yeah... a lot has happened.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST IS VERY BRIEF BUT YOU WILL WISH IT WASN'T

So yeah... here's a VERY abridged version of some life events since my last post, in no particular order...

On May 21, I replied "OF COURSE I WILL" to a very important question.

More about this later.

Ha.
:)

Lucas, one of my friends and classmates, and I lead a team of 15 on a mission trip at the Portland Rescue Mission.  It was certainly a challenge, but it was worth every minute and seriously rocked my world.  These people have since been so dear to me, and God is so good!

Finished up the year with this INCREDIBLE class at Ecola.  AHHH these people mean so much to me.

Yep. :) LOVE these people.

My beautiful friend Angie took this picture.
And yes, it's the same guy from the first picture.
OH have I got a story to tell you. Oh boy. Hahaha!



And now that I've tortured you a little with my vagueness...

HELLO AGAIN!

Little by little I will follow up with more and will be able to share with you guys a bit of my life again!  It's been an INSANELY crazy past five months. (Which I will be sharing with you in time.) And the months ahead are only gonna get a little crazier. (Which I will also be sharing with you.) But it's time I start using this lovely little thing called a BLOG again, since I do have a small amount of time on my hands now. :) God is so good and I have learned so much, it's truly unbelievable.  Oh man.

And it's also 2:29 in the morning, so I shall continue this soon when most of the world in the Pacific time zone are awake and when my writing skills are actually a little more apt for the task of writing things!  Goodness, why do I decide to do these things at such illogical times?

Until next time... :)

-barefoot mangosteen

christmas and the new year. in review.

December 22: A few of my Ecola friends met up and had Chinese food in Portland to bid our good friend Kevin (top right) farewell before he headed off to Moody Bible Institute!  This was during our "after party" at my house.  It's what we call a "typical family portrait." Ha.

OH HEY GUYS!

It's been a crazy past few weeks.  Christmas, New Years, and, of course, Ecola starting back up!  I just finished my first full week back in Cannon Beach and so much has happened that I feel as though I've been here for a month. 

First thing is first: I hadn't mentioned earlier, but one of my Ecola brothers, Andrew (the photographer featured a couple posts ago), stayed with our family for two and a half weeks for various reasons during Christmas break.  He left the few days around Christmas to be with his family but for the most part was a McBrearty for a couple dozen days.  Of course my family was slightly apprehensive (but mostly excited) to have a guest for an extended amount of time; it turned out to be a ton of fun and Andrew fit in as if he shared our DNA.

Anyway... CHRISTMAS!  With just the 4 of us (my dad, mom, 15-year-old brother Mark, and myself), we celebrated Christ's birth with all of our usual quirky traditions - having good family friends over for late dinner and gift exchange on Christmas Eve, opening one gift on Christmas Eve (PJ's, as usual), my brother and I doing our crazy Christmas dance (roll around on the floor in giddy excitment), reading through the book Jotham's Journey (an Advent series about a boy on intense adventures during the time of Jesus - check it out!), my dad and I waking up at 5:00 in the morning to open a present before everyone else, and eating [way too much] delicious food (my mom is an incredible cook...oh, and an incredible mom too).

NEW YEARS - At dinner time on December 31, my family (and Andrew) volunteered at my church at an outreach called The Jesus Table!  This is where many volunteers from my church spend hours cooking and preparing a meal for 75-100 guests from the community who are in need of a free dinner.  There are cooks (my mom), servers (my dad and my brother), people who dine with the guests to get to know them and share good conversation with them, and, on the occasion of New Years, a few people who played/sang some music to bring more joy to the even (myself and two of my best friends and their dad)!  Here are some moments for you - 

My dad getting some delicious twice-baked potatoes ready to serve.

My mom cooking up some delicious sauce to put on the chicken. ("Supreme Sauce" I think she called it.)

From left to right: Steve (Emily & Erin's dad), Emily, me, and Erin singing some classic tunes.

 Mark (far right) and Andrew (to his right) as well as Marks' friend Brian from church stand ready to serve dessert!

The wonderful guests enjoying the meal, the music, and the company :)

That's just a snippet - it was wonderful.  Everyone worked joyfully and so evidently for Christ.  I used to have a ton of bitterness against church (more on that some other time), but when I actually get to participate in things like this, I see the genuine hearts and ready minds and I can't help but rejoice.

After we finished serving and laughing and eating and cleaning, we headed over to my grandma's where we talked and laughed for about an hour (More on my grandma in another post - I love her). With Andrew over, we of course mainly played with a bunch of sparklers and fireworks and tried not to get burnt by flying sparks and flames.  

Sparklers galore.

Here Andrew flinches from a wild little crackleball. (Notice that thing in the sky?)

More of Andrew's wonderful reactions. (That thing in the sky is a Chinese lantern! Ha!)

Mark bravely throwing a firwork into the street, only a second or two before it goes off.

Sometimes this happens.  (And sometimes it doesn't go up but instead it goes straight at us... and we RUN!)

Last but not least, here is the exact second 2014 began.  Featuring the McBrearty's and our honorary McBrearty, Andrew Riley.

Ecola-related update soon to come. :) God is so good. Happy New Year!

-mangosteen

graveyard

Remember those goats?

They live across the street from a graveyard:

Graveyards have always fascinated me in their eerie, beautiful sort of mystery.  Though death is often what we associate with such a place as a graveyard, I've come to realize that the names on these stones represent people whose lives told stories - and that there is in fact a great deal of life associated with a place such as this!  Behind these names could be incredible stories of love, friendship, heroism, adventure - stories left as mysteries in their richness.  Perhaps some lives were surrounded by friends and family, while some were led lonely and quiet.  There are millions of incredible moments no one on earth will ever know occurred except for the person whose name we read on any given stone.  

Which got me thinking about the little moments in my own life.

Like the time I sat on a bench with some high school friends, overlooking the Columbia Gorge, the sun shining and the breeze blowing, and when we said to each other, "Could this get any more beautiful?" And the moment when, just after we made the comment, a bald eagle silently flew directly across our stunning view of the gorge. (Our mouths silently dropped open.)

Or the cool, clear night on Crescent Beach, September 2012, when I prayed for the first time in probably years - and, soaking in the beauty of the stars and the deep indigo ocean, made one of the biggest decisions of my life: to give the faith I had so "intelligently" abandoned a second chance and to skeptically ask God, whose presence I doubted, to work in my heart.

And He did, despite my kicking and screaming.

Incredibly prideful and judgmental, I went with a strange kind of joy to Ecola Bible School.  I went in with a whole ton of presumptions and misconceptions about the Bible, the Christians who read it, and about the God who created both.  As I discovered my ignorance, I met incredibly wise people who were striving not to rub hypocritical lies in my face, but to humbly present me with the truth - only on the condition that I would seek it out for myself and have the freedom question everything, not that I would just take their word for it. 

Can you think of moments in your life when something incredible happened?  Maybe it was incredibly joyous, or maybe you think of a time in your life with great pain.  Either way, you know that those moments have shaped who you are.  And maybe few people will know your stories, but now I am challenging you - tell your story.  

God has worked in every aspect of my life, whether I acknowledged Him or not at the time.  He has been shaping me into the person I am, using my greatest mistakes and stupidities for something good.  And in the times when I do acknowledge His glory, the tasks which I have before me become acts of worship.  

In 1 Corinthians 10:31, it says no matter what we are doing, we are to do it to the glory of God. He is glorified when we are worshiping Him in song and in word and in prayer - but did you know that God's glory can be manifested also in art, in music, in nature, in conversation, in laughter?   There is no facet of life when we don't have the option of worshiping God.  I've been learning this week that as I get to know God more, I see His beauty in more of the life happening around me.  

You will quickly discover I love trees.

Maybe no one will ever hear from our mouths all the stories we wish we could share.  But there is One who is present in every moment, and One who knows our stories and knows our hearts. 

I once again encourage you to share your stories.  And be a part of others', too!  Don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone and go be adventurous.  Don't worry about getting every detail in your journal, or about jotting down every quote, or capturing every moment on camera.  There is One who will experience every detail with you, and for whose glory you are living!  

I thought I'd share with you guys one of my favorite passages of scripture:

"You make known to me the path of life;

     in Your presence there is fullness of joy;

     at Your right hand are pleasures forever more."

Psalm 16:11

You will also very quickly discover that I love doors.

More of my story since September 2012 will be woven in and out of my posts.  But I am going to finish now - we've both got moments beyond this blog to unfold :)

Thanks for reading, friends!

-mangosteen

the blog to end all [of my] blogs.

Photo credit: sail & donkey photography (aka one of my dear and crazy Ecola brothers Andrew Riley)

HI, FRIENDS!

If you are reading this, I assume you know me... So instead of trying to summarize my life story on my first post, I'm just gonna dive into this blog thing with some Q's and A's.  This way, you aren't left reading paragraphs of garble. :)

Q: Why is this post called "the blog to end all blogs?" 

A: In the past, I have attempted to pick a theme for my blog. I then proceed to get so caught up in writing on specific days or about specific things, my brain checks out and I abandon the sad little blog.  This time around, it's this blog or NO blog ever again!

Q: Why did you make a blog? Aren't there a million other 20-year-old girls out there blogging?

A: This isn't to make me famous or because I think my life is more interesting than yours (because it's not!).  No two lives will be identical, nor the perspectives or stories or ideas from any two individuals.  This is simply to share anything passing through my life in which perhaps one or two of you will find an interest!

Q: What is a mangosteen, and why is it barefoot?

A: Well, a mangosteen is this tropical little purple fruit with delicious white flesh inside.  I first ate this fruit in the Philippines.  Then my mom bought me some for my 20th birthday, and since I love mangoes - which ironically are not related to mangosteens - my mom started calling me a Mangosteen because it sounds like a cute mango. (Whatever, haha.)  And I don't like wearing shoes... so, tired of trying to come up with some deep and clever blog name, I instead titled it Barefoot Mangosteen and called it good.

Photo credit: I googled "mangosteen"...https://www.google.com/search?q=mangosteen&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=TwqxUpaVE4HroASz8oDADw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1217&bih=926#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=3npt0tjNJ8FNpM%3A%3BO_NMCU16FlMt0M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.eantioxidantjuice.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2010%252F12%252Fmangosteen.jpeg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.eantioxidantjuice.com%252Fantioxidant-juice%252Freview-xango-mangosteen-juice%3B500%3B334

Q: What are you going to blog about, Mangosteen?

A:  Hopefully nothing too obscure or uninteresting. Like I said earlier, just about anything that happens in my life, whether it's something God teaches me or something I find amusing or noteworthy, or perhaps art and photography when I have the time for it.  If you have any ideas you could comment with them too.  And if I ever blog about something completely loathsome or boring just tell me! (Seriously - I appreciate blunt people, so please do.)

Well, there you go.  Post #1 - complete.  

Before I go, here is a picture I took a couple days ago of some goats:

Just for your random enjoyment.

Until next time, friends!

-mangosteen