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Happy birthday to my querida amiga, Kristen!

Kristen & I met in Guatemala a few years ago; she has been a great friend & has taught me a lot... to read about some of our adventures, click here!

A few lessons learned from Kristen Chapin:

1) “…like the psalmist, to praise and lament at the same time, with neither intonation drowning out the other.” (Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor)

In Guate, one of the first things that I noticed about Kristen was her great joy! We dealt with a lot of hard things that summer...yet in the midst of the difficult moments, we also found much joy in simple pleasures and there was much laughter all around. And so I learned a very valuable thing from Kristen – to do as the psalmist did, to “praise and lament at the same time.” To do so at the same time is not always easy for me – sometimes I feel that to rejoice would be diminishing that which is hard and to lament would be taking away from the good – but Kristen taught me well and I learned that it is indeed possible to do so “with neither intonation drowning out the other.” Both in my experiences of cross-cultural ministry with the poor and my work as a nurse, I have become more and more aware of the many injustices in this world, as well as coming face-to-face with the mess that is my own life. But while lamenting the brokenness both around and within me, I am learning to also simultaneously rejoice in the good gifts and grace that God gives…

2) "Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation that you believe to be the will of God." (Jim Elliot, missionary & martyr)

Since becoming friends in Guate, Kristen and I have kept in touch from wherever we are. For me, that’s meant mostly here in Minnesota – first finishing college and now working as a nurse – and in Mexico. For Kristen, that has meant (among other places that I’m surely forgetting): college in Maine, language school in Costa Rica, traveling throughout Central America, volunteering with Hurricane Katrina relief, working again in Maine, and now grad school in Boston! For much of that time, I was here in Minnesota but always wanting very much to be back in Mexico (or in nursing school, but so ready to gradate and become a nurse). I so often find myself anticipating and preparing for ‘the next thing’ that I miss out on where God has me right now. One thing that Kristen has helped to teach me is to be more content and to “be all there” – I know that sometimes she wishes that she were elsewhere (such as in Guate, or not in the midst of finals), but I will venture to say that for the most part, she lives life to the fullest, wherever God has her and whatever He has her doing. It’s something that I’m definitely still learning, but she’s taught and continues to teach me how to “live to the hilt every situation” that God places me in!

¡Feliz cumple Chapina!