Towards a Joyful Soul

I have exciting news about the future! I'm going to be staying in New Orleans for another year! In the last year, there have been so many ways that I wanted to be further involved in this city and community, but haven't had the chance because of my time commitments to the YAV program. New Orleans is a culturally unique and vibrant city that has so much to offer and to teach. I'm excited to try new dance classes, be more involved in my church community, and explore new parts of the city! I welcome visitors! Because of the travel ban in effect for the PC(USA) church, the next YAV year will not start until January. Thanks to Dan, the YAV Board, and the Presbytery of Southern Louisiana, I will be allowed to stay in the Big Green House rent-free through the end of December, saving beaucoup bucks! The most exciting part of the news, in my opinion, is that I will be staying on at Eden House, hired as the Program Administrator . I've learned so much during my time at Ed

A year in the life... First night in the Big Green House with Canadian David and Davis Crying with new friends at orientation My birthday was our first full day in the city We spent a week developing our community covenant and had our first fight Our first time volunteering at the Presbytery Meeting Halloween was when Canadian David let us know he was leaving Emily and I bonded over exploring our storage unit Eden House had its annual fundraiser,  Building Dreams Spent Thanksgiving with my host family, Sarah and her husband David Went to Celebration in the Oaks with Emily My best friend in Austria, Leah, and her friend, Marie, visited for New Year's Eve Performed my first liturgical dance over MLK weekend Had some bonfires with the house community with some dramatic neighbor instances My small group babies from Elon visited me I went to a Mardi Gras Ball with my boss, Susanne (sorry for the terri

Dear Kristina from the past, Buckle up because you have no idea what you're in for. Living in the Big Green House will be like living in a soap opera and you'll be in the center. Working at Eden House will be like running around like a chicken with her head cut off. You will love deeply and cry with abandon. Your heart will break for those around you and for yourself. You are not prepared and there's no way to fully be prepared, but that's life. You have people around you who will offer their support: Dan, your parents, your small group, your therapist. But most of all, you have strength within yourself. When you get in touch with yourself, you will come to know a raw, fierce, vulnerable, deeply caring, beautiful, wonderful, whimsical soul. Discovering her will be the hardest work you do this year and the biggest blessing for your future. In all things, stay true to yourself. God will be with you through it all: through the peaks, when you're riding the high

In my undergraduate career, for my research, I interviewed many activists around the country about the influence of their faith on their social justice work. Additionally, my faith significantly influences my own advocacy. So naturally, when my friend Janay Tyson  hosted a Zoom meeting with her friend on how we can fight for justice in this moment as Christians, I wanted to be part of that conversation. I was honored to be able to listen to two Black women speak so eloquently and honestly about how they see God speaking into their lives and to the social movement at this time. In this blog post, I will not be speaking on their behalf. Rather, I wanted to share with you my own reflections and takeaways from that Zoom meeting. But, I preface with the context of these reflections to give them credit for speaking their truths and giving me spiritual food for thought. Working towards justice is not a task that will be accomplished in a week. It will not be accomplished in a

Most, if not all, of my blog posts focus on the internal. Generally, I do not write about society or politics. I think these topics are best reserved for in-person conversation so there is less possibility to misconstrue and so that you can see that there is a human on the other end of the conversation. At this moment, I think it would be irresponsible to not address the current social moment. I have friends and family who think I'm too conservative and friends and family who think I'm too liberal. My hope is that all of my friends and family will continue to engage with me in respectful and loving conversation. My hope is that you will challenge me to think deeper, reconsider my assumptions, and offer me your experiences and perspectives. I believe that spirituality is not completely separated from how we see and engage with society. I believe that no actions by a person of faith are secular. Jesus challenged social norms (speaking with and lifting up tax collectors, pro

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:4-8 Two memories. In February of 2019, I was choosing how to rate the different sites that I had interviewed with for the YAV program. As I did more research, I read the ethos of the New Orleans site, "Seeking God in the tension of joy and sorrow." I heard a little voice inside me whispering "I want to feel joy." My desire for joy was the deciding factor that brought me here

After performing a liturgical dance in January at the request of the pastor of that church, I decided I wanted to build a little repertoire. I enjoyed the process of creation and performance so much that wanted to do it again! Maybe inspired by the melody that the church bells next door chime each day, I decided that my next dance would be to "Be Thou My Vision." While talking to my housemates, Nate told me that he used to love playing that song on the guitar. I invited us to collaborate and perform for the summer Presbytery meeting. While we couldn't perform at Presbytery because it was virtual due to COVID-19, we were in charge of the FPC Hammond Pentecost service, so we had another platform! See our performance here! Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.  Psalm 149:3 Working on my dance turned into a spiritual discipline for me. It was often difficult to make the time to work on it. Also, as someone not trained

Mid-January, we had mid-year evaluations due for YAV. This included answering a series of questions and then reading them aloud to our housemates. One specific question asked us to speak about our house community, one of the core tenets of the YAV program. In my answers, I was raw, honest, and incredibly vulnerable. I spoke my truth. The follow is an excerpt of that answer: I’m extremely grateful that my small group from Elon visited last week to remind me how loving and caring intentional Christian community should be. They are constantly encouraging and supporting each other with all five of the love languages. One simple question can lead to very deep conversations with incredibly vulnerability. They fill my life with so much joy, but not superficial happiness because we know the deepest, most painful parts of each other’s lives too. In one conversation we can switch from fun to deep, personal sharing to analysis of structural injustice. Nothing is off the table. I don’t fee

"I understand that I might need to stay home for y'all's health, but I'm worried about the residents of Eden House." That's what I told my housemates when we were considering whether to start self-isolation before it was mandated by the city.  The physical and mental wellbeing of my residents was on the forefront of my mind as I made decisions regarding my own health. While a coworker shared an article with us about how COVID-19 affects survivors of human trafficking in particular, I didn't need to read that article to understand the impact that this pandemic would have on them. After working at Eden House for 7 months, I knew that losing control over their physical health and bodily autonomy (i.e. where they were allowed to go) would parallel what our residents felt as they were being trafficked. I knew that feeling isolated would be reminiscent of the physical and emotional isolation enforced by traffickers. I knew that having only one staff me

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:4-8 ~~ I went back to Richmond, Virginia for Christmas. I'm not gonna lie and I'm not gonna go into it, but the time I spent there was ROUGH. I left feeling exhausted and a bit defeated. I was so relieved to be back in New Orleans. I was relieved to be back with my friends here. The day after I came back, I had a wonderful outing with Emily where she ran out of gas and I had to go to the g

I remember telling my kindergarten teacher that everyone in the class hated me and no one wanted to be my friend. I remember telling my 1st grade teacher the same thing, with a vague memory of my parents being called to talk about it. I remember at the end of 5th grade calling a high school student in my theatre company in tears because I had no friends. I remember being so nervous the month before going to high school that I could only eat jello. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:26 As a person who has struggled with depression and anxiety, for the last decade I have been developing coping mechanisms for a life that felt constantly stressful, chaotic, and out of my control. Sound familiar? This pandemic is turning people's lives upside-down. There is added stress of possible infection every time you need to get groceries. There is chaos is many households as children are home from school or people are fi

One theoretical purpose of Mardi Gras is to get all your sins and desires out before you have to give it up during the Lenten season. After Mardi Gras this year, I remember joking to my housemates, "After all these parades, I'm tired of people. I'm giving up people for Lent." Little did I know that there would be a global pandemic that required me to stay at home and see as few people as possible. You would think that after about a month of self-isolation, as an introvert, I would be rejuvenated. I haven't gone to any big events. My interactions are limited. I get to stay in my house all day. I don't even have to go in to work! Yet, somehow, I find myself more and more exhausted. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. Psalm 23:2-3 Before this pandemic, Sundays were very actively a day of rest. After church, I would go to the park by myself and sit and pray and maybe call my family.

Mardi Gras. I can't comprehensively describe all I experienced during Mardi Gras: parades, glitter, king cake, tailgating, daiquiris, music, costumes, traffic, and more! It's like a combination of Christmas season and football season and the 4th of July and Halloween and Thanksgiving, but with a New Orleanian twist. It is such a huge part of New Orleans. The entire city stops for about a week to celebrate. Because it's such an identifying aspect of the city I live in, I figured I had to write a blog post about it to share with y'all. But what can I say? It was so overwhelming that my brain hasn't even begun to process the experience. Nothing that I can say will fully describe my Mardi Gras experience, simply because there was so much going on! As I reflected, though, I thought through how Mardi Gras relates to every single one of the YAV core tenets. So, that will be my way of sharing with y'all! Simple Living: Mardi Gras felt like the o