New blog site

Hey friends, I have a new blog site that I will be updating more regularly. :) Shoot me an email if you don't already have it. Thanks!

Wedding Bells

My BFF Kim recently got engaged! I even got to help Pablo with the proposal from another continent. I am very excited for these two and know they have an incredible path before them filled with service to each other and the world.
Congratulations Pablo and Kim! Quito, Ecuador in July 2010!

Empowering Children as Peacebuilders Forum

As usual I'm behind on fulfilling my good intentions of blogging. Nevertheless, let me share with you a little bit about my recent trip to the Philippines. Last month I spent a couple weeks in Manila, Philippines for work. The purpose of the trip was to help out at an event called Empowering Children as Peacebuilders (ECaP) Forum. About 40 young peacebuilding leaders from 9 countries gathered together to share their ECaP work, build relationships with one another and launch a network for the children to continue to share their best practices with one another. Children ages 13-20 came from the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, Kenya, Columbia and Lebanon. The first couple of days were spent with about 10 of these children who would be leading the Forum. World Vision staff helped train and mentor these youth so they were better prepared to lead their peers during the Forum. The five-day Forum itself was incredible. Each day was packed with interactive activities and peacebuilding exercises that helped the children think through their own context and peacebuilding work in their countries. Every country was able to share best practices through a marketplace, presentations, skits, artwork and media resources. Certain country groups introduced new modules and creative ways of thinking that could help other countries in their own peace clubs methodologies and activities. One night the children had a cultural night where each country group presented a dance, song or drama from their culture that shared a message of peace. On the last day the children worked very hard to develop a peace declaration stating their purpose and what they wanted to achieve as a group. The children shared this with stakeholders both internal and external to World Vision in a panel format. We ended our time together with a commitment signing as seen below.
I also had the opportunity to meet Fatmire Feka one of my heroes. After the war in Kosovo, Fatmire started Kids for Peace at the age of 11. She help found 8 clubs. Today there are 16 clubs led by children helping Muslims and Christians work together, teaching their peers about their rights and helping serve their communities through projects and activities. Fatmire, now 21 years old, was the keynote speaker at the Forum. Feel free to read the story I wrote on Kids for Peace as a World Vision International 2009 Peacebuilding Award Recipient.
I absolutely loved my time with the children. It was so wonderful to meet some of the children that have been heroes of mine since I began my work in peacebuilding. These children are true inspirations and agents of change and it is so cool to see them fighting for peace and justice at such a young age and with such passion and drive. Talk about true empowerment in their ownership and participation- taking up huge issues like children's rights, conflict analysis and community change! It is beautiful and this is exactly the kind of thing that excites me about working with children. My time with these children was so rich and full of life. Laughter, dance, and creativity that filled my experience with these kids will be something that will continue to motivate me in my work and carry me forward. I cannot wait to work more directly with children again in this capacity because let's be honest, working directly with children is my favorite. I only hope and pray that God will give me the opportunity to have that kind of dream job in the not-so-distant future.
For photos, media resources (including videos on awesome work in the Philippines, Cambodia and India), a look at the children's peace declaration, etc. please visit our public WVI Peacebuilding site.

Falling

It's true. I'm in love with fall. My true love season has always been summer with its lure of sunshine, flip flops, water-based activities, beaches and delish seasonal fruits. However, I've recently discovered that I'm having a love affair with fall. Seriously, I've noticed this budding romance since fall of 2007 when I moved back to Seattle after my time in Pasadena where fall is pretty much non-existent.
Since then I've become completely sentimental over all things fall- the colorful leaves, the crisp air, all pumpkin food products, corn mazes, gourds and apple cider. I've even convinced myself that I like butternut squash when I'm not totally sure my tastebuds are on board. Our apartment even looks kind of like a pumpkin patch right now and I love it. Fall here in DC has been fairly lame unless you walk on Capitol Hill or go to Rock Creek Park (loved a long bike ride there yesterday through the beautiful leaves), but the colors outside the city are even more amazing. Apparently Virginia and Maryland are good for something.
Even though the DC area puts on a good show of the season, I do miss fall in Seattle- something about the mountains accompanying the fall colors. But I can't complain about the view from here. So thank you fall for being so amazing and please don't tell summer that you're kind of my new favorite.

Day of Prayer

October 1st marks the first day of our fiscal year at World Vision. Every year World Vision sets the day aside for prayer. This year was my first Day of Prayer; I missed last year's by just a few days. It was a great day set aside to absorb, pray, reflect, share, worship and dedicate the year to the Lord as a community. It was very cool to know that World Vision offices all over the globe were participating in the Day of Prayer.
Throughout the day we engaged in corporate prayer, individual prayer, lifting up new campaigns, requests from our field staff and the needs of people affected and afflicted by dire circumstances all around the globe. One of my favorite parts of the day was when we prayed for our donors. World Vision had collected prayer requests from people that financially support World Vision. I think it is so easy for us let people invest into us as a humanitarian organization because we know that our work requires people willing to financially support us, but it is some times difficult to remember that our donors have needs as well. They may not be suffering from malaria or struggle to feed their families, but they still have real needs- cancer, a broken marriage, loss of a loved one, depression. As staff we had the honor of silently working through piles of prayer requests, praying, and then writing a postcard of encouragement to individual donors we prayed for. It was a powerful and humbling experience and I was really encouraged by the whole process. How wonderful to be able to prayer for our donors after they have been praying for our work!
In Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline he writes, "To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives" (p. 33). I am so grateful to work for an organization that does not abandon prayer, but seeks the Lord as we are starting a new year. We pray because we know that without His power and might, our work is dependent on merely human effort. We pray because we need change, transformation, not only in our work but in our own lives as well. The Day of Prayer is the beginning, a reminder of our oneness with Christ as His Body, a call to lean into Him as we enter a new year as a community seeking to serve the least of these.
To learn more about how you can be praying for World Vision, visit our Newsfeed with up-to-date prayer requests.

Photos by Brian Tropiano

Tis the Day of Peace

Today is the International Day of Peace. Established in the early 80s, the International Day of Peace is "devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples…This day will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace."- UN Resolution
As former Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on the International Day of Peace in 2005, "Twenty-four hours is not a long time. But it is long enough to look over the barricades, or through the barbed wire, to see if there is another path."
Although it's one day, one day carries power and weight. One day creates awareness, changes minds, encourages people to pray, listen, and reflect upon the power of peace, justice, and breaking down the barriers that divide us as individuals, communities, religious groups, ethnic groups and many other labels we voluntarily or involuntarily possess. One day is a start, a day of hope for change.
As you may have guessed, this day is like Christmas for those that work for peace the rest of the 364 days of the year. How amazing to see nations lay down their weapons, children march for peace, and people gathering around the globe to stop and imagine a peaceful world. In this day we find hope, motivation and inspiration in the stories of peacemakers and peacebuilders.
The more time and energy that I invest into my peace work at World Vision, the more I realize that peace is a foundational need for the well-being of the most vulnerable. Without it we are susceptible to violations of human rights and basic elements of what it means to live. This may seem like an extreme statement for someone living in the developed world, but think about those in the developing world. When peace is replaced with war, food security, access to water, education, health, livelihood, and basic human rights are all put at risk. Therefore, developing a culture of peace and capacity-building are necessary in the fight for peace.
Communities partnering with World Vision are celebrating today. This year we not only celebrate as we have in the past, but we also celebrate the inaugural World Vision International Peace Prize. I have had the honor and privilege of helping oversee this process and absorb the work of some incredible individuals and organizations. The Peace Prize includes two awards, the Peacemaking Award which honors an individual, and the Peacebuilding Award which is being shared by two organizations this year. The Peacemaking Award is awarded to Mary Ann Arnado of the Philippines and this year’s Peacebuilding Award is shared between Kids for Peace of World Vision Kosovo and World Vision Rwanda. Read their stories. Listen to the ways they have worked to overcome difficult obstacles and stand for peace.
Dare to imagine. Happy International Day of Peace.

Wedding dances

Check out the video of the wedding entrance below. Pretty fabulous if you ask me. After dancing down the aisle in my friend's Kenyan wedding in April, I think dancing down the aisle is pretty great idea.



This is the divorce spoof that is pretty funny as well:

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

I recently saw an excellent documentary I just have to write about. It's called Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It is a remarkable story of a group of visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia while the country was being torn apart by civil war. The incredible perseverance, hope, and commitment to peace and justice by this grassroots movement changed the nation and even paved the way for democratic elections and the first female head of state in Africa. The film deals with mature content and includes explicit descriptions of war and human rights offenses, but the message is powerful and hopeful. As I watched this film I became increasingly aware of the foundational need for peace in communities. My heart leaped out to the faces of the children and their complete excitement when peace was finally tasted. As the children on the screen sang about peace a rare movie theatre tear came to my eye and I smiled because that is exactly why I do the work that I do in Peacebuilding at World Vision.
Share the film with others and let the story of these women be told. Let's celebrate peace together and don't forget, the International Day of Peace is coming up on September 21st. Hooray!

Dawn in a box

Last Friday my roommate Erin and I went to visit our other roommate Dawn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dawn is a med student, always looking to make some extra cash, even if that means she has to carry pee buckets around with her and collect her finger nail clippings in a bag for a week.

Medical Studies Dawn has done so far:

1) HIV vaccine in 2007 with GWU

2) Gave blood which they compared her D-dimer level to people who are HIV positive. D-dimer is a coagulation product that gives information about clotting and inflammation.

3) A thyroid study where they stimulated her thyroid (gave her TRH or thyroid releasing hormone) and then drew blood for the next 3 hours to monitor her response. They were doing this to see how this correlated to her DNA sequence for her thyroid receptor.

4) MRS study: She did an MRI, but instead of for 20 minutes it was for 2.5 hours. They gave her a labeled glucose infusion so they could watch the metabolism in her brain. They were testing this new way of doing MRI on her.

5) She was screened but got rejected last week from any PMS studies (including the one where they give you a drug to put you into menopause for 3 months). Even so, she did track her level of anxiety, sadness, mood, and energy every evening for 2 months for them.

6) She did a virtual reality study for medical students. She was given an article to read on a medical subject and had to take a quiz on it. Then she saw a virtual patient with a related condition and had to interact with her. Then she answered more quiz questions on her perceptions of the disease and the patient.

7) She was screened last week for a study where they administer electric shocks to her wrists as she watches a screen with geometric shapes and tests her prediction of when the shocks will come (ie can she figure out which shapes come before the shocks?) and will test her cortisol level, a stress hormone.

8) She was also screened last week for a malaria vaccine at Johns Hopkins' office in DC.

9) She was also screened last week for a study comparing her to former and current smokers. They administer a long psychological questionnaire and collect her 24-hour urine, toenail clippings, blood, and a cheek swab.

My favorite rejection of Dawn's is a study where they would have injected her with a strand of the Ebola virus. Never a dull moment in apt 615...

Sweet Carolina

This last weekend I rented a car and took a trip down to the South and boy did I ever. I have only been to the South one other time, but that was 8 years ago and I was barely there two days back then. I was so excited to go this time around and couldn’t wait to soak it all in.

The purpose of the trip was to visit two good friends from Fuller- Nicole and Brandon. I met the Berrys just a couple months after they got married in 2005. They may not know this, but ever since I met them, they have been one of my favorite couples. I find their story and relationship very encouraging and uplifting to be around. They are two incredible people that always challenge me in my faith.

It was a wonderful weekend- the perfect balance between relaxing and fun activities. We had cook outs, ate bacon together, enjoyed a Saturday afternoon in downtown Greenville (which included seeing where Nicole and Brandon met as well as an encounter with yummy ribs), played ping pong, hung out with their family, shot guns, kayaked down the river, watched movies, enjoyed great conversation, visited their church, played with Ella and snuggled with 7 week-old Allie.
It was a Southern experience at its finest, complete with mullet sightings, lots of “ya’lls” and conversations initiated by strangers. I drank my weight in sweet tea and tried boiled peanuts. The slower pace was a great change from being smack down in the middle of a city and I was quite sad to have to leave, especially without the youngest Berry stuffed in my purse.


There is something to be said about connecting with old friends. It’s always like coming home and remembering who you were and seeing how they have helped shape you to be who you are now. It was such a blessing to reconnect with the Berrys and I hope to see them again berry soon. Yep, I completely hijacked your pun didn’t I Nicole? ☺