Happy Tuesday my brothers and sisters, 

I will start my blog off with an introduction of myself. My name is Jakob Whitson, and I am one of 7,143,498,539 people in this world as of 3:00 PM. One might feel insignificant when viewing the world by the amount of people it contains, but I think we are all special, even if one of our brothers or sisters lives in a card board box outside Balloons & More in the windless entryway in Pratt, KS (FYI there is no one currently living outside B&M in Pratt, KS), but if there was I hope one of their brothers or sisters would help them out. 

Back to my introduction, I am a 22 year old male about 5'11" tall with a less than interesting coiffure, but if you talk to me I might say something captivating. I am the product of a small south central Kansas town of 7,000 people, or better known as a small town 70 miles west of Wichita,KS. And two loving parents. We are products of our hometowns because the "assembly line" we are put through during our preadolescence molds our thoughts and actions for the rest of lives, which is helpful in some aspects and retrospectively annoying in others. I will probably mention the conditioning techniques we are put through in the "assembly line" in later posts. 

I am currently living with my two loving parents, my little sister, and a playful kitty, although I was attending Kansas State University, and I was a year out from graduating, and I was making the trek to becoming a somewhat model citizen, but that ended a little over a month ago. Being a model citizen has advantages, but it also has disadvantages. My life started to change a couple years before this, but I will focus more on the recent past. 

Back track two months and I can see myself living a double life, which I think is present in many humans. One side wanted to immediately follow the word of Jesus, and the other side wanted to put that off for a while. One side wanted to live a life of voluntary poverty similar to Franciscan monks or even Capuchin monks, while the other wanted to finish college and pay off government funded loans. The tau cross or the dollar bill (can we follow both?). I chose the former with my knees bent and my eyes toward the cosmos. 

My decision came after attending Manhattan Mennonite Church for a few weeks, and learning of all the opportunities that are available through the many groups that MMC supports. One of the biggest organizations that MMC supports is the Mennonite Central Committee. I decided to look on their website to familiarize myself with some of the projects they were currently doing/advertising. My attention was gravitating towards long term mission work, maybe this was due to a fireside conversation with a few loving friends. I found a project that was two years long and would be located in Bolivia. I always had an interest in South America after taking a couple of years of Spanish in high school. The project was located in Bolivia and was part of an ongoing project called SEED. I decided to apply, but the due date for the applications was the next day, so I decided to focus on school, it wasn't meant to be. 

That following weekend, after suffering a few hours of frustration from assignments that I thought were bogus, I decided to explore MCC's website again. I noticed Bolivia SEED was still listed on their interface; they had extended the due date two weeks. I am skeptical of signs, but maybe this was one, so I decided to apply. A couple weeks later and two interviews down, I was hopeful that I might be selected. I was eventually told that I was not selected, which wasn't too much of a shock, but I was more upset with the continuation of my easy life as a college student. There was still the Manhattan Emergency Shelter, loving friends, and systematic learning; life is full of beautiful complex imagery. The dove, olive branches, and all of Thomas Merton’s radiating faces.

Two weeks later and several Platonic readings down, I was asked by MCC to make a trip to Bolivia. I was informed in a room surrounded by glass panes and the smell of wheat and soy beans permeating the air around my flared nostrils. I waited a few days to tell them I would go even though I could have made the decision in a millisecond. The next few weeks consisted of finals and a load of paperwork.

As I type a flight of pigeons furiously peck at the oil stained concrete at a rate similar to the typing of my computer keyboard, and my thoughts simultaneously focused on the adventure I am about to embark on a week from now. My thoughts are soon transported back to the interior of the warm coffee shop I am sitting in, and all of the small tasks I have yet to complete before I can depart. I take a deep breath and say a small prayer; every task yet to be completed disappears into the brisk Kansas wind.