When I was five, I learned how to spell my name. J-A-N-A-E. Janae. I learned it wasn’t “Jenny” or “Jane” or “Janie”. It was Janae. With an E on the end. I learned my middle name was Janna. With two Ns. And I learned that all my siblings had two names that started with Js too.

The funny thing about names is that you don’t know what it’s like to be something else. People …

As I was talking with fellow IMPACT 360 alumnus Jonathan Skagfield this evening, our phone call got interrupted by the not-so-great internet connection here in the Middle East. The phone cut out right in the middle of our prayer. As we reconnected, I began with ,”Pardon the interruption, Lord.” I’m so thankful that our God hears our prayers, even when those we are praying with can’t.

As Jonathan and I were talking, we threw ideas around …

My time at IMPACT 360 has been a proverbial rollercoaster. I have gone from the highest of the highs to the lowest of lows, had nights where I question why I even put myself through this in the first place, and yet still woken up the next morning praising God for all the wonderful (albeit hard) lessons that He’s teaching me. I came into IMPACT 360 thinking that I for the most part, had my …

“There is no reason to supposed that self-consciousness, the recognition of a creature by itself as a “self”, can exist except in contrast with an environment of other selves, that the awareness of Myself stands out. ” -CS Lewis, Problem of Pain

How often do we talk about self-consciousness as if it’s a problem with ourselves? We focus inward and compare and say things about how we aren’t good enough or how we …

When I first left TN for Impact, I was positive for homesickness. Desperately so. I longed for my family, for the familiar places, even for the grocery stores I knew. I wanted to go home.

This is home?

Yet the longer I stayed in Pine Mountain, the more I started to refer to this place as “home.”  The dorms were home. Campus was home. Pine Mountain was home. Even while I was in TN for …