And the place is...

World Vision!!!

I'll be spending 75% of my time in the finance/operations department and 25% of my time in the marketing/communications department. :)

I am so blessed.

Well it's been a few days.

I had two interviews yesterday and one today. They were all very interesting and a great experience, but one definitely stuck out :).

So, I have made my decision of where I am going to intern, but I can't disclose it until a later time.

So far, I am loving Chicago. I am comfortable on the el and the bus now! It's a great feeling! We move into our apartments on Saturday and I will be so thankful to have a place to call my own. Our apartments are two blocks from the beach which will be so fun to walk along.

I'll put up some pictures sometime...I don't have time right now.

Well I'm off to a meeting!

Busy Day!

Today was a crazy day! And it's not done yet...

For starters, I have two roommates (both named Heather) and a 1 bedroom furnished apartment! We visit the apartment tomorrow and move in on Saturday.

The biggest news is that I got my list of internship interview sites. I have 4 interviews in the next 3 days, all over the city of Chicago. My possible internship sites are:

-World Vision :)
-ACCION Chicago, a microfinance organization which offers small loans to people in Chicago
-Heartland Human Care Services, which offers help to people in crisis
-La Casa Norte, which offers support to homeless and at-risk families

They are all very different and I have no idea what I would do at any of them. Please pray as I do my interviews and try to find the places all by myself!!

Fear

I have lived my whole life in fear, making decisions because I was/am afraid of the outcome. I didn't try out for the play because I was scared I wouldn't make it, I don't do other things because I'm afraid of the consequences. I haven't really allowed myself to make decisions based on the right reasons.

However, last night I found myself thinking about this semester in Chicago and I was in shock! Jennifer Parks hasn't gone somewhere with unknown outcomes. Sure, college was a big step, but there were a lot of people who had survived and could tell me about it. It was a surity. I settled for a college because I was scared and Cornerstone was "good enough".

But here I am getting ready to hop on a train and head to the city where my family roots began. I do not have a roommate, an apartment, an internship, or a full understanding of my class load yet. And I am ready.

I have to take this step for me. For the right reasons. I am not going to run away, or because it's a guaranteed 4.0 (which I'm not sure it is...), or because I have 5 friends who are going (I don't know anyone). I am going because I love Chicago. Because I have wanted to live there for years. Because I want to live life fully and not under the notion that I have to be a "Type X person".

I think this is a step in the right direction for letting myself fly. And I cannot wait.

I'm reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne right now. If you've read it, or heard him speak, you might understand the wrenching in my gut right now, or rather the movement in my heart.

This has been a summer of unrest for me. I can't stand the fact that innocent people are dying at the hands of America. I can't stand the fact that countries are plagued with poverty when we have so much. I want to fix it all, and up until today, I thought the solution was in the government.

The solution is in Jesus.

I don't think the solution is to throw big conversion parties at church in order to "invite people to Christ" or to do on the street evangelism handing out tracts. I think it's to actually follow what Jesus said to do, to model after him.

In this book, Shane Claiborne talks about how we need to fix the institutions that cause poverty and cause pain. I have felt called to help people in some capacity as my vocation. Having a business mind, and soon a business degree, the options for helping others will be endless.

To truly help others (thus helping myself since we are called to be in community) I will need to find a way to go beyond the way that the world does business and redeem the systems that are broken. What a calling that is! I think we are all called to do the same thing...

So, if you are, or are going to be, a teacher...how can you teach in a way that redeems the educational system? redeems the kids you are teaching? brings life to the families of those kids?

If you are going to be a writer...how can you write to bring life and redemption to people?

If you are going to be a pastor, a business person, a doctor, etc...how can you use your skills to transform communities and the world and life in general? How can you be a solution and not part of the problem?