen the way God heals instantly sometimes when we pray. They were encouraged by the message Ricky and Mark brought and will continue to "press on toward the goal" that God has given them. Amen

...more on the leg growing thing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2008/05/07/frances_finn_miracle_turning_point_feature.shtml

The lady whose feet you see shifting in the previous video works for BBC. To read her story, follow the link above.

Healing Video

This is a video of Mark (Healing on the Streets coordinator) praying for a lady at a conference last week. She has since sent a letter to Mark explaining that she's not experiencing pain in her back anymore and she wants to know more about Jesus.

I've seen this happen quite a few times now--it's actually quite commonplace. I don't understand it, but I believe it's God.

Mayday

Please bear with me on the video front--I hope to post more, and hopefully better, videos.

Puffins on Rathlin Island

Romania

C.S. Lewis says we are all "far too easily pleased". I have been satisfied by a picnic outside at the Baileyana vineyards, but another person might need to reach the heights of half dome, and on the eighth floor of a building where the smell of boiled cabbage lurks slowly up and down the staircases, a lilting, scarfed woman is satisfied with a bottle of oil, some pasta and a short prayer from a stranger speaking a different language.

In this world of news, I've found nothing new, I've found nothing pure,
Maybe I'm just idealistic to assume the truth could be fact and form,
that love could be a verb,
maybe I'm just a little misinformed.

After Romania's Socialist leader, Nicolae Ceausescu, was executed in 1989, Romania set on the path to restoration. We saw droves of humanitarians go to show love to orphans who were born into desperation, and now years later, many those orphans are grown up and thriving in different ways. One man said that, as one who grew up in a boys' home, he became so familiar with sadness that he can recognize it the eyes of strangers, even when they smile.

Let your love be strong, and I don't care what goes down
Let your love be strong enough to weather through the thunder clouds
Fury and thunder clap like stealing the fire from your eyes
All of my world hanging on your love.

Ken and Florence Holmes have been working to sustain people in Oradea, Romania for over ten years. At 80 years of age, Ken, with his wife Florence, work to pastor a small church, manage a kindergarten, and run a monthly food distribution foundation called, "Project Simon", which delivers food to over 400 families each month. While the stress of their endeavors clearly creeps into the kitchen and living room of their lives, they manage to beat it out with constant, constant, prayer and a conqueror's attitude toward the poverty and paranoia left over from a deranged, socialist regime. They trust in God, the perfect father, to provide the money, the time, the energy and the ability to do what they do.

Let the wars begin, let my strength wear thin
Let my fingers crack, let my world fall apart
train the monkeys on my back to fight
Let it start tonight, when my world explodes
when my stars touch the ground, falling down like broken satellites.

And so I went to help move cases of rice from the truck to the storage room, from the cases to grocery bags, then to move the grocery bags from the storage room to the mini-bus, and then up the stairs to the door of some old woman who would kiss my cheeks. I went to clean the top of Florence's refrigerator, and to play speed scrabble outside in 70-degree weather ("the heat" say the Northern Irish people), and to hear stories about growing up in England after the war. I went to be challenged on baptism in the holy spirit and to have my faith reflected back at me by strangers. I went for a very short time, and I hope it was worth it.

Let your love be strong.
All that I am hanging on your love.
All of my world resting on your love.

(words: "Let Your Love Be Strong" by Switchfoot; the sequel also, "Your Love is Strong")

Catch phrases

I'm at work, editing the text for the publicity for our school of mission (which is starting this summer), and just realized that Rick Warren has monopolized the use of the word "purpose."

Quote of the week: "Leg growing: so H.O.T.S. right now"





(ahem, "hots" is short for "healing on the streets")

we serve a completely good, but weird God.

Any Irish Out There?

"When the potatoes ran out, millions of Irish men, women and children packed their bags got on a boat and showed up right here. And we're still doing it. We're not even starving anymore, loads of potatoes. In fact if there's any Irish out there, I've breaking news from Dublin, the potato famine is over you can come home now. But why are we still showing up? Because we love the idea of America."  -Bono (Wikiquote)

Getting Remonked?

 I always think things like this are interesting and challenging. I want a shirt that says, "Jesus was homeless"... The New Monasticism