Merry Christmas - End of Year Update!
Hello friends and family,
I hope you've all had a wonderful 2022! Every year it always amazes me how fast Christmas approaches. This year I've been taking time to reflect on the past year and all the ways I've grown and changed. 2022 has been an amazing, challenging, fruitful year!
As many of you know, this has been a season of focusing on my health. I spent the past 4 months seeing an integrative doctor who is helping me heal my digestive system through diet and supplements. It has been quite a challenging and rewarding process, and I praise God that I am feeling so much better than before!! Needing to heal my physical body has shown me how much emotional, spiritual, and physical health are all interconnected. I did a six month life coaching program that changed my life by showing me a completely different perspective of God's love - understanding how he sees me and learning to receive his love even in the places of my life where I feel unlovable. This has truly changed my relationship with God and helped me understand his character, as well as my own identity as fully loved (if anyone is interested let me know, I'd be more than happy to tell you more and recommend my life coach!). Another piece for me has been learning how to process emotions and regulate/heal my nervous system. This has been such an essential piece in my overall healing! I am so so thankful to God that I am ending this year in a healthier place physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. And I'm looking forward to spending Christmas with family in Michigan!
Next year is full of exciting things to look forward to! I have one final semester at Eternity Bible College before graduating in May with a bachelors degree in Advanced Biblical and Cultural Exegesis. I am looking forward to finally finishing school!!
After graduation I am doing a two month summer internship in Osaka, Japan, with Encompass World Partners. I'm so excited to finally have a trip planned back to Japan after 6 years!!
In the New Year I will be sending out more details about the trip. In the meantime, if anyone would like to give a year-end gift (tax deductible) towards my summer internship, you can do so here: https://give.encompassworldpartners.org/person/allana
If you have any questions about giving, please let me know!
A couple months ago Encompass interviewed me and wrote a short article about my story and Japan. I thought I'd include it in case anyone would like to read it. You can download the attached PDF and read the second page :)
Some Christmas reflections:
Something that has been standing out to me this Christmas as I've been contemplating Advent is the fact that Jesus was human. He was God, and he became human. God became human and tabernacled among us (John 1:14). He became like us. He didn't remain distant; instead, he came near to us and lived among us. He was so close that he experienced all of what it means to be human. And that means he can relate to my human experience. He knows what it's like to be weak and vulnerable. He knows what it's like to be sick. He knows what it's like to be tempted. He's experienced the full range of human emotions. This has been so encouraging to me to know that I can come to Jesus just the way I am, with all my emotions and imperfections that I so often want to hide... and he not only accepts me, but he can relate. He sits with me in all of it. This is what I've been thinking about, and it's such a powerful, life transforming truth to realize that Jesus is with me in the middle of all the mess of what it means to be human. When I experience unmet expectations in my life, I can remember that Jesus himself was born in a completely unexpected way. In fact, his entire life as the Messiah was not what anyone expected. And yet it's in those exact places of unmet expectations that Jesus shows up - just like he showed up as a tiny baby born in a stable. When my life doesn't go as expected, I can trust that Jesus is right here. I hope this can encourage you as well!
Love, Allana
