A Year In Review

2010 was a year of many firsts for me. Here is a sampling! For the first time, I have . . .

• Flown across the Atlantic Ocean by myself (three times in total!)
• Been so stressed I could barely eat for days/weeks at a time
• Gone for more than two months without seeing my brother
• Worked at (then managed) cash desks
• Reorganized cookbooks more times than I could begin to count
• Been on TV, the radio, and in newspapers
• Worked in Bob Marley's neighbourhood
• Learned to drink instant coffee (ick)
• Had my hair braided in cornrows by a Bahamian friend
• Gone snorkeling (in GORGEOUS Champagne Bay!)
• Taught ballet classes
• Gone for ten days without seeing land
• Spent an afternoon in a rural African village
• Learned that God doesn't care too much about my expectations for my future
• Carried river water for brick-making in a bowl on my head
• Worked in a medical clinic (mostly sterilizing and other very simple things, don't worry!) :-)
• Searched for stowaways (we found three)
• Shared my testimony with a crowd of drunk men
• Been shocked and humiliated to see the bad things in my heart
• Sung African songs to a class of special-needs kids
• Publicly prayed for healing for someone
• Swum in the Mediterranean
• Seen Roman ruins
• Asked my friends if an ankle-length skirt was too short
• Seen just how different other people really can be from me!
• Taught origami to crowds of Arabic children
• Seen the pyramids
• Been asked (repeatedly) whether I was Muslim
• Said goodbye to dozens of friends who I don't expect to ever see again
• Eaten camel meat
• Eaten at LEAST 200 grilled cheese sandwiches
• Heard teaching from a mosque while sitting in a church just next door
• Been DELIGHTED to receive a whisk in the mail!
• Sailed the Suez Canal
• Failed at almost everything I attempted
• Begun a stringent Bible reading program
• Tried to budget on zero income
• Led line dances for a crowd
• Prepared for a pirate attack
• Visited a TV studio
• Begun to understand the significance of unity in the global church
• Been away from my family for Christmas time

It's been a year of ups and downs, in case that wasn't already obvious!! But it's been a good year, and I am so thankful. I have seen God's hand, and I have come to love Him so much more. I have seen how precious little I have to offer, and how God still expects me to offer it wholeheartedly - an experience so humbling and so challenging. 

I can never be the same person that I was, and in a way I can't wait for the rest of my life, just to see how God will use the experiences He is giving me now. 

Now as I greet 2011, I say with one Jack Sparrow, "Now . . . bring me that horizon!!"