summer travels.

Back home and settled (well, ish) after a month of summer travels.

MEXICO
From May 16th to June 1st I was in Córdoba, Mexico serving the Mexican Indian Training Center, a school that educates and trains missionaries. Even though I don't feel radically different, like I will never be satisfied with the first world again (a common result of third world travels I've heard), I would still say that my life was changed. The beautiful, colorful culture of Mexico; interacting with true orphans for the first time in my life; meals at 6, 10, 2, and 7 every day; precious Christian fellowship with brothers and sisters who don't speak my language and look nothing like me; the fact that that doesn't matter one bit; the charming relationships that come about between people who have only their hands and faces with which to communicate. I miss everyone dearly and am just bursting to return as soon as I can.

Painting was a daily project each day at the school.
This is Sarah, Leah and I working on the chapel.

We visited this orphanage twice while in Córdoba.

little Luis. He is 3.

playing with children after church at Pochote.

Laura and I recorded children's songs in Spanish for the school's VBS program.
Neither of us speak Spanish fluently, but we both felt a very real sense of God's blessing
on the project because it went by fast and we sound somewhat convincing! :)

BONNAROO
From June 7th to 10th my brother, four friends of ours and I road tripped to Manchester, Tennessee for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Let's just say that my experience in Córdoba compared to my experience in Manchester are, well... incomparable! Both were spectacular, however, whereas Córdoba was marked by an overwhelming sense of fellowship within the body of Christ, Manchester was marked by a very real portrayal of the secular, non-Christian world. An educational experience for sure. I saw everything from poser hippies & true hippies (they might have stumbled out of the woods onto the Centeroo lawn), a grown man in a diaper and nothing else, to women that don't shave and more alcohol and drugs than I'd ever like to see again. People watching was an actual sport. That aside, the music was phenomenal! The highlights for me were The Avett Brothers (my favorite kind of live music), Rodrigo y Gabriela (guitar skills. mind blown.), The Temper Trap (Sweet Disposition), Skrillex (raged with 8,000 of my closest friends for two hours), Lionel Richie (who surprised everyone by making an appearance during Kenny Roger's show; he's the man), and The Civil Wars (90% of the reason I paid over $300 to attend an obscure music festival in the middle of Tennessee; classy skims the surface). Good, good times. :)

Katheryne, Macy and me on the first day. Yes, those are Porta-Potties.

the largest venue on site, called the What Stage.

sizzling in the sun in a field - welcome to Bonnaroo.

Macynette 'n' me.

Phew. All that and it's only mid-June! :)

Actually, I'm hoping to slowww things down a fair bit, since I don't really have summers in the school department of my life. Next up is the Western Civilization II CLEP test, which will end the CLEP/DSST phase of my degree. It's brand new territory after that. Kind of relieving and terrifying at the same time. The Lord is faithful to meet us where we are. That's what I'm clinging to.