Reflections from a Purpose Driven Adventure Coach

Anastasia’s series of addresses to the Women’s Enrichment Ministries – South Shores Church. From the church’s newsletter.

“Welcome to Women’s Enrichment Ministries
I’m hoping that this weekly newsletter will bring you hope, encouragement, helpful hints, and spiritual insights as well as current church updates and new happenings in Women’s Enrichment Ministries at South Shores Church.”

April 28, 2020

Holy is our highest calling
Sweat is what it takes to get there

With the pandemic changing the landscape of all of our lives we may feel like we are experiencing ‘the amputation of the familiar self’. Who am I? and Where am I going? questions surface on any given day when we may feel like we are a like a hamster going around in circles going nowhere! In Victor Frankl’s classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he talks about what life was like for him as he spent years in a concentration camp. He asked a provocative question during those years of courageous pain and suffering, “What is the invitation my current context is asking of me?”

As we are all immersed in the pandemic, we can all feel like we are going nowhere. The challenge on a daily basis is to

BE now/here with a willingness to surrender to our present reality asking ourselves the same question, “What is the invitation my current context is asking of me?” I have asked myself that same question. What does surrendering to my present reality mean to me now as a Purpose Driven Adventure Coach. BEing homebound can be its own Trip for Transformation!

CANCELLED has been written over a multitude of celebrations in all of our lives. When I find myself having to erase yet another ‘hoped for happening’ I begin to activate what has been defined as a math equation for living life.

Disappointments + hindrances = FAITH

When I see no hope . . . when my circumstances feel like the door of opportunity has been slammed shut! When I see no hint of moving forward yet refuse to despair. When I see nothing but the darkness of night through my window, I am reminded that

“The steps (and the stops) of Anastasia are established by the Lord and He delights in her way” (Psalm 37:23)

Bowing to the occasion often involves what I call ‘wait training’ . . . waiting for hope.

“This I call to mind therefore I have hope.
The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease.
They are new every morning Great is
Thy faithfulness
The Lord is my portion says my soul
Therefore I shall hope in Him
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him
To the person who seeks Him
(not something else)

Lamentations 3:21-25

I ask, “Lord give me the inner strength to wait in hope . . . to look through the window when it feels like there are no stars.”

We all wait in hope for the doors of our church to open once again. We wait in hope for the time when our schools, our places of work, places of recreation, favorite gathering places declare ‘We are open’!

In the meantime, deep lingering questions can surface for any of us as we ‘Say YES at the edge of our UNknown’

When does the end become the beginning
The finite become the infinite
The forsaken become the found
The fear become the peace
The burden become the release
The worn become the restored
The sorrow become the comfort
The longing become the love
The divided become the whole
The journey become the destination

There are no easy answers. In the meantime, I find myself choosing to surrender to the present asking in prayer a very simple question:

“Lord Jesus, if You were me
with all my weaknesses and strengths
what would You be doing
in my little corner of the world?”

Without a doubt, walking through this pandemic can be it’s own Trip for Transformation!

Coaching Questions? Email Anastasia at anastasiahansel@gmail.com

May 6, 2020

Bewildered

“They are bewildered by the land the wilderness has closed them in”

Exodus 14:3,4

As Moses gave leadership to the children of Israel there came a time where they found themselves caught in a cul-de-sac. Their reality left them feeling utterly perplexed and confused. They felt like they were wandering aimlessly day in and day out. How could they escape? Can you imagine how unsettling living in the ‘not knowing’?

Yesterday I felt like I collided head-on with some of the ramifications of the pandemic and what the ‘new normal in the United States feels like. What used to be ‘not a problem’ is no more.

I am a cyclist and am beginning to train for our yearly Global Women in Leadership Network’s annual cycling venue. Instead of cycling in Seattle with 1500 other women cyclists, this year I am cycling in solitude calling the May 23 cycling venue, “Cycling to an Audience of One’.

One of the first steps of a peak performer is ‘YOU GOTTA’ START’. Starting during the pandemic found me BEYOND frustrated recently. On my initial ride I decided it would be fun to cycle with my grand-daughter, Sadie, and one of her friends. We took off and cycled into Tar Farms having fun locating different horses. It was fun ‘for a moment’ until we were told we had to leave because Tar Farms was under quarantine ! BUMMER!

The following day I could hardly wait to get on my bike and cycle along the beach! As I ‘started again’ I realized something was not right! “OH NO! my tire is totally

flat!” Not a problem. I will just go to a bike shop, have my tire fixed right away and in five minutes be back on my bike! NOT!

I was shocked to find out that it would take FOUR DAYS until I could get my tire into the repair shop……NO WAY! I want to get my training ride in today! Right away! I went to another bicycle shop and found out it was CLOSED with a list of their new hours on the front door. WHAT? What happened to how ‘life’ used to be?

My internal frustration mounted. Bewilderment, confusion, feeling like I was wandering aimlessly going nowhere began to breed discontent. What began to help me was reminding myself what life in the Congo DRC is like. NOTHING is predictable.

When I cross the border to CONGO I ‘switch gears internally’ knowing that NOTHING is ‘instant’. I live each day with NO expectations. It helps me during this pandemic to ‘re-frame’ whatever expectation I may have for ‘this day’ to hold it with an open hand . . . grate-full for what ‘can be’ rather than allow myself to become who I don’t want to be!

In a book given to me about Nelson Mandela, Mandela’s Way, Stengel writes:

“Nelson Mandela had many teachers in his life, but the greatest of them all was prison. Prison molded the man
we see and know today.

How did this passionate revolutionary become a measured statesman? In prison he had to temper his responses to everything. There was little a prisoner could control. The one thing you could control – that you had to control was yourself. There was no room for outbursts or self-indulgence or lack of discipline. He had no zone of privacy.

He had time – far too much time. For twenty-seven years he pondered not only policy but how to behave, how to be a leader and how to be a man”

The pandemic has forced me to ask myself the question, “What is the invitation this time in life is asking of me?” I have been challenged to look at ‘difficulties in this country’ in an entirely new way; putting problems into a different context creating new paradigms for dealing with everyday challenges.

“Lord Jesus, if You were me, with all my
weaknesses and strengths, what would You
be doing in my little corner of the world?”

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves
Do not seek the answers that cannot be given you
Because you would not be able to live them
And the point is to live everything
Live the questions now
Perhaps you will gradually without noticing it
Live along some distant day into the answers

Rainer Maria Rilke

Coaching Questions? Email Anastasia at anastasiahansel@gmail.com

May 27, 2020