Dreams and Goals

Last weekend we all went to do some archery which truth be told I love! So out there on the range and in nature, bow in hands and focusing on one single goal I had to think about dreams and goals and making things happen.
As most of you know from my Hopeless Romantic post I am a dreamer, a romantic and believe that dreams come true.
Over the last year I really have learned again what it truly means to dream and trust that they will come true. I have learned to not only dream those dreams and fantasize about them but to actually go after them and believe that they will come true. Something I had always done. Something I did when it came to moving to California for a semester a few years ago for example. But you know over the years you start getting settled and somehow I didn't have those big dreams anymore.
Until last summer when I really started forming these dreams into words and seeing how all of a sudden there was a lot actually that had just waited to come out and be spoken about.
And as you know I knew that something big was coming up last fall. I knew something was starting and just around the corner and honestly up until this past May I didn't know what it was.
And then it was there right in front of my eyes. The moment I had been waiting for for months and months that moment when your dreams come true and instead of just dreaming about it you actually start planning it and by planning it you start making goals. And by focusing on these goals you keep on moving forward and that was exactly what I had needed.
But to finally come to my point as I have mentioned before I will start a new job starting September. I will be managing an awesome Café and Restaurant here in town called Elemenz. It is quite the challenge and such a new chapter and season in my life. But I am ready for the future. Ready for the challenge and ready to see this dream come true and reach the goals after goals.

xoxo

Ramona

Progress and Change and things which stay the same

I have talked a lot about change over the last months and there is still a lot of change happening. In myself, with others and I am only now starting to fully come to terms with all the change happening. Sometimes you don't even have to understand or be able to answer all the questions but rather be thankful for the things which are still in place, be graceful with yourself and keep going in life with the dreams and plans God has put on your life.

And yet there are some things that will never change. Like friends gathering around a table. Friends who are so different from each other as can be and yet share a life, share memories. Friends who have learned to accept their differences and have learned to love the otherness of each other. I believe there is something profound and beautiful when gathering around a table to eat. It is more than community, more than food. I cannot pinpoint it but it's there and I always want to be able to share the table with my best friends.

Last weekend we not only celebrated my friend's wedding but we also got together to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had breakfast and laughed and dreamed about the future. We went for a walk in our beautiful region and bought fresh strawberries from street sellers.
Those are the things that will not change: The friendships, the memories, the connection and the growing together.

xoxo

Ramona


 

To be continued...

Last Fall I talked about great changes. I told you that I felt something was on the verge of happening. Something grand. Something I had been waiting for for a very long time. And indeed everything changed last Fall. But not like I expected. I expected an immediate change. I imagined it to just happen to be solved and there in the palm of my hand to be grasped and seen and touched. But that was not God's plan. I was right about the change but so wrong about its undertaking.
In the darkness of this Winter in the attempt of writing new chapters in life and finding new adventures I might have lost sight of that very thing that I knew of last Fall. Change. The start of something big. The beginning of something grand.

At the Colour Conference on the very last night I was reminded of it again. I needed to be reminded. And where better could it come from than God's word. It speaks life and truth and it spoke right into my heart.
I am going to share those verses from 2 Corinthians 8:10-20 out of The Message translation:
"So here's what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart's been in the right place all along. You've got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can't. The heart regulates the hands. This isn't so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you're shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even."

So, here's to the change that is still happening. Here's to finishing what has begun. And lastly here's to continuing to follow my heart for I know it has been in the right place.

xoxo

Ramona

Quote of the Day

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.” —Anatole France

I admit that although I think change is a good thing I don't always like it as with it usually comes some sort of pain and growth. Yet I anticipate and embrace it in my life because I want to grow. I want to grow closer to God, want to grow in my friendships and relationships. Want to grow to become more me than ever. But in order for that to happen things need change and sometimes it means letting things go, cutting things out of your life, changing old pattern and old ways of doing things. And it is work. It is a constant progress. But it is so worth it because when you look back you will see how God was at work bringing you through and you will see how he is fulfilling your dreams in the process!

So... change, come, I embrace you!

xoxo

Ramona

Flourish

I'm back from an amazing weekend in London where I attended the Colour Conference. And here I sit listening to this album and don't even know where to begin telling you about it.

Before the conference started I had some time to stroll around London and this time checked out Covent Gardens. It turns out this is one of my new favorite places in London. So much fun there.

The conference was filled with amazing teaching. Amazing and inspiring. It is so interesting how every year it just somehow fits right where I needed it, exactly how I needed it.

When it comes down to it I think I learned again how important it is to lead out of rest and ease. I learned how we always have to have Jesus in the center of everything we do. I am leading things in my church and over the last couple of months I know I mostly looked at it from the labor point of view and it just didn't work out. Everything we do centers around Jesus. Every ministry I do ultimately is not about me. It is about Jesus and I am merely the clay to be formed. Formed to be used by him. This is so important. Everything I do I want Him to be delighted in. 

So here I am now... ready. Indeed. Ready to change my world. Ready to make an impact. To turn my passion into something. Here to be strong, to be fierce, to be soft. Here to be louder, full of love and compassion.

Life is so much bigger than myself. There is so much more to do and change.  Last year this was birthed out of the conference and I cannot wait to see the aftermath of this year's conference.

Much love to you all!

xoxo

Ramona

Weekly Update 4: Restoring Dignity

I am sitting here and have been thinking about tortured women in Uganda the whole day, praying for them, praying for the fundraising I am doing that I will impact lives.

When I read Psalm 139 I read about how God thinks of us, that He created us before the beginning of the earth, He formed us in our mother's womb. His thoughts about us are good thoughts.
Yet mankind in search for power is destroying people from the inside and outside. This is the case in Uganda, where where little kids are abducted into the army, broken, destroyed and made dependent. We can honor those who managed to escape and applaud their bravery. What these kids go through is of no imagination for us. We cannot and will not ever be able to imagine or really deeply understand the pain they went through.
Many of the girls who are sheltered by Watoto Ministries suffer from facial disfigurement. Their ears, noses or lips have been cut off as a punishment for fleeing the army. Often times these tortures are performed by other kid soldiers.

But God still loves these girls even though their dignity has been destroyed.

I am so thankful for the life I have and where God placed me and blessed me with this amazing family, church, friends, there is nothing alike. Yet I do not want to keep it for myself. I want to give of my love, my community, my church, my blessing and my money and do anything possible to make something possible for people in the worst conditions.
I decided to take on a journey of fundraising in order to pay for a surgery for one of these disfigured girls. A surgery to change her life. I want to be part of restoring her dignity on the outside and inside again.
But I cannot do it on my own. I need you. I need us to join hands, to join hearts, to connect and reach out. I need your prayers and finances to make a surgery possible. I want to appeal to your heart and dearly ask you to consider giving for this very important cause. I am currently at 40% of funding and still have 9 days to go. I am convinced through faith that the whole amount of 2100 € will be donated and that I will be able to send a package to Uganda and restore dignity upon a beautiful girl. Beautiful because she was created by the Creator who saw her and who takes great delight in her with gladness. With His love he will calm all her fears. He will rejoice over her with joyful songs (Zeph. 3:17).

My heart reaches out to each and everyone reading this. If you feel compelled to give, please contact me so I can give you all the details.

Thank you very much.

I love you

xoxo

Ramona