Balance

Last week my nephew and I went to the park for a few hours. It was a beautiful fall day. It was warm out ---squirrels were jumping around and playing, woodpeckers were busy pecking away, and the trees were beautiful, as they are now starting to change colors.

We spent some time playing in the "wading pool" of the creek with his dump truck. Well, he did while I read through some work e-mails, at the same time "engaging" with him---multitasking. I am known to multitask (working six years in a coffee shop does that to you), and I am also known for my multitasking "skills."

But, I had a moment with him where I knew that God was speaking to me. While the two of us sat on a nearby bench watching a squirrel take a long drink of water from the creek, I was still looking up and down from my phone as he said, "Look, Tante! A spider!" I looked up from my phone and asked him where he saw this spider because I did not see one in our vicinity. "There!" He said, pointing out on the water. I looked again and asked if he could show this spider to me. "It's right there, Tante." It was at that moment that I realized that the Father was telling me, "I want you to be 100% in everything that you do." My nephew's "spider" happened to be a leaf floating in the water, with the sides turned up.

I love little children's eyes because they see and teach us things that we adults often miss or just disregard. We are often too focused and thinking about other things than being or giving 100% of ourselves.

I find this new role and season that I am in to be a challenge. It is one that I enjoy because I have never seen myself in such a situation before. I have never worked remotely. (I think God may also be preparing me for when I have a family of my own...ha.) I have always had set "working hours." Many of my days in the DR were looonnng working hours, but they were "set," so to speak.

When I was teaching, I had a balance because my mentor teacher encouraged me to set boundaries for myself during my first year of teaching. I quickly learned that one could live in their classroom. There was always something to be done. Papers to be copied or grades to be entered, but it's just paper at the end of the day. And, your sanity is worth more than that paper, especially if you want to give 100% of yourself to your students. (Former students will also attest that I lived in my room during lunch unless I had a meeting to attend. Those extra 30 minutes gave me ample time to keep the grade book up.) I hardly took work home during my four years of classroom life because I frequently heard my mentor teacher's voice in the back of my head, "If you're still in your room by 5 pm, drop what you are doing and walk out. It will be there tomorrow." Balance.

I didn't take work home in the DR per se, but I took home the emotional side of work, just as bad or worse. I had trouble finding my balance there because never before had I dealt with day in and day out emotional trauma. Walks or runs on the beach helped, but we often lived and breathed work. (I wouldn't recommend it because you're setting yourself up for burnout and compassion fatigue.) Balance.

I now hold the position of networking with other organizations that share our heart, research for life skill and trauma curriculum, conference calls, writing/reading, and responding to e-mails and calls to partner projects, which cross multiple time zones. Not to mention traveling to said projects to meet the fantastic people (and precious children) that I am now equipping and working with!

I am not complaining about my job writing this, nor do I want you to think I am overwhelmed because this position is honestly everything I have ever prayed for and desired. But, I am learning to find that balance. I have realized that God has called me not to "put down" my multitasking skills this season but not to use them as much. To give 100% in the train track that I build with my nephew just as much as I give when I am reading over the trauma curriculum and sharing my heart about being a voice for the voiceless.

Do I have this balance down? Nope, but I am learning and listening to when the Father tells me, "Jessica, give me 100%." I have yet to meet someone who also has this balance thing down pat, but as a friend told me, "maybe this is a season where you just aren't supposed to multitask." If it takes my nieces and nephew to teach me a thing or two in this new season, I will take heed. After all, Jesus used children in the New Testament to teach His followers, the crowd (and us), a thing or two as well.

PRAISES & BLESSINGS:

• I now have a car! To some of you, that might not be a big deal, but to me, it's huge! For the past three months, my aunt & uncle blessed me by letting me use their little car, but it was time for me to get something of my own. So I purchased a car at a reasonable price, with super low miles and great gas millage. I am ready for my November road trip to Southern California to visit family, friends, and partners!

• I also have had a few more people come alongside me monthly! Every partnership is truly a blessing. If you would like to journey with me as we go into the Nations, please click on the "Donate" tab at the top of the page.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Please pray for me as I travel this month! I am going to both Utah & Ecuador. (I hope to write another post after my trip to Ecuador.) Pray for my time on the ground in both of these locations, for the people I interact with, and for traveling there and back. I am so excited to be going to both of these places!!

• Continue to hold up our partner projects in prayer. Many of our staff are starting to prepare and plan for our Christmas Parties that will take place in Ecuador, South Africa, and the Philippines. Pray for the children that we minister to and their hearts as well as for their protection.

*To read Extreme Response's latest update, click here: October ER News. I also will be writing a post or two every other month to bring more awareness to our Orphans & Vulnerable Children Initiative! Next month, we are "launching" our sex-trafficking initiative for our partner projects, which work with girls in this area! Stay tuned...