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Ask Mandi Jo

~ Faith, Love, Life's Journey…

Ask Mandi Jo

Tag Archives: Fasting

It’s Coming to An End

30 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by askmandijo in Daily Life

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2012, 2012 Election, Appendix, Babysitting, Bachlorette, Batman, Book Club, books, bucket list, Busy, College, Cupcakes, Dracula, EMU, Faith, family, Fasting, Food, friend, God, holidays, hope, Ice skating, love, Math, Middle East, Musicals, social work, stories, Thanksgiving, Topsail Island, Tour de France, Travel, Writing

Dear  Friend,

New Year’s Eve is almost here!  I told you there would be lists… and here is a long one!

Lots of Love, Mandi Jo

50 Things I did in 2012 (in no particular order)

—although the first thing really was first, and the last thing, really was last… —

  1. Choreographed a dance for a EMU student written, directed, produced, performed, etc musical!
  2. Took a day trip to Charlottesville for ice skating, cupcakes, and general merry-making with Megan, Kelsey, Everett, Jia, and Malinda over Thanksgiving break.
  3. Spent the summer babysitting two fun and adorable girls Claire and Evelyn.
  4. Had my appendix removed.
  5. Finished my first year of college!
  6. Moved into a suite with three awesome people: Morgan, Lenore, and Alyssa!
  7. Celebrated Christmas with Morgan’s family.
  8. Started my second year at EMU.
  9. Finished my third semester of college with an improved GPA!
  10. Got accepted into the Middle East Cross-Cultural for Spring of 2014!
  11. Participated in a book club, reading Gary Thomas’ “Sacred Marriage.”
  12. Spent the summer buying groceries and making dinner for my family.
  13. Went to see the Dark Knight Rises with Christophe.
  14. Took a trip to the Topsail Island with my family for the week over my birthday.
  15. Voted in my first Presidential Election.
  16. Learned how to drive manual.
  17. Officially Applied to EMU’s Social Work Program.
  18. Put together a book list, and actually started reading books off of it.
  19. Started working out with Jia (and sometimes others) on a regular basis.
  20. Made a Christmas dinner for my suite.
  21. Took a quick trip back to Kettle for the wedding of my dear friend Heidi!
  22. While in WA, saw and visited with people who will always be my non-biological family…
  23. Had dinner with my friend, Ethan Zook, at the Bowl of Good.
  24. Got baptized! So did my phone, but unfortunately for it, this did not bring everlasting life…quite the opposite in fact, immediate death.
  25. Watched the Bachlorette with my friends… every week. I’m not sure why, but it was a great way for us to get together regularly.
  26. Watched Bradley Wiggins win the Tour de France! Well, we watched the whole thing, not just the last little bit.
  27. Surprised my sister, Lydia by convincing my dad to renovate her room and then painted it a bright (but rather dark) red… it looks awesome! And her new closet is pretty sweet.
  28. Started a bucket list!
  29. Said goodbye to an adored family menace, Aang, the adorably psychotic dog.
  30. Said hello to the adorable Shih Tzu that now sprints around our home, Po.
  31. Took picture’s for EMHS’ Jr.-Sr. Banquet.
  32. Traveled to Roanoke with my dad to take pictures of some potential work sites, stopping by Staunton on the way home for some Gelato at the Split Banana…
  33. Took a quick trip with Megan and Kelsey to visit Melinda! We at Chinese, got coffee at Starbucks, fed baby swans, and even saw Christophe for a little bit!
  34. Fasted for a week! Except for juice…
  35. Participated in a faith discussion with people who attend my church.
  36. I visited my friends Gennie and Carissa for an afternoon on JMU’s campus.
  37. Took a spontaneous trip with Christophe and one of his friends, Erwin, to go Bowling!
  38. Changed my program from Social Work with minors in Art and Peacebuilding to Social Work with a minor in Math.
  39. Went to the Annual Relief sale!
  40. Went hiking on Massanutten Ridge with Lenore, Morgan, and Ryan.
  41. Had brunch with Christophe over at JMU.
  42. Went to Rally in the Valley… a conference for Social Work majors at Virginia Universities.
  43. Worked at the Fair handing out T-Shirts for the Shout Out project
  44. Was a “rock” for Halloween… which would have been weird except that it was in conjunction with my suite mate’s “paper, scissors, and shoot”
  45. Went to Rehoboth, Delaware for spring break with the girls on my hall… In an attempt to find live music, we may have unknowingly found ourselves in a Lesbian bar…
  46. Was hired for the first time!, but then never actually started working because I had appendicitis and there was a lack of good communication (admittedly,from both ends… but mostly theirs)
  47. Read Dracula cover to cover… this makes the list because it literally took me half the year to do it, I don’t know why but I couldn’t ever be reading, JUST THIS BOOK… so I was always reading Dracula AND something else.
  48. I celebrated my 20th birthday… two decades down… hopefully, many more to come.
  49. Decided I want to become fluent in ASL
  50. Watched the Pickle drop in Dillsburg, PA with Lenore… technically, I’ll be doing this tomorrow night, but I wanted to include it.

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Fasting, Valentine’s Day, and Faith…

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by askmandijo in Daily Life

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belief, Fasting, fasting valentine's day and faith, friend, holidays, love, Mennonites, mistakes, scripture, valentine

Dear Friend,

Sorry, about the disappearing act, right as I finished up my fast, life got crazy busy with work, exams, and the various outlets of life I have committed to this semester. You’re probably wondering how it went, this crazy fast of mine. Well, it was good. It wasn’t perfect and and had a few slip ups, I did my best and at the end of the week that those slip ups were okay with me. Yeah, I would much rather be able to say that I was able to fast and not make any mistakes here and there, but look at life, mistakes are everywhere. Life isn’t about making mistakes only to give up on yourself, life is about trusting God will forgive those mistakes and moving forward.

One part of fasting I wish I had done better was focusing on God rather than the fast itself. When I was fasting, I sort of felt that the two were intertwined, but in retrospective I was putting too much emphasis on the act of fasting, rather than the reasons for which I was doing it. This, more than anything I wish I could change. I have also been thinking about ways I could make fasting part of my regular spiritual life rather than a one time “fad-like” moment in my spiritual journey. I don’t know if this means I’ll fast once  a week/month/years or whatever…or even at all, but I want to give serious consideration to what role fasting will have in my future… and how to implement that role in a life giving and spiritually fulfilling way.

As I’m sure EVERYONE is aware, this past week was Valentine’s Day. Last year I wrote about how I always love the anticipation of Valentine’s day, but that when it arrives I find myself somehow surprised with how horribly it goes. It’s so true. It’s so hard to see people walking around with “significant others,” holding hands, and receiving flowers, chocolates, and other small gifts… For once in my life could a guy  like me enough to want to show ME some love?

Well… I guess not this year, but in the future, I hope so. You see I really do love Valentine’s Day. I love the music, eating chocolate with my friends, watching chick flicks with friends, and looking at the beautiful flower I received from my mother that is currently sitting in a vase on my dresser. But it also makes me wonder “am I intimidating?” because I don’t feel scary… but I realize it can be hard to talk to me (This is because I really, really, really don’t like and am ridiculously horrible at small talk) and I am fairly reserved… until you know me pretty well. So to all of the guys out there who are remotely interested in me (Because there has to be at least one) just talk to me, you don’t have to declare your love… to be honest that might freak me out, but be aware that I’m not going to think you’re a crazy person for talking to me… seriously, I’m not scary, at all.

Tonight, I has a beautiful conversation with one of my good friends, Morgan (Click her name to visit her blog, or you can also use the link on the side panel), about LOTS of things. Morgan shares my frustration with small talk and let’s just say that our ability to understand each other goes way beyond that. One topic we discussed is the idea of living out your faith. It is so hard to find ways to live out one’s faith, to keep the values taught by Christ in mind every second of everyday, to make living like Christ such a part of life, that it feels natural… In many ways, this is impossible… we all (as I said earlier) make mistakes, say and do things that aren’t Christ-like, but working towards living like him, should be our highest priority.

As someone who identifies with the Mennonite Church, I wish I could say that Mennonites have it all together, but we’re as flawed as the next church down the road. There are reasons, however, why I love this denomination. In fact I am going to try and sum these reasons up into a short bulleted list. These are points that I have created, not the church itself, so please, recognize that I am not an authoritative source. Anyways, here you go:

  • We believe that Scripture is interpreted through community life and discernment as opposed to a single person (as seen in the Catholic church with the Pope, or a small group of people (like Bishops, prophets, etc.) but that we come to a better understanding of the scriptures through Church life and being a community of faith.
  • We believe that our faith is best shown through discipleship, or living our lives in the example of Christ. That our actions should show those us around us the love of Christ.
  • We point to scriptures calling us to “love our neighbor as ourselves” and “love our enemies” as well as scriptures like “blessed are the peacemakers” to support our belief that God calls us to live nonviolently and to resist violence through nonviolent measures.
  • We believe in an international church, and are encouraged to travel and experience God in new, sometimes challenging, settings. Usually through service, where we can both give and receive God love.

Now these are points that I look to and say “this is what we believe” but to be honest, we are much more complex than this… and we don’t always do very well at accomplishing/displaying these beliefs. The hardest one for us to show is of course that our lives are reflective of Christ’s… But this is hard for people in all denominations. This goes back to what I was saying about mistakes and trusting in God’s forgiveness and trying harder rather than giving up. I may not think the Mennonite Church is perfect, but I do think that our focus on love and community is worth the effort.

Lots of Love, Mandi Jo

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Fasting- Isaiah 58:6-9

07 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by askmandijo in Daily Life

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Fasting, hope, Isaiah, love, scripture

Dear Friend,

As I am sure you are aware I am fasting this week. So what exactly does that mean??? This is a rather weird fast, that will go as shown below:

Tuesday- Fruits, Vegetables and, water.

Wednesday and Thursday- Juice and water only.

Friday- Fruits, Vegetables, and water.

Now the reason I have this weird transition in and out of a full-on fast using the guidelines of the Daniel Fast, is that I want to succeed… and I don’t know if I could go an entire week without eating anything and still have the energy to do everything I have to do, however I DO want to give the time I have dedicated to hiding from my insecurities, through food, to God. This means that during meal times I will be blogging, praying, and reflecting on this passage from Isaiah.

Isaiah 58:6-9

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”

I love Isaiah, it is my favorite book in the bible for it’s messages of the hope we can find in God’s amazing love. As I mentioned in my previous post I’m letting go of the negative labels I have placed on myself and focusing on the positive labels that I have been given by Jesus Christ my Lord. I’m letting go of the chains of injustice I have cuffed myself with and choosing a new way. I’m listening for God’s loving “Here I Am.”

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