hey!  just read the first three chapters of 1 peter and thought i'd use this space to reflect on what i read and what stood out to me.  feel free to come back a different day if you don't care (:
things that stick out...

• ​our inheritance in Christ can never perish, spoil or fade. (1:4)
• believing & loving Christ even though we do not see Him cause inexpressible and glorious joy because we know we're receiving the salvation of our souls!  i love that, those words!  inexpressible and glorious! (1:8)
• words like evil and ignorance and empty are all used in the first chapter to describe life before and without Christ.
• God brought us out of darkness into His "wonderful light" ...isn't that the truth! (2:9)
• our sinful desires WAGE WAR against our souls!!! (!!!)  this needs to be taken seriously.. WAR, guys! (2:11)
• this verse stuck out to me.. "for it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God" (2:19) ..conscious of God.
  
  • .."to this (unjust suffering) you were called (woah), because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps." (v.21)  (seems to me like suffering is guaranteed when you follow Jesus. ...awkward, prosperity gospel, cough cough**)
• paul calls wives the "weaker partner" (3:7) and that was hard to read.
• as God's children, we need to be like-minded (interesting, because there are a lot of thoughts and opinions out there, even among followers of Christ), sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate, and humble. (3:8) feels like a tall order that i don't measure up to.  but man, i want to be those things!
• God's eyes are on the righteous and He is attentive to their prayers. (3:12)
• paul describes baptism as "the pledge of a clear conscience toward God." (3:21)  i am thankful tonight that my heart and soul are no longer waging war against God because of what Christ did on my behalf and all i had to do was respond.  my conscience before God is clear and isn't that something to thank Him for!

maybe i'll reflect on the rest of 1 peter later on.  it's cool how what jumps out to me could be totally different from what jumps out to you.  you guys wanna read 1 peter with me?  the word of God is alive and active (hebrews 4:12) isn't that somethin.. these words are alive!

sweet dreams, lil beans! (:

phew, it's been a hot minute!  hey, guys!
poppin in to say "hi!"  i'm still alive!  and here are 11 things about my life right now:

1)  i got two little fiddler crabs, sneakers & frank!  they're in a few of the pics below, with francis.  i was going to get snails because i had wanted snails for a while (naturally), but the lady at the pet store said these crabs were the same price as snails and pretty much take the same maintenance, plus they'd be a lot more interesting to watch, so that's what i went with.  i really like that they move sideways instead of back & forth and that the male crab, frank, has one huge claw.. just one.  haha!  they're funny.  God's funny.
              1a)  those pics of francis are really nice... he's really nice (: still datin him (4 months tomorrow!).  still likin him lots, so... yeah (:
2)  also pictured below: aft & i last saturday celebrating her 25th birthday with brunch!  can't believe we're turning 25 this year.  woah.  weren't we just seniors dancin around to "22" by taylor swift?!
3)  i got new shampoo because i was out and now my hair smells soo nice!  mm!  smellin it right now.  lurv it.
4)  the last picture: cass & i last night.  we've been graduated for 3 years this spring (!!!), but i still hadn't made it to faribault and it was looong overdue, so we had a lil slumbie and caught up.  so nice!  that girl's also turning 25 really soon, AND getting married in august!  crazy.  
5)  hmm, what else to tell you?  i miss holland.  that's somethin.
6)  i'm goin home with francis for easter with his family!  i'm excited about that.
7)  ALSO excited for the birds chirpin and the warmer weather comin!  come faster come faster!  
8)  paiger & i are hangin out today!  gonna go thriiiiiftinnnn wuuuut.
9)  makin a new spring playlist, you should send your favorite spring songs my way.  love having new jams!
10)  cleaned out my closets and purged all the stuff i had that i didn't need, use, or wear, and it feels so good!  do it, guys!!  finally also got rid of clothes i've been hanging onto, telling myself i would eventually wear.
11)  it's crazy to believe i am almost 25, too.. (hm!  who knew i'd say 25 so many times in this post!)  but i never imagined what i'd be like at 25.. what i'd be doin or who i'd be hangin with or what clothes i'd like or what songs i'd be into..  but here i am and i know all of those things.  i feel really content being alive, almost 25.. likin the songs i like, the clothes i wear, the people i hang with.  yeah.  life and breath are gifts and Jesus is really good.  not cliche, He really, really is.  i love him so much and i love our relationship.  thankful.  just things i'm thinkin about, preparing my heart to be 25 years alive!

i'll try not to leave such a big break next time!  thanks for hangin here, wanting to know the things i say.  you guys ROCK.
over & out,
lex-press (;

..aaand we're back!  part two of photos and tales from my adventure to bangladesh. (part one HERE)

^ these three pics are probably three of my favorite i've ever taken.  i just really like em.  also apparently the peace sign is a big deal.

when we visited the compassion projects, each day we'd also visit two or three homes of families that had one or more children registered at the project.  the homes were always within walking distance from the project and we'd draw quite a crowd of neighbors/community members as we met with them and saw their homes.  this lady above^ was a community member we passed by, cooking dinner.  most people cooked their food like that.  pretty creative!  also, her COLORS!  so beautiful!

this is one of the families we visited.  they were amazing!  they told us their sponsor had been really good to them and had bought them gifts pretty regularly (such as cattle), and they were able to gain profit from the gifts they were given in a way that became fairly sustainable for them so they decided to give back out of what they had been given and built a road in their village for their community members.  really beautiful people.  

^ another home visit.  5 kiddos!  we learned that child marriage is a pretty big issue in bangladesh these days (like, yeah, CHILDREN being married off by their families while they are still children) and this family likely had been a child marriage, if you look at the mother in the middle and the father on the right.  very sad.

*side note: yeah, that's a police officer on the left side there.  we had escorts for safety reasons when we went to the projects, but a cool thing- the police officers had never heard of compassion or of the projects and what they are doing in the communities and were so moved when they learned about it (because they were sitting through the programs too), that they volunteered to escort us on all our drives and even sent l* flowers!!  haha, she was amazed! (l is one of the bangladeshi compassion workers who was our guide while we were there).

(*not her full name.. want to protect her and the other compassion workers over there.  i know my saying their names here probably won't matter, but it's worth it to me in case it does)

goats!  goats everywhere!  here a goat, there a goat, goat goat goat!
^ and this was taken on the back of a rickshaw ride to a couple of the home visits.  man, i can't believe i was really there and was looking at all of that at one time.

l and j, the most beautiful people you could meet!  we got a tour of the compassion office in bangladesh and here they are at their desks.  honestly, the real mvps.  the kindest and so light-hearted.

met quite a few people who work for compassion over there and that was one of the most influential parts of this trip for me, actually.  bangladesh has been and is a hard climate for Jesus followers and the work of compassion.  these faithful brothers and sisters have gone through some hard seasons of opposition and unstable terms with the government and have fought hard, even when they weren't sure they'd get a paycheck for a little while there due to funding holds and other things, because they are passionate about releasing kids from poverty and making Jesus' name known.  it was an incredible image to me of the body of Christ, how i connected so well and instantly with these humans i have nothing in common with other than our mutual love for our LORD.  i'll remember them for a long time.  i really & sincerely want to keep those courageous, Christlike, faithful people in my prayers.  they're doing things for the kingdom that we don't even know about.

^ here we are.. the day of all days!  wittow shuvo!  shuvy shuvy shuvo!  or shumpy as francis says (: 
i met him, i really did.  he is even cuter in real life and his dad said they went to pick out new clothes just for meeting me.  the little buddy!  what an important day.

for part of our day together we went to a small park that had a few rides and things for kids (we were originally supposed to go to an amusement park for that day, but it rained the night before).  i thought the park was pretty wimpy, but shuvo's face!  oh my gosh, he was so so happy!  i loved seein his little smile and holding his hand.  our worlds are so different.. different in every way you can think of.. but to be there with him in person, face to face.. a memory for a lifetime.

^ shuvo's dad was with us, along with an interpreter, and shuvo's project facilitator from his project.

^ look at his face!  he was SO happy!

haha, the park had statues like this all throughout it.  shuvo really liked it.  i think these are the madagascar characters.

the whole gang! (plus s) ^

okay you guys, i'm not hindu!  ha, i got some questions from friends when they saw these pictures.  over there some of those dots have meaning, but the ones that look like this are just decoration and lots of ladies like to wear them to match their outfits and things.. like we would with necklaces/earrings/etc.  felt cool to enter in like that.

this was the last project we visited, at the church.  always a dance performance.

^ and our last home visits.. this small space is home to one of the families with a child registered in one of the projects.

^ outside of their home, a community of neighbors.

^ on our way to the next home visit, food being prepared in the alley. ^

^ home visit.  a family of seven lived in this home and they didn't even have a mattress, just a hard board.  we would always pray for the families before we left and when we asked for prayer requests, a theme i noticed from all our home visits was just about every parent would ask for us to pray that their children would grow up to be good people.

some neighbor ladies cooking their food.

another view of dhaka.  just looking at that traffic stresses me out again, ha.  GUYS.  i don't miss the traffic woahoho!

^ alycia (a fellow teammate), d, me, and d.  i love love love these women!  they're incredible!  also, i am so tall!

i miss them.  bein with them all week was a really good thing.  they're so joyful!  i could hang with them!

beautiful bangladesh.

and now i have to do my plug.. i really do, i feel very strongly about this.  you can tune out now if you want to, but if you've been intrigued, i'd beg you to consider sponsoring a kiddo with compassion.  (doesn't have to be in bangladesh!).  i have seen first-hand, right before my eyes, how honorable, upright, and full of integrity the ministry is, and have seen, physically, how lives, families, and communities, are actually and truly being changed as a result of this work.  the difference between kids in the compassion projects and kids who aren't is shocking.  it actually changes the lives of these kids and their families!  and it trickles to so many places.  it doesn't seem like much to us, but it's crazy, sponsors are everything to these kids!  they always talk about their sponsors and are so so grateful.  and hey, these kids will grow up someday, and they'll be the leaders of their country.  i want them to know the mercy of Christ and to know they are important, capable, and worthwhile.  compassion international is making that happen.  and you can trust me because i don't lie and i also don't work for compassion, so i don't have anything to gain from this. (:  it's just the honest truth.  as followers of Christ i think we need to get on board with stuff like this.  it's so important.

if your heart feels stirred a little bit, at least check out their website (: and then just do it.  just sponsor a child.  it's good for ya!  like broccoli, except it actually changes lives.
​(:

hello!  wow, hi!
comin atchya on the other side of my last post, after traveling to the other side of the world and back, bringing some tales and pictures back with me!  this trip was really somethin.  that's what i keep telling people when they ask me how my trip was.  because, really, how do you put so many things into words.  to help some of you dear friends come into this experience with me, i'm going to put lots of words & pictures from my trip here, if we aren't able to chat in person sometime soon.  i'm going to have to break it up into two posts because there's just so much to share!  wow, here we go!  BANGLADESH, the big b-d, 2018...

this was the view of dhaka as seen from our hotel. ^ we spent half of our time here (in the capital of bangladesh.. population, 14 million.. ahem, 14 MILLION HUMANS, you guys!!) and the other half of our time we spent in rural northern bangladesh.

^ these pictures were taken up in bogra, in rural northern bangladesh.  saw lots of rice fields.  they're blurred because #carrides.  safe to say half of this trip was spent being transported, ha! 
​
transportation log (for the nerds who like to calculate things like this like me.. or are just really really bored) :
4 hours (plane): minneapolis to san francisco
17 hours (plane): san francisco to singapore
4 hours (plane): singapore to dhaka
1.5 hours (plane): dhaka to bogra
3 hours (van): airport to hotel in bogra
2 hours x 3 days (van): hotel to sites in bogra
3 hours (van): hotel to airport
1.5 hours (plane): bogra to dhaka
4 hours (plane): dhaka to singapore
14 hours (plane): singapore to san francisco
4 hours (plane): san francisco to minneapolis

= 62 hours!  not counting van time in dhaka because... traffic, oh boy!  honestly, i'd round up to 70.

^ this was from the first compassion site we visited (there are 160 compassion 'projects,' they're called, in bangladesh alone!).  our group was always met by a special program which always included a dance performance done by some of the kids in traditional clothing.

^ our group split up and some taught kiddos a game/activity and some taught crafts.. i helped teach a craft.

haha!  so many little eyes!  they're all so beautiful!  look at em!  lil nugs!

^ this little lady on the left stuck by me quite a bit that day.. so sweet.

oh yeah, at every project we went to, our group was given flowers in some form and had lots of petals thrown at us, ha.  

that's susan buried in there, one of my trip-mates!

those little buddies sure made me feel loved!  ha, look at all of those petals on my head.  like i'm a queen or somethin.  someone needs to tell those kids i'm not that cool!
also that kid behind me... hahaha!  

a casual elephant walking along the road.  it's casual.

beautiful fruit stands!

^ at the next project we visited.  one of my favorite things about bangladesh is how much they love color over there.  they even make the mud walkways and the bottoms of tree stumps beautiful!

^ see what i mean about color?!  this was at the next project we visited.  typically how it went was, after the grandest greetings, all of the children at that project would be assembled and the project leaders/teachers/facilitators/pastors would present information about that specific project (i.e. how many children attend, how many are sponsored/still un-sponsored and other things about the demographic.  i liked sitting among the kids.  so many little heads!  all usually staring at me or trying to rub my skin to see if the white comes off (:

color!  beautiful beautiful color!  and always a crowd to greet us and see us out.  look at how many folks from the neighborhood gathered! ha.  part 2 comin atchya soon in another post!

​** brief intermission ** (: