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Welcome to sagraco.com, my online portfolio where I display my art, writing, photos, and music. My blog, which I call chromatic heart, is where I like to explore thoughts and ideas, as well as write about events in my life. While you're here, read a story or two. Look at my visual art. You can even listen to my music while you browse around. I hope you enjoy your time here!
A Very Short Mission Trip ; February 16, 2012
Hello all... Sorry I haven't been posting! I've been really busy. For the last two weeks (January 30-February 10), I went to Spanish class every weekday from 8:30 to 12:00 in the morning. I enjoyed it a lot because I learned so much! I feel like my Spanish is improving a lot, especially my listening and speaking skills. I can't wait to practice Spanish a lot with my host family. We meet our host families and move in with them tomorrow! :DOn the weekends we've been taking little trips around the area. On Saturday, February 4th, we drove to a city called Otavalo, north of Quito. There are a lot of markets there with handicraft-type things. I may or may not have bought some awesome things as gifts... hehe. I forgot to take any pictures of the markets. I've discovered that I'm not the kind of person who takes pictures of people or activities... I take more pictures of places and scenery. Besides, in crowded places there's a risk of my camera getting stolen :)
This is a lake we went to nearby Otavalo.
Last Saturday, the 11th, we took a double-decker bus tour around Quito... probably the most tourist-y thing you can do here. It was cool, but not that amazing because we'd already seen most of the places we went to. However, we did get to go up El Panecillo, the huge hill in the middle of the city. We could see the whole city... but we only had 20 minutes at the top of the hill, most of which was spent waiting in line at the bathroom. :D
Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of the Virgen de Quito statue on top of El Panecillo.
So, this week we went to the jungle! For a two/three day "mission trip." We took a 5 or 6-hour bus ride, east of Quito, out of the mountains and down into the jungle. On the way, we stopped at a place called Jumandy, where most of us took a tour through a cave system. We had to wear closed-toed shoes... all I had were my tennis shoes... so, they got soaking wet! It was a tour in the dark with flashlights. We climbed up slippery rocks, went upstream through 4-foot deep water, squeezed through narrow pathways, and stood in a cave room in complete darkness for 5 minutes while the tour guide talked about stalactites and one of our leaders tried to translate what he said without knowing the word stalactite... it was funny. Then we hiked out the other end of the cave, and went back down to the part with a swimming pool and water slides. I went down a water slide... first time in a long time! I don't like water going up my nose... but oh well, it was fun! Then we got back in the bus and continued on to Misahuallí.
A pretty sunset as we pulled into Misahuallí.
A road at night in the tiny town of Misahuallí. The white building with the light in front is the hostal we stayed at.
My bed in the hostal. I was grateful for the mosquito net!
At the hostal, we had amazing meals served to us... breakfast, lunch, and dinner the whole time we were there. It was seriously some amazing food... lasagna... pancakes... soup... burritos... and to top it off for our last dinner, garlic-butter shrimp, and tres leches cake. We were so blessed by our hosts!
For the two full days that we were there, we did construction work in the mornings and a VBS for the kids in the afternoons. We partnered with a missionary couple who have adopted 6 kids from the area, with 3 of their own kids. They started a school, and they are building a house for their family next to the school. So we got to work on the house—for most of the time we sanded and lacquered wooden walls on the inside. They had to be sanded and lacquered 3 times so we finished most of that process. We worked in the mornings and went back for lunch, then had a couple of hours to rest and shower.
Then from 4 to 6 in the afternoons, we gathered a bunch of kids and went to another little school to do a VBS type thing. The kids came from all over the town — it was funny because we picked up a lot of them in our tour bus on the way to the school. There were about 40 or 50 kids. Our team was in three groups — story, games, and crafts — so the kids rotated through to do everything. The story group told them about Jesus in creative ways and the games group got all their energy out. I was in the crafts group—we made picture frames out of popsicle sticks and did coloring with the younger kids, and we made tie-dye headbands and bracelets out of pipe cleaners and beads with the older kids.
The evenings after dinner, we just relaxed and talked about our experiences. The last night, the missionary couple told us their story of how they got there and what they do. It is really awesome to hear about how God is working through them. They said that the area around Misahuallí is over-evangelized and under-discipled. People believe in Jesus, but they don't have people or churches to help them go deeper in their lives and relationships with God. So these missionaries' goal is to disciple the kids through their school, while giving them a quality education. They said they're just ordinary people following God and obeying His leading, and God is doing extraordinary things through them. It gave me hope to hear their story — hope for my own goals, dreams, visions, hopes. In my life I want to do the same kind of thing that they're doing... working with kids, teaching, discipling people to follow Christ... it encouraged me to just keep following God, and He will lead me in the right direction!
A couple of times we went to the little plaza in the middle of the town to see the monkeys. They really just like to hang out there... people come to see them, pet them, and give them food. They're kind of mean... probably because people bother them all the time. But they are very cute!
Jenna got a shot of me with a monkey!
A video of the monkeys!
Overall, it was a great trip. I loved the cave tour. I loved hanging out with the kids and talking to them in Spanish... plus, Latino kids are just adorable. I loved getting to partner with a ministry that is following God's will. I loved being able to bless them while they blessed us. I loved being in the jungle, with the beautiful, lush greenery and flowers and cocoa trees. I loved falling asleep to the sound of pouring rain beating on the metal roof. I didn't so much love the heat, humidity, and sweatiness, or the 15 or so bug bites on my arms that I now have to keep myself from scratching (yes, I wore bug spray... it just didn't quite do the job!). But hey, it's all part of the experience. And guess what? We get to go back to the same place at the end of the semester! I'm so excited to see what God will continue to do through this ministry.
A lake we passed on the ride back to Quito
A pretty moon-rise, with a plane about to land at the Quito airport. We see planes flying in all the time.
And tomorrow, a whole new adventure begins... we move in with our host families, to stay with them for a month! I'm excited! I will try to post more often, now that we're starting a more regular schedule. ¡Hasta luego!
Ecuador Orientation! ; January 31, 2012
Well friends, I have been in Quito for 1 week now! It has been an amazing experience so far, and what blows my mind is that it's only the beginning. I still have 3 more months here! Now I'll try to squeeze what I've been doing into one post.I arrived in Quito on Tuesday night last week. I live in an apartment with 8 other girl students and 2 girl RA's. The 5 guy students and 1 guy RA live in a separate apartment. Wednesday was our first day of Orientation. There is a missionary family here from the US — the dad in the family is one of our professors, and we'll go to their house once a week for dinner and chapel/Bible study. So on Wednesday morning we had breakfast and talked about the program in general. We talked about how the purpose of this program is not to try to bring us back to Ecuador later to be missionaries, but to build our knowledge and experience of God's kingdom, and to give us a heart for the nations and for what is on God's heart. So awesome. Then we took a short walking tour around our area of the city, stopping for lunch on the way. Some really typical food here is soup, lentils, rice, chicken, beef, and cooked plantains and bananas. Plus some fun, exotic fruits and veggies. And everything is so cheap... like an avocado for 50 cents!
At a fresh food market called Iñaquito
On Thursday morning the dean of students talked to us about community and loving each other. Then we all went to the Youth World staff meeting just to see how the organization works and some things that they do. (The study abroad program is under Youth World.) That night we took the trolley (that was quite an experience... there's really no concept of personal space here) to Old Quito. We walked through some old streets and ate empanadas for dinner and dessert. The dessert empanadas were filled with queso fresco and covered with sugar... our big group shared about 5 of them because they were really huge!
A street in Old Quito
On Friday we did a crazy, fun scavenger hunt all over the city. We split into four teams and had to find various places that we will be going frequently this semester, like malls, restaurants, and markets. There were 10 locations and things to do at each place to prove we went there. So, we took taxis, walked, and took the trolley once. It was long and tiring but soooo much fun to explore the city and get oriented geographically :) The highlight was going to La Basilica, a really big, Gothic-style cathedral that was built in the 1800's. We got to climb to the top and see a view of the city from above. The funny thing is, my team was taking our time and enjoying every place we went to, because we didn't really care about winning. But then we were the first team to get to the finishing place! So we won a gift card to the Cinemark to go see a movie. :)
La Basilica
The view from the top
Saturday was our fun trip up into the mountains to the Mindo ziplines and the equator. The van ride was long and bumpy, but we got to the zipline place and right away got our harnesses and helmets on. Then we went on the zipline course with 13 ziplines - it took about an hour and a half, and we had to hike up a trail between each one. It was so much fun and the views were incredible, going over lush, green valleys, and through trees sometimes. It was quite an experience!
A view from the starting point of one of the ziplines
Then we went to the equator tourist place, in Mitad del Mundo. A tour guide showed us a bunch of cool things about the equator. For example... water poured down a drain on the equator goes straight down. Just a few feet to the north, the water goes counterclockwise, and a few feet to the south it goes clockwise. Also, you can balance a raw egg on the head of a nail right on the equator. Finally, your strength is diminished when you stand on the equator - it's a lot harder to push your arms up against someone pushing down on them, and it's harder to balance, because the force of gravity is somehow different on the equator. (I didn't take any pictures at the equator... sorry!)
That night we went to a restaurant called Café Mosaico. It was on a hill near Old Quito, and it that had an incredible view of the whole city at night. It was clear and beautiful. The restaurant was fun and classy too, with really good food. I am also loving all the fruit juices here... pineapple juice, strawberry juice, peach juice... yum :)
A view of the city at night
On Sunday I went to a Spanish-speaking, nondenominational church called Dios es Fiel. I really enjoyed the worship because the lyrics were on the screens... so I could understand most of what I was singing. :) And I enjoyed the pastor's sermon, even though he was sometimes hard for me to understand. The message was about reasons why God is sometimes silent... with some really good points, like how God wants us to come near to Him, not just to look to Him for things we need. So, after church our group went to lunch in the food court at the really nice mall called Quicentro. After that all the girls in my apartment had a meeting about house rules, community, and how to love each other - we all shared our different love languages and personalities. Later on we went to the grocery store called Supermaxi (us girls get giggles out of that... there's also a Megamaxi) to buy groceries. It was really crowded (note to self: don't go grocery shopping on a Sunday evening again!) but we got some really good food for cheap. I got sandwich stuff, eggs, rice, fruit (pitahayas=yum), yogurt (I like their yogurt so much better than our yogurt in the States because it's drinkable and creamier), cereal... all the good stuff for just $23.
Monday was our first day of Spanish school. Right when we got there they had us take a multiple-choice placement test over grammar and vocabulary. I got into the intermediate/advanced class... there are 5 of us in there. Sadly, there are only 2 class levels, so the people who are kind of in the middle are stuck in the beginner level... and the intermediate level is too hard for them. :/ Luckily, I have been learning a lot already, in just two days of Spanish class. I am very optimistic about this class and about being able to learn Spanish better. Our teacher is great... she uses conversation to get us to practice speaking. At the beginning it was hard for me to understand her because she spoke quickly, but after more and more listening, today in class I was able to understand almost everything she said. We have been talking about poverty in Latin America and Ecuador, and how it compares to poverty in the United States, and how we can fight against poverty. It has been great for me to talk about a real-life, important topic in Spanish, because it helps me use what I know of the language to talk about my general knowledge and beliefs. Also, in just two days of class I have noticed a LOT of connections with what I learned in my TESOL classes. I have a feeling that if I really pay attention to my Spanish teacher, I will glean a lot of helpful strategies and methods for teaching English as a second language to my future students! :)
A little area on the first floor of my Spanish school
God Never Hurries ; January 17, 2012
I read something very thought-provoking today, in The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer:"How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves. For those out of Christ, time is a devouring beast; before the sons of the new creation time crouches and purrs and licks their hands. The foe of the old human race becomes the friend of the new, and the stars in their courses fight for the man God delights to honor. This we may learn from the divine infinitude."
I only have one week until I get on the plane to Ecuador. It sure feels like a deadline. It feels like there is still a lot of scrambling to do to get ready. My mom and I spent 4 hours yesterday shopping for last minute things like a rain jacket and good walking shoes. And I have yet to start packing. That will take a lot of time.
But it's a good reminder that it's not really a problem at all. I don't have to worry about getting everything done because God is on my side... time is on my side. God isn't in a hurry, so why should I be? God has no limitations, so all I have to do is trust and depend on Him. My life is already hidden with Christ in God. It's time for me to set my heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1-3.) He's in control... and my life is now embedded within His eternal, infinite, self-existent life.
Still, it doesn't feel quite real that I'm going to South America for 3 1/2 months. I keep thinking it won't feel real until the plane takes off... and that's probably true. :)
Did You Learn To Love? ; January 9, 2012
This is such a lovely song... the song on my heart right now! I saw them perform it at the Onething conference a week ago in Kansas City. I love Misty Edwards's worship leading and her message of complete devotion to God.
On another note, I'm working on changing my blog layout a little, to make it easier to navigate. That includes adding a sidebar, putting the blog archives in the sidebar, adding a way for you to subscribe to my blog via email, and adding a link to my new music website (that's right...soon you'll be able to buy my music!). Why these changes? Because I'm going to Ecuador! :) And I promised at least 20 people at JBU that I was going to have a blog and update it regularly, to keep everyone in the loop on my adventures in Quito. I was considering making a new blog, but I decided it would be a lot less time-consuming to just use the one I already have, but spruce it up a little. So, it will soon be fully functional! I'm glad I told so many people I would have a blog, because it will keep me accountable for actually writing blog posts regularly... and get me out of this weirdness of only writing a post every 4 months or so! :D
You may have also noticed that I renamed the blog to "chromatic heart"... this is because I also decided to sell my music under the name "chromatic heart," so I wanted continuity between them. :) I will soon add a little snippet to the About page explaining why I chose this name.
Signing off for now... 15 days till I fly to Quito! :D
Rising to the Call ; September 22, 2011
This semester, I am one of several Honors mentors for the freshmen entering the Honors program. Right now we are reading a book called Rising to the Call by Os Guinness. I read this book for this class when I was a freshmen (=ahem= most of it), and now I'm reading it again. The first two chapters have brought up some interesting thoughts about calling.The main point of the first two chapters is that there is no calling without a Caller, and the Caller is God. Our primary calling is to God - it is God calling us to Himself. Our secondary calling is to live and act for Him in everything we do, and this involves vocation/work. Guinness's point is that there shouldn't be a dualism between these two callings. We shouldn't focus on our spiritual life so much that we push out work and think work is unimportant (what he calls the "Catholic Distortion"), but we also shouldn't focus on our work so much that we don't leave time for our relationship with God (what he calls the "Protestant Distortion").
I totally agree with this, but I think that just by making the distinction between the two, there is a danger of thinking they are separate. When Jesus answered the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" He gave us two. Love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor. (Matthew 22:34-40). He didn't say just one or just the other; He gave us both, and said there is no commandment greater than these—no commandment greater than both together. You can't have one without the other, and that's where the distortions come from. They are meant to be joined together, fused together in how we live and how we love, to the point that they are hardly distinguishable any more.
I was just thinking about my calling. I know God has called me into missions. When I was a freshmen reading this book, I just knew I wanted to go to Latin America and help bring God's kingdom... by loving orphans, widows, the poor, anyone and everyone, while spreading the gospel. Now that I'm a junior, I think I have a little clearer direction on my calling. Now I'm a TESOL minor (teaching English to speakers of other languages), and I didn't know I wanted to teach English until my freshmen year of college was almost over. Now, I still anticipate going to Latin America to do missions, but I think that will start by me teaching English to people there who have a need to learn the language. I marvel at how God has worked in my life to bring all the gifts He's given me into what He's called me to do.
But here I am talking about my "secondary calling," as Guinness calls it. But the point I want to make is this: there doesn't have to be the distinction. Our primary calling is to God, absolutely—it's to love Him and be with Him and praise Him with everything we do. But that's the key. We must love him at all times—both when we are spending time with Him in the Word, praying, and worshiping Him, and when we are working, doing homework, talking to friends, walking to class...... It is possible to be pursuing God in every moment, no matter what you're doing. It is possible to have your heart, your spirit set on the reality of God, on the presence of God, while you are writing a paper or sitting in class.
So when it comes to my calling to missions, I think that in the future when I am teaching English, when I am working with people from another culture, when I am feeding the hungry and meeting the needs of the poor and the orphans... I will be loving God, pursuing God, and answering His call by doing those things. I will both spend time with God in the secret place, in His Word and in prayer, and I will be loving Him by doing the things He has called me to. It's the same as right now, in college, I can love Him in my quiet times, and in my homework and classes. There doesn't have to be a distinction.
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