It's That Time Again

It's that time of year again...the time of the year when my friends wonder if they still have a friend named Savannah or if they have just befriended a permanent library statue...the time of year when my mom calls me to make sure I am taking my vitamins and sleeping a little bit. It's crunch time for those of us who still haven't learned how to start on papers at the beginning of the semester. The Lord has really been teaching me to trust him more fully and not let my attitude toward life, Him, and others be dictated by my workload. My joy is dependent on him who is constant and him who has given me everything I need for life and godliness in him.

As far as an update on my life:

• I had the opportunity to go back to Smyrna, TN and spend my spring breatk at Community Servants. It was refreshing to go back and resume some relationships from last year. I had a wonderful team who came together and really leaned into each other for mutual benefit and lots of laughter. http://www.communityservants.org/

• I have a great roommate and wonderful friends at school who put up with my antics, love the Lord, and want to serve the Him and others in everything.


• There are lots of changes with friends as life continues to move forward with engagements, weddings, graduations, and general life changes from all sides.


• I was looking for a communication-related internship this summer and applied for one at the Georgia Family Council. They have a three-pronged approach to their organization. They work with public policy and legislation, they act to foster a more educated Georgia, and they put forth community initiatives. I was ecstatic to find that they had asked me to join their intern team this summer. http://georgiafamily.org/


• We (some students and I) have pursued getting Young Life closer to starting in Rhea Co. There have been some moves forward as well as realistic glimpses of the road ahead. Please continue to pray for direction and wisdom in this.


• This week in chapel we have been focusing on reconciliation in the world. This is a good documentary about the aftermath of life following the Rwandan genocide. http://www.asweforgivemovie.com/index.php

So, is life crazy and almost unmanageable at times? Yes! Is God faithful and constant even in our unconstancy and hecticness? YES!

I have three major papers due at the end of next Thursday and multiple daily assignments between then and don't know how they are going to be completely done, but I do know what I am going to do: trust the Lord and work hard.

I want to encourage you where you are. Maybe you don't have the stress of college papers right now. Maybe you wish that's all you had to worry about.

Whether life is as calm as a blue sea or as tempetuous as a hurricane with no end in sight, I want to encourage you. Regardless of where you are standing, I urge you to move closer to the Father. He has our lives in his hands and lets nothing befall us that he doesn't plan to use for our benefit. He is so worthy of our trust and devotion.

Many blessings on your spring days!

Psalm 62:1-2:

"For God alone my soul waits in silence,

from him comes my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken."

A Year Later

I stand here amazed. Amazed that I made it through 2 1/2 years of school and floored by the range of lessons God has taught me through his Spirit, his Word, his people, and the many varied cirumstances he brings into my life.

I am also incredibly thankful for my friends that I have at Bryan. Freshman year I floated from friend group, avoiding some people and trying desperately to make it in other friend groups. I found my niche at the close of my sophomore year through my friends in the ACTS project and through the girls on my hall. Although I am no longer in the ACTS class or on the same hall, I have been overly blessed by the friends and relationships I have. One special friend in particular decided she needed to add herself to my to-do list since I have a habit of making and abiding by them.

One of the coolest things this year has been rooming with Rachel. I can't even describe what a hilarious, encouraging, diligent person she is and how much I have benefited from sharing a room with her and walking through college life with her. It's funny because we've known each other since freshman year when we were in an assigned CLF group together and we have had interactions with each other along the way, but never really had the chance to get to know each other further until she and another RA approached me and my awesome roommate from last year about rooming with us.

(This is Rachel very excited about eating cinnamon rolls and sporting her new engagement ring)

The first great thing that blessed my socks off this weekend was a visit from my beautiful sister Summer. She didn't come visit at all last semester and I wanted her to come visit before things got too hectic in the semester. A summary of some of the things we did:

• watched 4 movies/shows (I fell asleep during each one)


• talked for at least 3 hours straight on Saturday


• made 2 trips to Walmart

• 1 trip to Sonic, 1 nursery session at church, 1 ride home
  
  (that would be Summer, Mom, and me back at the ranch)

The second great thing that happened this weekend was that India Team 2010 got together and hosted a dinner and sharing time for India Team 2011. It is hard to believe it's been a year since we formed our team and began the intense process of getting to know each other and praying for people and situations we had not yet met. It was wonderful to look at India pictures from this summer and hear some of upcoming India team's questions. I just was blessed to be there tonight and am so expectant about the things the Lord is going to teach India Team 2011 through India and each other.

(Shannon, Andrew, Andrew, and Katlyn)

A Summer of Healing

I asked for a summer of healing…healing for a broken body, a broken heart, and a broken life. The summer is almost over and I’m not sure if it’s happened or not. Progress has been made. My body is no longer acting strangely or without my consent. I’m able to jog and do most physical activity and I’m grateful. My broken heart has wrestled and wrestled with the issues and has come back to the conclusion that my heart is best held in God’s hands and nowhere else. My broken life seems the hardest one to get back in working order. I am the same person with all the exact same sins, struggles, and negative behaviors. Although my logical side denies the possibility, it seems as though if you have to die, it might be a pleasant surprise to come back as someone else—at least a better me. Nope, it doesn’t look like that’s the case.

At the core of who I am, I long for God to step in and fix my family. Fix all the problems I see. All the problems I am a part of, all the problems I can’t fix, and all the problems that break me the most.

Who am I to complain? I have a family. I have a good family that loves each other. And yet, the longing for more is there. The longing for the redemption I know Yahweh longs to offer us now and to complete in us.

Goodness. Am I not observant of the work he is doing? Am I too impatient? One thing I do know: I need to spend more time listening to him.

Since Then

Hey!!!
I smile just thinking about God these days...He is so faithful in our weak moments and in our stronger ones. I am so thankful for who he is and everything he has done in my life...I don't deserve it.

In response to the million-dollar question: "so how are you doing?" I am doing really well. My arm is still in a sling for another week in an effort to keep my arm still so the lead to my heart can firmly heal. Emotionally, I feel like my normal chipper self. My dear friend Emily Brooks came to stay with me for about 10 days. I love having her around--just being goofy and sharing God moments together. It was also really great to have her at the hospital--she knew the right kinds of questions to ask and watched Jimmy Stewart movies with me.

On a different note, I am headed to Young Life's Sharp Top Cove camp in Jasper, GA today. Yeah, baby, am I excited about that! I'll be there for a week hanging out with our Young Life kids from Monroe Co.

Please pray for this week in several ways:
1. Pray that the kids that go will be moved closer to the Lord as they are put in a different environment and have the gospel explained in clear, relevant ways. Pray for receptive hearts.
2. Pray that I will have good quality time with Brandi, Bridgette, and Sydney.
3. Pray that I will be listening to what the Lord is saying and sensitive to what He is doing.

Dr. Mahlow and me before my defibrillator went off :-)

Emily and me in the ER checking my ICD...fun times, eh?

Sidney and me at SHS graduation!!

Thank-you to all my fans, family, and awesome supporters in my life! I am so glad you are there!

The Countdown Continues

Hi!!

I have some heavy news and some excitng news to share with you. The heavy news is that my grandfather, affectionately called Grandcliff, passed away on the evening of April 19th. He had lived with us in Lenoir City for a little less than 3 years. We are very grateful for the time we had with him...for the lessons we mutually learned by living together. I think my younger siblings learned how to respect older people even when it was really hard and when they knew they were right, but learned to do it his way anyway. Summer said it well when she was reminiscing on the transformation our relationships took with him when he moved to close proximity to us. She said, "[Before] When we only saw him in the summer, we loved him because he gave us chocolate ice cream and coke and let us swing on his swing. Then he moved in with us and we hated him because he told us what to do and got in fights with us and everything. But, then we learned to love him even through the hard stuff, but it was deeper then." I know we will miss his funny sayings, his mannerisms, and his prescence. My family is in LA now for a time with extended family.

Stroud Family with Grandcliff, 4th of July 2009 in Monteagle, TN

Stroud Family with Grandcliff, Easter 2009 in Lenoir City

The exciting news is that today is April 26th which means in only 16 days I will be on a plane with Andrew, Seth and Kristen headed to Chennai, India to join alongside the Asir family in ministry to the marginalized of Indian society.

Between then and now, I have a ridiculously busy week of classes and assignments, a short week of finals, a birthday, spend time with my family, pack for India, and see as many important people in my life as I can. Yeah...that's what I thought...I must be crazy!

Seth, Kristen, Savannah, and Andrew = Team India

The Lord has been teaching and preparing me in so many ways this semester. I would say everything that has happened has in some way brought me closer to the Lord, strengthened my trust in Yahweh, or showed me I need to rely on him more. One of the coolest hands-on experiences we (the ACTS class) had was the opportunity to go to D.C. for IJM's global prayer gathering from April 8-11. The global prayer gathering is a yearly get-together of IJM staff along with people interested in praying for God's work around the world. It was so helpful to go from room to room and hear the heavy, desperate stories and needs from around the world and then turn directly to our heavenly Father and lift them up to him.

http://www.ijm.org/ -- visit IJM's website for more info.

Diana, Lydia, Meagan, Liz, Carrie, Johanna, Savannah, Nic, Kristen

Some of my classmates who went to IJM with me

How can we be praying for you, Savannah?

First, I echo Paul's sentiments for the Philippian church for all of you:

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of the partnership of the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel." Philippians 1:3-7

Secondly, there are some specific ways you can be praying for me and my team.

1. pray against spiritual warfare we are beginning to experience now and will experience in different ways over the summer

2. pray that all the details come together for each of us such as visas, supplies, spiritual preparedness, and rest

3. pray that our families will be at peace with us being in India

4. pray that we will be able to meet the people God would have us meet, be in the situations he has ordained, and most of all love him and others.

Lastly, I have raised a little bit less than half of my support, so if you are still interested in supporting me, you can send a check payable to Bryan College (for a tax deduction), memo line- BC Missions Fund to:

Bryan Missions Fund

Bryan College #7781

721 Bryan Dr.

Dayton, TN 37321

This blog and email are the main ways that I hope to keep up with you over the summer, so I hope this works!

Much love,

In Christ,

Savannah Stroud

Late Nite to Spring Break

It's been an eventful week to say the least.
Step 1: I finished my classes on Friday, March 5th and drove to Sweetwater to hang out with some high school friends. Then I crashed at Lindsay's house for a few hours before about 40 high schoolers from Monroe Co. piled into a big yellow school bus and headed to Young Life's Late Night!!!
We had a blast! We really did. Monroe Co. merged with Loudon Co. and Anderson Co. for a great night of club, fun, Jesus, ice skating, gymnastics, Zuma fun center, and a movie!
Hanging out and delving deeper with high school friends made pulling an all-nighter so enjoyable!

Step 2: After Late Nite, I headed back to Bryan and a group of 7 girls and 1 guy drove to Smyrna (outside of Nashville) to spend the week working with a ministry group called "Community Servants." Over the weekend, we met and played with the neighborhood kids. These 3 brothers (Mu, Dada, and Gregory II) are part of an immigrant Karen family from Myanmar. We played Ninja, soccer, and silent ball with the kids. During the week, we heard testimonies from 2 moms aobut how much they like living in the community and how God has worked in their lives.

Monday through Friday was spent primarily working on 2 houses, painting the interiors. We met the people moving into both units and got closer as a team. One of the highlights of the work was on Tuesday when I got to drive an ancient white truck around all afternoon taking loads to the dump and brush to a burn pile. It made driving my truck seem like a dream!

Thursday we changed gears and went into Nashville to help Craig, a man who has been a missionary and worked in intentse disaster areas for the past several years. Craig is working hard to finish his own home after he has helped so many others get back on their feet. He just needed some encouragement, so we were able to come alongside him and do the simplest of tasks, but ones that aided in his ultimate project goal.

Of all the different activities we did in conjunction with Community Servants, two things impressed me the most. The first was that each morning Bruce, one of the leaders, would come by and orient us to our day and remind us that relationships are more important than the physical work we were accomplishing. He would say, "All this is going to end up in a land fill anyway one day, so let's focus on people." He also talked a lot about paying attention to the kind of treasures we put into our hearts.

The second thing that impressed me was the heart of two young interns who live at Wherry Housing and work with Community Servants. They run an after school program for all the kids that want to come from 3:30-5:30 every day. When I first met them, I assumed that was their full-time occupation: ministering to the neighborhood kids. No, I found out they attend college full time, work part time jobs, and minister to these kids. The more I was around them, the more clearly I saw this beautiful picture of incarnational living done by 2 girls my age. It really challenged and encouraged me.

Feel free to check out their website: http://www.communityservants.org/

So, that is my crazy week in a nutshell and I am back at Bryan ready to hit the books and activities hard until the end of the semester. I am heading to Atlanta on Wednesday with the ACTS project to visit OM (Operation Mobilization) headquarters.

Be encouraged this week and know that I am praying for you!

Closing a Journal

I wrote on the last page of a journal I have been writing in since Jan. 2009. I always like going back and reading all of the places God has taken me, all the low and high moments I have experienced, and the ways I have grown. Most of its contents are between me and God, but I wanted to share a couple of things it reminded me of.

First, this summer I worked on Summer Staff at Young Life's Sharp Top Cove camp in Georgia. Every Sunday morning, after the campers had left Saturday night and before the new campers arrived Sunday afternoon, we would all get together and worship and be encouraged for the upcoming week. One Sunday, Jim Branch (speaker and director) had us all take a nametag and write down the name that we believe most of the time about ourselves and stick it on our shirt. We looked around and realized who most of us believe we are. "Not enough," "Trash," "Failure," and "Unlovable" were just a few. Then he had us tear up the name we call ourselves, write the name that God calls us on a new nametag, and stick it on. I realized that I call myself "fearful, falling apart, needy one" whereas God calls me "whole, healed one" and "mine." Just last week, I came to the realization that while I let the Lord heal my life before, I expect it to be over for good and then wonder why I continue to struggle so much. He did heal me from my pain and from myself, but also wants to be my daily healer and when I live my life on my own, I am ultimately refusing to let him be my healer. Healing can be a one-time event, but it is, more than not, a daily process. So, this week I have been calling God my "daily healer."

Secondly, the Lord has brought me to so many places this year that I have been before. He has brought me to these places as a way of reminding me of his underlying, constant faithfulness in my life.

• I went to SharpTop as a camper in May of 2008--happy to experience Young Life and unsure about college. I met Lindsay Oaks for the first time and got to talk with her. My grandparents came to visit the very last day of camp. I returned to SharpTop in June of 2009 happy to serve the campers and excited to get to know my fellow summer staffers. Lindsay was there as a head leader and we shared life stories and future hopes. My granddad had died since I was at SharpTop and my grandmother moved continents.
• I returned to Windy Gap (YL camp in NC) in the fall of 2009 as a leader with Sweetwater after going for the first time in the fall of 2006. First time, I sat behind a garbage can and wrestled with with my issues and with God and coming back I realized how much peace and life God had given me since then.
• I shared Urbana 2009 with close friends and I asked better questions. Urbana 2006 was great and 2009 built on what I learned. In 2006, I was looking for a short-term opportunity and in 2009 I was looking for opportunities after college. In 2006, I was exposed to issues such as human trafficking and in 2009 I was impressed with the amount of collaboration between mission organizations, the enablement of local missionaries, and the holistic view of missions.
• Every time I come back to Bryan after a break, I am reminded of all the things God has done for me in this place and all the things I have learned. I am grateful for the friends I have, the skills I have learned, and the person I am becoming.

Finally, Psalm 62 has really inflitrated my life and thoughts this year.

Psalm 62
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence? They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to his work. (ESV)

Cultural Assumptions, Culture Shock

I am currently taking a class entitled "Intro to Teaching ESL." The class meets once a week on Tuesday evenings with a mixture of mission-minded people, education people, and communication majors who don't want to take a fourth semester of Spanish. I love the class for several reasons. The main reason is the teacher, Mrs. Becky Young. This lady is really quite amazing. She grew up as an MK in Ethiopia and moved around some before settling in Dayton, TN where she is the director of ESL at Dayton City Schools. Her passion, love, and concern for ELLs (English Language Learner) is readily apparent.

Every class period is a medley of a student presentation on one of our texts, her lectures, and some sort of hands-on activity. I look forward to class, but tonight was especially enlightening as we discussed the relationship between culture and language. We talked about the definition of culture, patterns of culture, the pitfalls of ethnocentrism and relativism, the damaging qualities of stereotypes, and culture shock.

Culture shock is defined as "the process of emotional responses and physiological reactions that a person experiences upon arrival or placement in a new cultural setting." Culture shock usually follows a pattern of 7 main stages including elation, anxiety, rejection, regresssion, re-entry, acceptance, and appreciation.

Elation is characterized by exitement, hope, anticipation, and opportunities are assessed wtih unrealistic optimism. This is where you love everything about the culture and think it is so enthralling and exciting. Generally, 2-week short term missionaries and tourists stay in this stage.

Anxiety follows elation as you realize that the culture is not as idealistic as you first made it out to be. If elation is overly optimistic, then anxiety is characterized by ultra-pessimism. As you realize the challenges before you, you may begin to think, "Wow! Not only am I not going to save every single soul (which is why I came), I may not even make a friend."

Continuing in the negative spiral, rejection enters the picture and the person begins to alienate themselves and exhibit some anti-social behavior. A very negative attitude towards the host culture pervades. As Mrs. Young described, "You look for and gravitate towards the McDonald's."

It gets worse before it gets better as regression hits. People that are forced into a culture often get stuck on this stage. The regression stage is the lowest emotional point during the transition as the newcomer realizes the permanence of the situation and becomes submissive on some level and bypasses opportunities for interaction and has a very hopeless attitude.

Re-entry happens when you rediscover the positive aspects of the host culture. Re-entry is apparent when you can look back and laugh at a deep faux pas, you begin to be more involved with others in the culture, and hopefulness begins to return.

Acceptance and appreciation soon follow with the development of friendships and becoming emotionally settled as well as building a support system in your new culture and you begin to take pride in the host culture and its accomplishments.

I really enjoyed be re-exposed to the idea of culture shock with our trip to India coming up. We will definitely experience culture shock at some levels, so it is good to think through the stages and realize where you are. On the other hand, we are also going to another culture for a short, definite period of time so the stages (especially regression) may not be as strong because (like it or not) we know in the back of our minds we are not staying forever.

Then came the best part of the class: the hands-on activity. We divided up into groups of four and were given a list of rules and a deck of cards. After we read the rules, they were taken up. As the game began, we were not allowed to talk or communicate with each other at all (we broke this rule numerous times). So, we played a round of the game and then two people moved on and we played a new round. Each time new people came, it seemed as though they did not understand the rules well. Amidst a rising level of frustration and confusion, the game continued. After four rounds, Mrs. Young stopped us and asked for feedback. After sharing our frustration, she revealed that each table had received a different set of rules.

She showed us the connection between our furstration and how we each were convinced we were abiding by the "right" rules and how we often enter into cultures in this way. We take our cultural assumptions into other cultures and assume that everyone there are operating on the same "rules." In entering other cultures, we have to be aware that others are operating on a different set of rules. We need to decide whose rules are going to set the tone, who is going to concede, and where compromise is possible.

I really appreciated the practical way of seeing how our cultural assumptions effect our perceptions.

(to enlarge, click on the slide)

(all credit given to Mrs. Becky Young of Bryan College and slides Culture and TESOL and to Dr. Patricia Davis-Wiley of UTK and her material Coping with Culture Shock)

So, what are you doing this summer?

Dear Friends and Family,

If you are reading this blog, then first let me thank you. Thank you for the significant, meaningful role you have played and are playing in my life. I am so excited to share an upcoming experience in my life with you.

As many of you know, I attend Bryan College where I am a sophomore planning to double major in Biblical Studies and Communications. Last semester, I attended an interest meeting for an opportunity Bryan features called the "ACTS project." The ACTS project is a missions class during the spring semester which culminates in an overseas "intership" in the summer. I went ahead and applied and before long, one of the directors talked to me about my interest and said he thought based on my past mission's experience, India would be a helpful, stretching experience. I prayed about it and agreed to become part of a four-person team headed to India this summer. My team and I have already begun to earnestly pray for each other and the people encounters we will have over the summer.

What will we be doing?
Good question. Word for the World is a an Indian-run ministry established by a man named Augustine of Asir. Bryan has partnered with Word for the World for the past several years. We will be working alonside them and under their supervision in a variety of ways.
Some of those ways include:

• visiting Chennai where Word for the World has their headquarters and ministering in leper colonies nearby
• teaching slum kids at a school in Mumbai
• ministering to elderly people and handicapped children in Mandurai; visiting villages still recovering from the effects of the 2004 tsunami

In spite of this list, the trip is not about us and what we are "doing." It's all about God, from beginning to end. It's about what God is doing around the world; how he is bringing people to himself from every race, every social status, and every living environment. We just have the opportunity to witness this up-close with India as the focus.

In light of this, I invite you to join me as I embark on this next step into what God is teaching and showing me. I especially ask for your prayers now and over the summer. I am realizing more and more that nothing happens, nothing changes, without first asking our heavenly Father and him changing it in the heavenlies. My team and I will be facing spiritual challenges and physical realities we have never experienced before and your prayer and support is needed.

With all affection, Savannah Stroud


Andrew, Kristen, Seth and Savannah