Jump For Joel

Amelia recently posted this on her blog, and we thought it would be a good thing to share with you all!  Enjoy!

—–

So I am a senior in college… which I find to be one of the most exciting, and yet most frightening times of my life. I love the idea that the future is open to me. That I can make decisions now, because I’m young and not tied down to anyone, that other people don’t have the freedom to make. But those limitless possibilities can be quite daunting.

This past summer I made Jump for Joel my summer internship to fulfill a university requirement. And when I began my work I really thought that it was just another step on the way to my career goals. Instead, it has become my career goal. One night during this past summer’s trip, I was sitting one night on Shana’s bunk-bed talking about being in Kenya and where we could see this going in the future. She brought up this idea that we would both become Jump for Joel staff – make this little project our full-time jobs. While I’d always seen her life heading that way, it was a new idea that this would be my fate as well. She proposed that we would alternate, one of us being in the US and one of us being in Kenya. The plan seemed brilliant! But when she said she thought this could happen by the time I graduated, well… I thought she was crazy! It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it… I just thought that there was no way we’d have things established enough that I’d be able to do this by the time I graduated. We do this quite often – one of us will come up with some idea, the other one will think it’s crazy, but then we go with it, and to our amazement it works out. Now of course you all know that this is not due to our ability, but because of God’s infinite grace that this “project” has had any success.

So here I am. Sitting at my little library job. Typing this out and thinking how things have changed in so short an amount of time. I’ve committed to working for Jump for Joel full-time. Starting June 1st 2010! This morning we meet with our Board of Directors – and I gave them a proposal and my job description. And now, just a few hours later, I can’t help but think how smoothly the whole thing has gone. Sure I have a long way to go – and so much to learn. I have the terrifying task of raising my own support – the part of this whole affair that really made me question if I could do this. But at the end of the day I always come to the conclusion that I don’t want to do something else because I was too afraid that this might fail. This may very well fail. I’m well aware of that. I’ve signed on for a job that involves intimate contact with poverty – something most Americans avoid like the plague. This year, well the past couple months anyway, have shown me the sort of grief I must prepare for as I take on this job, or really this life. We lost our very dear friend James in December, and I’m afraid that is only the beginning as I grow close with people living in uncertain places, working to change a broken world. I know that this won’t be easy. But I can’t help it! This is where my heart is! And right now, I can’t see myself doing anything else!

Each day the fact that Jump for Joel is going to be my job becomes a little more real. And there was something about the meeting with the Board of Directors today that only added to that. If you plan on keeping up with this little blog I’ve started, you’ll be hearing a lot more of this as it continues to develop. For now I would ask that you pray for Jump for Joel, and for me!

——

Go, Amelia, go!!!!

Amelia recently posted this on her blog, and we thought it would be a good thing to share with you all!  Enjoy!

—–

So I am a senior in college… which I find to be one of the most exciting, and yet most frightening times of my life. I love the idea that the future is open to me. That I can make decisions now, because I’m young and not tied down to anyone, that other people don’t have the freedom to make. But those limitless possibilities can be quite daunting.

This past summer I made Jump for Joel my summer internship to fulfill a university requirement. And when I began my work I really thought that it was just another step on the way to my career goals. Instead, it has become my career goal. One night during this past summer’s trip, I was sitting one night on Shana’s bunk-bed talking about being in Kenya and where we could see this going in the future. She brought up this idea that we would both become Jump for Joel staff – make this little project our full-time jobs. While I’d always seen her life heading that way, it was a new idea that this would be my fate as well. She proposed that we would alternate, one of us being in the US and one of us being in Kenya. The plan seemed brilliant! But when she said she thought this could happen by the time I graduated, well… I thought she was crazy! It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it… I just thought that there was no way we’d have things established enough that I’d be able to do this by the time I graduated. We do this quite often – one of us will come up with some idea, the other one will think it’s crazy, but then we go with it, and to our amazement it works out. Now of course you all know that this is not due to our ability, but because of God’s infinite grace that this “project” has had any success.

So here I am. Sitting at my little library job. Typing this out and thinking how things have changed in so short an amount of time. I’ve committed to working for Jump for Joel full-time. Starting June 1st 2010! This morning we meet with our Board of Directors – and I gave them a proposal and my job description. And now, just a few hours later, I can’t help but think how smoothly the whole thing has gone. Sure I have a long way to go – and so much to learn. I have the terrifying task of raising my own support – the part of this whole affair that really made me question if I could do this. But at the end of the day I always come to the conclusion that I don’t want to do something else because I was too afraid that this might fail. This may very well fail. I’m well aware of that. I’ve signed on for a job that involves intimate contact with poverty – something most Americans avoid like the plague. This year, well the past couple months anyway, have shown me the sort of grief I must prepare for as I take on this job, or really this life. We lost our very dear friend James in December, and I’m afraid that is only the beginning as I grow close with people living in uncertain places, working to change a broken world. I know that this won’t be easy. But I can’t help it! This is where my heart is! And right now, I can’t see myself doing anything else!

Each day the fact that Jump for Joel is going to be my job becomes a little more real. And there was something about the meeting with the Board of Directors today that only added to that. If you plan on keeping up with this little blog I’ve started, you’ll be hearing a lot more of this as it continues to develop. For now I would ask that you pray for Jump for Joel, and for me!

——

Go, Amelia, go!!!!

This past Friday The Simple Dollar announced Jump for Joel as the official Christmas charity for 2008!! Check out the article here.  This may or may not have been linked to the fact that the author, Trent Hamm, is my (favorite) brother-in-law.  The Simple Dollar is a blog all about personal finance.  This gives Trent’s thousands of readers a chance to be introduced to some cool kids in Kenya.  God works in weird ways… sometimes he uses blogs and brothers-in-law.

As a thank you to Trent I would now like to return the favor.

I, Vicky Knoke, would like to announce thesimpledollar.com as my favorite personal finance blog for 2008!!!

Now the thousands (ish) readers of the J4J blog can be linked with some financial advice.

Thanks again to Trent and all of the readers of The Simple Dollar!!!

We are so excited to have our first-ever intern!!!  I’ll be honest, it’s a little strange for us to use the word intern, as it implies a hierarchy of paid staff…which we don’t have!  So in a way, Amelia & I are also interns, and yet directors?… Hmm…go, grassroots organization, go!  :)

We asked our lovely intern, Amanda, to make a little introduction video for our supporters. So here you go!

Meet Amanda:

TokBox – Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

We are so excited to have our first-ever intern!!!  I’ll be honest, it’s a little strange for us to use the word intern, as it implies a hierarchy of paid staff…which we don’t have!  So in a way, Amelia & I are also interns, and yet directors?… Hmm…go, grassroots organization, go!  :)

We asked our lovely intern, Amanda, to make a little introduction video for our supporters. So here you go!

Meet Amanda:

TokBox – Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

As you can see, we’re making some major changes to jumpforjoel.org!! It’s a long process, so stick with us.

Thanks for your patience!