Life as I know it...until I know it differently.

Up until four o’clock this afternoon, I had spent approximately 1 week, 3 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, and 34.9387 seconds away from the most incredible gaggle of Mission Adelante kids, a.k.a. my best friends. Because of that, my Thanksgiving Break would be more effectively phrased as being Time Spent Without My Heart, My Life, and My Purpose. A little dramatic? I think not.

Don’t get me wrong, I have the greatest family on this planet (in my highly accurate opinion, of course). And as a definite plus, Mom didn’t make me do chores while I was home either…but my world was significantly dimmer without the delightfully energetic, aggravating, and fantastical group of children I have affectionately termed My Reasons for Being Alive.

It never ceases to amaze me how a single person can fill holes in your life you never even knew you had. Sometimes I wonder how I had not known these kids were sharing the world with me. It seems like the day they were born, I should have been acutely aware that from then on nothing would be the same. Being around them makes it easier to breathe, although I must admit that occasionally lose that breath. Tunnel tag is no joke.

So this is life as I know it. But it is constantly changing. God is truly reforming me every second, even though this blog will only document my weekly status. In the meantime, please keep these beautiful children in your prayers. If you let them into your hearts, I can promise you that God will use them to rock your world.

Little Miss Gaby only stopped singing long enough for me to take a few pictures at the Leaders In Training Service Day. Without fail, I could hear her before I could see her when she returned to the mulch pile for another load. This little one is larger than life.

We group-hugged Jesus. No big deal.

In this little game I call Blind Date, one blind-folded girl gets her partner ready for a night on the town. Here are the results. I think it worked out splendidly :)

Rebel Without a Cause. Yet.

There are days when I have to firmly tell myself, “Courtney Colin. Act your age, not your shoe size.” However, the times I am acting beyond immature are indeed the times I rebel against any and all orders, even if they are orders I am giving myself. I part my hair on the other side just to spite God knows who. I try to take a different route to school, go exceedingly astray, and arrive ten minutes late to class. I eat cookie dough for lunch and wash it down with a big, fizzing glass of off-brand Dr. Pepper (Hoorah, Dr. Thunder!).

Then there are days when I skip along through my routine, content to feel ordinarily productive as I cross each task off my to-do list. I take notes in Biology like the straight-A student I used to be. I drive the speed limit from school to Mission Adelante, where I take approximately 3 to 7 1/2 deep breaths before stepping out of my car. I pass the dumpster that takes on distinct smells depending on the day of the week, and the amount of rain, before reaching the back door that is left unlocked for me. Most of the time. And from there, the rest of my day passes in a happy blur of knock-knock jokes, sweaty children, and excessively difficult math worksheets.

I wish I could say that following God’s purpose has made my life simple. But truthfully, it has become quite complicated as I search for the balance between doing what I have to do to keep everyone happy, doing what I need to do to keep myself moving forward, and doing what I want to do to keep the world from eating me alive.

So while I content myself with rebelling on occasion in order to counter the monotony of having all those gross things we like to call responsibilities, I am beginning to understand that perhaps I am rebelling against all the wrong things. Jesus was, in my opinion, the greatest rebel of all time. But he was a rebel with a cause. So if I carry the What Would Jesus Do mantra in my heart, then I need to find my cause. And I need to stop wasting my time waging petty wars on insignificant details.

Now that I'm done with endings, this can finally begin.

It started in a mud hut, as all good things naturally do. In the charming village of Mavhusa , red dirt glaring in the heart-warming sunshine, I sat on a dusty stoop; my bible in my lap, my mind in a million places at once, my eyes on distant hills and even more red dirt. With the coming of a flavorful breeze, I heard children’s laughter, pots clanging and banging to some unspoken beat, and a variety of poultry squawking in protest of their lot in life. I opened my bible and there it sat, as obvious as the distinctly African thorn still lodged in my arm. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Amen, Matthew 7:7-8.

Within hours, I used a brick of a cell phone to contact my parents who were only thousands of miles and a few rather prominent bodies of water away. We decided that upon my return, I would no longer be Courtney Colin: Baker University student. I would be Courtney Colin: girl-still-trying-to-find-God’s-purpose-but-decidedly-closer-to-it-than-before.

I asked for direction, and it came in the form of a stirring in my heart that sparked change. I sought something that would allow me to live out my passion, and it arrived in a chance to work with the lost and hungry of Kansas City, Kansas. I knocked on the door of Mission ¡Adelante!, and they offered an internship that has already filled me with dreams of my life’s purpose.

The past few months spent in the embrace of my heart’s home, I am realizing that this is my beginning. The beginning promised with a new life in our Lord, the beginning I’ve been dreaming of since surviving so many endings, the beginning that falls nothing short of complete grace. So here lies the start of many blogs to come, a documentation of every gory detail making up the life of an intern. I sincerely hope you’ll join me on the journey.

In love,

Courtney Colin: Mission ¡Adelante! intern.

(If you would like more infomation about Mission ¡Adelante! please visit www.missionadelante.org.)






A snapshot of a time that changed my life in South Africa this summer.





At a Royals game with two darlings from Kids Adelante, Ashley and Perla.