First Impressions

You'd think that Australia is a hot desert-like landscape with kangaroo's hopping around randomly, right? Well, that's false. I entered Australia in short sleeves and flip-flops (known as thongs here) but came to a rude awakening as I walked outside to find it cold and windy. It was like Canberra was saying "take that!" to my stereotype. The aussies around say that the day we arrived is a day that is going to marked down in history because we arrived on the day of the dust storm. Moriah was talking of clear blue skys, mountains, and amazing looking birds when all we could see is a cloud of red dust outside the windows. O, and I have yet to see a kangaroo.

Speaking of first impressions, everyone here is rather nice and generous. I'm getting quite good at introducing myself. "Hi, my name is Ashley Milburn. I'm from Lancaster, Pennsylvania (It's on the east coast of the US)" and then continue on about how I got here. It's really hard to explain about what I was doing before I came here. See, I would have to talk about school and for Aussies- Kindergarden (or Kindie) to 6th grade is primary, 7th thru 10th is high school and 11th & 12th is College and then it's university (or uni as they call it). So when I explain what I was doing before I came into missions I say "I graduated college and started working with adults with intellectual disabilities and took a year off to come here." It gets confusing sometimes. When Aussies show their appreciation/excitement for us being here, they tend to be very generous. This past Sunday I was wearing thongs (flip flops :) ) to church and it was very cold. Someone saw this and was like "arn't your feet cold!?! I said "yeah, but I don't have dress shoes to wear and this is what I have." Well then I heard later that they asked if they could buy me some shoes! Going along with the cold thing, a couple of people asked if we needed heaters and that they would get us some if we needed them. Aussies are just so giving!! They also think that we are poor, when in reality we are just choosing to live simply, however, I really appriciate the offer, it shows that they care! So thoughtful! Anyways, I could go on, but this is kinda getting long.

This time next week, I'll be in Australia!!! I can't stop saying that, it's like a song that gets stuck in your head and you just repeat it over and over and over again and it never gets old. It's sad to say goodbye to all those I have lived with in the past 4 weeks, but now it's time to move on into this Radical Journey and meet new people and make new friends. Life in Chicago has been good though. There is such a diverse group of people just walking down the street. You see people all dressed up, going to school and work, you see people chilling in front of a store, and then you also see homeless people sitting on the sidewalks. So many different people and different races. It's great that people can come together and live together in a community. Whether its the neighborhood or the Jesus People USA community. It seizes to amaze me how wonderful this place is.

Reflecting on the past 4 weeks, there have been times of laughter, crying, and mostly deep thoughts. Many topics have been discussed such as poverty, conflict, homosexuality, racism, hospitality, spiritual disciplines, and much more (these are the ones that stick out in my mind). Each one of these topics have brought deep conversation and thoughts even when it's days later. Sometimes it's just plain intense in the house... but there is always someone who brings in the comic relief to end the conversations on a good note. These past 4 weeks have been amazing... and if this has been amazing, then the next 10 months will be out of this world! I'm so excited to go and experience new things, and then come back and share everything I have learned and start having some deep, intense conversations.

Conflict

Drama, Stress, High School, immaturity, struggle. These are words that initially come to my mind when I think of the word "conflict." Conflict... where to start? The first thing they taught us here about conflict is that there is no set formula in solving it... Good luck!!! So when conflict arises, how do we deal with it?

One activity that we did was that one person stood in front of the room and said "I am conflict, now go and position yourself in a way that represents how you deal with me!" The first thing I did was stand right in front of "conflict" and crossed my arms. I wanted this to represent that my way of dealing with conflict is to deal with it right away, but feel the need to protect myself. Once everyone in the group was settled, the guy who was "conflict" said "now look around and see where everyone else is at. there were some people who were in the cornor of the room, some were closer to conflict, but put some obsticles in between, and others were closer to it, but still kept their distance. I paid really close attention to where my teammates were standing compared to me, and realized that each one of us was in a very different place. Now this was interesting to me, seeing as I was the one who was really close to "conflict" but my teammates range from a medium distance to the whole way to the back of the room. I think that at first, it might be a little difficult for all of us to deal with these differences, but by the end of the year we will all rub off on each other a little and we will all learn new techniques in solving conflict. I might mellow down a bit, and the everyone else might get a little more aggressive... or not. Either way, it'll work out.

Silent Retreat

If you've never had a silent retreat in your life... you need to try it! I'm talking about silence... no talking, turning off the phone, turn off your TV's and computers. Go off alone somewhere, away from brothers/sisters, husband/wife, friends and all family and just be silent. This is what I did a few days ago. For 5 hours (I know not that long, but it was still a good experience) the whole group took a silent retreat. This was such a good experience. You can get so caught up in everyday life, and forget that God wants to spend time with you and talk with you. So many times we say "Oh, but I'm waiting for a phone call, or I have to do this and this and this and this before I go and do that!" When I start doing that sort of thing, I start to think to myself "seriously?! Am I really putting my life before God?" At that point, it's time for a silent retreat.

God wants conversation with us. All He needs is just an hour or two of our time. During my silent retreat, I spent like an hour in prayer, 30 minutes of journaling, and about 2 hours studying my Summit Journal. This was all time with God, and I can honestly say that it was refreshing. I felt renewed and ready to go back into the busy house. I'm really not good at explaining this feeling, but I highly recommend that when you are stressed out or feel like you need a break... just take a silent retreat. If your communication with God at that time didn't go so well, then at least you had that time to yourself to relax and take a few breaths. Personally, I like the outdoors, but hey... a cozy cafe is also very relaxing.

God Bless

Hospitality

Goal: Intentially be hospitable to people in Chicago.

Mission Accomplished?: Barely

Was it hard?: YES!!!!!!

You'd think that being nice to people and being extra curtious would be an easy task, but it's not. Sure, you can do the simple things like opening the door for someone, or smile and say hello to everyone you pass, but when intentially trying to do good for people isn't as easy as it seems. The first problem I encountered was trying to come up with ideas on how to be hospitable. Others in the house had good ideas like giving out free hugs, or carrying comfy armchairs out to the sidewalk and sticking a sign to the chair that says "Wanna talk?" That last idea was genious! But I had a bit of difficulty coming up with ideas. Finally I decided on letting God decide on how to be hospitable for the day. What I ended up doing is walking around downtown and doing random acts of kindness.

Here's the story:
When I arrived at the train station to catch the train that was heading towards downtown, there was a woman standing halfway up the stairs. As I passed her, I did a sideways glance and saw that she was all sweaty and was holding onto the siderail for dear life. Now, the thing on my mind was "what am I gunna do for this hospitality activity!? Man, this is going to be hard!" Then as I looked at the lady, I felt compassion for her. Honest to goodness, it never crossed my mind that this would be my act of kindness! Well, I stopped, turned around on the stairs, looked at her and said "are you okay?!" To try to give you an image of this I will try to describe this woman. She was an African American woman, probably in her late 40's, and a little on the heavy side. She was drenched in sweat and looked like she wasn't going to make it up the rest of the way which was about two more flights of steps. When I asked if she was alright, she looked at me and said "These steps make me want to go pee! I just came from McDonalds, and man, I shouldn't be drinking this coffee!!" This was not the response I was expecting, but okay. She said "Don't these steps just wear you out?!" I said "yeah, they are pretty grueling! Can I help you with anything?" This woman just looks at me, and with much enthusiasm she said "yeah! you can go get me an elevator or and escalator!!!" I just smiled and said "well ma'am, I don't think I can do that!" She said, "well then, I guess you can't help me... but you sure are sweet for asking!" What I did do was finish walking her up the stairs and starting conversation. When I got off at my stop, the lady gave me a big ol' smile and said "now you have a good day now, ya hear?" I said "Yes ma'am, you too."

When I got downtown I thought to myself "man, this hospitality thing is HARD! To be honest, I didn't find much else to do but be kind and say hi to people and help a few people with directions to Navy Pier. It didn't occur to me until the train ride home that the lady I escorted up the stairs was a pretty hospitable thing to do... That's my story.

Lesson learned: Do things that are kind all the time... you never know when it'll be hospitable. :) Plus, it brightens up your day as well as theirs (hopefully).

Poverty

Let's face it, poverty is not the easiest issue to discuss. Everyone has their own ways and ideas on how to help eliminate poverty in the United States. Here at Jesus People USA, us people in Radical Journey took time to discuss his hot topic. One of the ways that in which we discussed poverty was by doing an activity where we all stood in a line while questions were being asked. Some of the questions were "If you or your family have ever lived with Government assistance, step back on step." Another question was "if your parents gave you your first car, take one step forward." So by the end of the game, the people who were more fortunate were way up front, and the people who have experienced more hardship dealing with poverity were in the back. The questions weren't all about poverty, some had to do with race, and hate crimes. After the last question, then the person asking the questions told us to race to the wall from where we were standing. Obviously the people in the front got to the wall first, but for me who was the furthest one back got to the wall last. I was like "This is so unfair!" and it was. In the end, we all realized how fortunate we really are!
Remember: When dealing with poverty, money is not the solution! If you give a man a fish, he will eat for the night, but if you teach the man how to fish, he'll have food for a lifetime.