Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 1/26/2012
Last month in India my team volunteered in a special needs orphanage in Ongole, India. I personally have never worked with children, or with special needs at any point in my life. At first the thought of the six of us helping take care of 111 orphans was a little intimidating. It’s a little like going of the tallest diving board into the deep end having never gone swimming before, for myself anyway. Despite that I was excited to spend time with the kids. In India children with any type of disability are looked down upon and forgotten, no matter how big or small it is. These children are cast aside so quickly. Their hearts are beautiful and filled with love, but have been left behind and thought of as nothing. I knew a little how to care for people before spending time with these children. But because of them I learned how to really love on people. The smallest thing means the world to them, a smile, a wave, a hug, or holding their hand for just a moment. Their smiles are so big and their hugs are filled with love. You can see in their eyes how much love they have to give, and how much it means to them that you are there with them. We were blessed to spend a few weeks with them, as well as having the opportunity to be there on Christmas. Most likely the first one for some of them. With their laughs, smiles, hugs, kisses, personalities, and love, they stole our hearts. While I can’t speak for the rest of my team, I’m pretty sure we all left a piece of our heart behind with them. I know I did.
| |
|
Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 9/20/2011
It takes about 1 hour to walk from our living quarters to town. A few of us have walked in quite a few times now, along the way having great conversations about countless things. It’s great to have people with different point of views that enjoy philosophizing, and yelling at each other when you don’t agree. Even with that all the walks have been very enjoyable. It’s also nice to just go look around the city, through the neighborhoods and all. Oradea is a pretty nice city from what I’ve seen so far. We still have a bit of exploring to do. I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to go into town. There are plenty of moments in Oradea I won’t forget. It’s great to look around the area since we will only have it for about a month. It will be great to have the chance to do the same thing in countless other cities along the way.
| |
|
Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 9/18/2011
Community is quite the place to live in on an adventure like this. You are with new people that you just met that all came together for the same purpose. So you might think it would be easy to transition into living with them all. With extended time together you find out that you don’t all work together at every moment. But to be honest you shouldn’t have expected to. You’ll find everything from the brother or sister you’ll always fight with, to a best friend you’ll always be cool with. Personally I love to get to know different personalities to see how people work and think. You have to listen to them and try to see how they think and see things. It’s challenging and forces you to learn. I wouldn’t want to put my life in a box that I was always comfortable in. We all must embrace this experience with open hearts and minds. At times you’ll have to leave a little of yourself behind. You shouldn’t make a big deal of little meaningless things. Don’t push yourself on others. Step away from who you usually are, you might like what you find. For now it’s just a family that doesn’t know everything about one another yet.
| |
|
Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 9/9/2011
We are out of the block and have ran part of the first leg to our destination. As we sat in JFK airport (and still do) our second flight which will take us to Poland was delayed three hours, which could have easily created a domino effect of us missing our next flight, and potentially our train in to Oradea. With grace we came together in the airport and prayed that patience, faith, and God's will shine through during this time. Instanly God answered our prayers and our next flight said they would wait for us to arrive. We will make it!! The other half of A Squad began there travels earlier today. May you all travel well and have an amazing month of ministry! Many more stories of answered prayers to follow!! Romania here we come!!
| |
|
Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 7/7/2011
What can you say about training camp? It’s amazing, it’s hard, it’s encouraging, it’s real, it’s challenging. Finally getting to meet your squad in person is so welcoming. Through the days that have pasted so far I have seen I have found new brothers and sister in Christ, and have had things move inside me through worship and prayer. I have been set free and commanded to move forward. As uplifting as training camp can be, and as much as you can start off still feeling unsure but and you call be confirmed, it is not without it’s struggles and fights. You can run into issues, problems, and struggles even on the best of days. You can see your squad get torn apart, and wonder why this has happened. To teach us? To challenge us? In that moment I felt uneasy, withdrawn, and distanced. What is happening? Thoughts raced. This is the enemy trying to pull me away from what is good. I was prophesied over the very night these things happened that I would finish this race and over come any challenge or obstacle in my way. This is spiritual warfare. And as my brother told me you have to FIGHT to do what is right. So many people don’t FIGHT! You can’t give up or give in! So in honor of you brother your words will not have fallen on deaf ears. I will FIGHT! Say it out loud, I will FIGHT!
| |
|
Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 6/28/2011
a woman I didn’t know prayed for me, and I felt God’s love. I typically don’t let stress get to me too much, but at the end of the day It had gotten to me for the first time in a while, and I’m not really sure why. It unfortunately put me in not the best of moods, and I didn’t want to do too much. Tonight was Monday Night Prayer Meeting at my church, and I knew I had to go. It was an amazing evening! We took communion, and afterward you could walk up to a member of the prayer team and they would pray for you. Up to that point I was feeling a little better, but still had an anxious feeling within me. I walked up to the woman and asked her to pray for me and my friend, to prepare our hearts for our journey to come, that she prays to equip us to be the Lord’s hand and feet so that we may help those who need it most on our mission trips. She placed her hand on my arm, and began to pray. Before she spoke one word, all worry, doubt, and stress was instantly lifted, and I felt God’s Love move through her as she prayed. As she prayed I couldn’t help but hope that during the 11 months to come, we are able to share God’s Love in this way, with even just one person who needs it, it would make it all worth it. It was exactly the evening I needed….
… then I got home and Koda had destroyed the footprint to my tent, someone isn’t excited I’m leaving (at least that’s what I’m telling myself lol)
| |
|
Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 6/23/2011
Completely! Of course there is no way to know what will happen on the race, but I expect a few things. I expect to be changed forever. I expect to see the lives of many others changed. I expect to make life long friendships with my squad as we share this experience. I expect to learn more in a year than I have up to this point in my life. I expect to see God’s Love in the most unlikely and smallest of places. I expect to see the struggles of this world right in front of my eyes. I expect my heart to break when I see them. I expect God to show up and help us heal others. I expect that any expectation I have to be nothing compared to what I will actually experience, and that there is no way I can completely prepare myself for the things to come. I expect God to guide me and provide for me every step of the way.
| |
|
Posted in General Posts by Layne Kulhanek on 6/12/2011
Whenever we achieve a new rank in jiu jitsu our instructor tells us he is proud of us for sticking to our commitment to the academy and reaching another goal. He says that we could have sat around at home like 90% of other people and not do anything, but we didn’t, and that we made a commitment to be the best we could for the academy and we are well on our way to our ultimate goal. In a couple of months I will no longer be on track to achieve that goal. I will be on a journey for a more important goal. I realized that by working on that goal, I was “sitting around” not working on what we are called to do. I will be sad that I didn’t achieve what I set out to do. But I am trying to take to heart what it says in Matthew 10:39, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” As this continues to soak into me I find myself perfectly at peace with leaving EVERYTHING behind for year to do as we are called. My church has Monday night prayer every week. A couple of weeks ago a member of our church said something I really liked. He said, “How do we now we have God’s grace? You know you have it when you are able to share it with others.” What am I doing sitting around here? Working a job that doesn’t fulfill me when I should be doing something greater. I wasn’t on a bad track in my life, but I wasn’t living it for the glory of God. My friend saved me and helped me get on the right track. Now that I have that, I have to go share it with others. Share it with the people who need it most. That’s why this race has been in my thoughts for months and months. That’s why I will go.
| |
|
|
|
|
