Hi my name is Dana and I can't eat gluten.

I have celiac disease.

Celiac is an autoimmune disease that is largely undiagnosed, but researchers estimate that it affects about 1 in 133 Americans...I being one of those lucky few. There can be various complications with celiac, but it basically means that when you eat gluten, your body attacks itself. And that's not a pleasant experience. (Enough said.) So a diagnosis of celiac is a prescription for a life without gluten.

When people hear I can't eat gluten, their first response is usually pity. They're incredulous as to how I ever manage to live without eating breads, pastas, cookies, and the like. I'll admit, when I was first diagnosed 7 years ago, I tended to dwell in this kind of self-pity. I hated my diet and I didn't follow it very well either. But that's all changed.

Today, I am thankful for celiac. That's right, thankful. It's a disease I'll have to live with my whole life, but the great part is that it's something I can totally control. Don't eat gluten, feel great. It's that easy. Even better, avoiding gluten has forced me to become very aware of nutrition and health. (When you have celiac, you become an expert at reading food labels and researching foods.) So now, not only am I careful to not put gluten in my body, but I try to exercise regularly and fuel my body with the best foods possible.

Yes, I still have my moments. I get stressed about eating out at restaurants and I hate imposing my diet on people when they invite me to eat at their homes. I miss eating red licorice and being able to pull anything off the shelf at the grocery store. But then I just remind myself that I can still drink coffee and eat chocolate. Life could be far, far worse.

Through all of this, I've come to see this body as a gift. It's capable of some amazing things, and I get to learn how to best take care of it. If I hadn't been diagnosed with celiac, I don't think I'd ever have appreciated my body and my health in the way I do now.

So all you "normal" people, go ahead, eat gluten. You can even eat it in front of me. I don't mind. I am happily gluten-free.

People on the train.

I take the train in and out of downtown St. Louis every day for work. Which is great for so many reasons: it saves gas money, I don't have to be frustrated with traffic twice a day, it lessens the chance of my already breaking-down car to break even further, it gives me the chance to read and write on my commute, AND (this is my favorite) the train is a prime place for people-watching.

Some people/things I've seen:
Women applying 10 layers of mascara on the morning train.
A man in a chef's uniform (complete with the hat).
Lots of women reading cheap romance novels.
Ganstas who need belts.
A gray-haired man reading the New York Times.
Mothers with crying babies.
A quiet woman with eyes that are always downcast.
Two friends laughing together.
Men in uniform.
Nurses in scrubs getting off at the hospital stop.
Student with backpacks, studying in their seats.
A couple sitting in front of me, whispering into each others' ears. Clearly in love.
A middle-aged man who jokes with me after we both get soaked as we ran to the train in a torrential downpour.

I don't know these people, but I can't help but wonder about their lives. What are their passions? Where do they work? What music are they listening to on their iPods? What books are they reading, and why? Do they have families? Why won't that quiet woman look up and smile? What's the chef's favorite food to cook? Did the nurse take car of preemie babies like my niece today? Will I become friends with that nice man I say hi to every morning?

Funny how we encounter so many people every day but know so little about them.

I hope all my train friends are happy tonight.

Permanent addresses.

I've been filling out a lot of forms lately. And they all ask for a permanent address.

Well, I don't have one.

I usually put my parent's address, but I've actually spent far less time there in the past 4 years than I have anywhere else. My school address changed every year. One summer my address was in Switzerland, another summer it was in St. Louis. This summer, St. Louis again. In a few months it will be Thailand. And then...who knows?

I'm somewhat of a routine person -- Type A, you know? I like having some sort of idea where life is going, where I'll be at, and what I'll be doing. I tend to like stability, permanence, control. Although this kind of predictability makes life slightly more boring, it also usually makes it easier. Unfortunately, I've realized that's not at all how God works. He's not predictable or easy or boring. And because of that, as my good friend Oswald Chambers says, the nature of our spiritual lives is that we will always be uncertain of the next step, while always being certain of God. (Maybe he's the only one who gets to be Type A.)

So in these years of being in constant flux, of never knowing just where I'm going, I'm learning the beauty of uncertainty and the necessity of trust. And in that, I'm learning a lot about grace. Because although I'd like to think I have this "life" thing figured out (right, mom and dad?), I really know far less than I think I do. Grace is the mantra these days.

And I've decided that permanent addresses are overrated. Just send me an email.

The story so far.

Hi there. I'm Dana...Dane to my mom and my friends...The Dane Train to my boyfriend. Call me what you like. I think I like The Dane Train best. 

I recently graduated from Truman State University with a degree in public communication and minors in psychology and music. But please don't ask me what I'm going to do with my life. I don't know yet. Maybe I'll never know, and that's fine, as long as I find meaning and purpose in whatever I am doing in the present. For this summer that means I'm living in St. Louis and interning at a public relations agency in their internal communications department. You could say it's my first major step into the professional world. My reflections on it so far: growing up is strange.

But more important than my academic or career journey is my journey with the Lord. He's my reason for life and joy, the impetus for my every move and breath. I endeavor to live every day in obedience to my Savior, striving to be in tune with his will for my life. And for the upcoming season of my life, that obedience will mean THAILAND, where I'll be volunteering with a ministry from September 14, 2011 -February 14, 2012.

Sometime at the end of last summer I felt an undeniable call to serve in ministry overseas for some period of time after I graduated from Truman. Mind you, I had never imagined this for my life. I thought I'd graduate, find some job I loved, live on my own, be independent, etc. Riiiight. Throughout the past year I've truly learned the words of James 4:15 "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 

At about the point where I began to feel called to volunteer overseas, I had been learning about what this type of true obedience to the Lord looks like. I'd also been reading a lot about social justice and the gospel -- the gospel where we, as disciples of Jesus, radically love those that the world so often ignores, bringing the Kingdom of God to them. In all this, my eyes were being opened to the adverse conditions that so many people live in throughout the world. Children going hungry, women being abused, young girls being sex trafficked, people dying of preventable diseases. In the past year I've felt the urgency of showing these people the Kingdom of God -- a kingdom that they are invited to, just as much as we are.

So that brought me to somewhat of a dead end. "Okay, Lord, I know you've called me to do this. Now what?" Where was I supposed to go, what was I supposed to do? I began researching various missions organizations and decided to focus on YWAM's (Youth With a Mission) ministries. I started looking at the ministry sites they had in countries around the world, and for some reason, my heart began being drawn toward Southeast Asia. There was a specific group of ministries called the Project L.I.F.E. Foundation, which YWAM calls their mercy ministries, that I couldn't shake from my mind. So I applied to Project L.I.F.E. and they placed me with a ministry in Pattaya, Thailand called Pattaya Slum Ministries (PSM). PSM works in various capacities with people living in the slums of Pattaya (more on that later). For more info on Project L.I.F.E. and PSM, check out their Facebook page or their web site: http://www.ywamthai.org/mercy. 

That's probably enough information for now. Just wanted to give a brief background to those of you who I haven't gotten to share all of this with. I'll sign off with some verses that have reverberated through my mind throughout this whole process.

"Listen, my dear brother: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" James 2:5

"Is this not 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? 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 him, and to not turn away from your own flesh and blood?" Isaiah 58:6-7

Beginnings

It seems to me that the first entry to a blog should be somewhat epic, using eloquent language, convincing you that I'm some great adventurer inviting you to read about my (not so) deep insights and experiences. Well, sorry. I'll do my best, but I can't always promise you such grandeur.

My main reason for starting this blog is to give you a means of following along as I prepare to go to Thailand this fall, and then give you a chance to journey along with me once I'm there. So this blog will partly be about that, especially as September draws nearer. But I'll also be using the blog to share other thoughts or experiences I may have about life and faith and Jesus. So take what you like and leave what you don't. But thanks for reading.

Let's start the conversation.