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Hello to all of the gracious souls who are about to put up with my verbose writing style! ; P It is for your sakes that I will attempt to condense to concision. I’ll be honest – I am So Nervous for everyone who is reading this who doesn’t know me yet. I realize that this blog will be very reflective of who I am and I don’t quite know just what to say about myself. But the fact that everyone who is still reading this really has a get to know me should make me more comfortable in and of itself – and it does!…a little bit, anyhow. ; )
Soo, I live about an hour and a half south of the Canadian border in North Idaho (I said that for the benefit of my future Canadian friends. ; ) I’ve lived here for two decades (sounds so long! ; P) aside from a few months I lived in Spokane, WA (an hour from my home) for college, as well as a few months in Salem, OR (BEAUtiful area!!). I grew up in a family I truly cannot express my gratitude for, or thank God enough for putting me in. Our parents homeschooled us four kids during elementary school, and we would start out every morning with family devotions around the breakfast table: reading and memorizing Scripture, singing, and praying together. I feel that the word “legacy” best descirbes what my parents have given to us kids. I am so blessed to have this kind of foundation for the relationship I am graced to share with our unconditionally loving Father.
I should probably talk here about my passion for missions (specifically the foreign variety ; ), but I think I instead will keep you all in suspense until you read my “how I was called to the mission field” blog (if you still care to read about me ; P). I don’t know when I would write about my passion for music in other blogs so I will just briefly mention that here. : ) I began playing violin when I was three-years-old, then switched to flute in fourth grade and have been playing ever since. I also play piccolo, tin whistle, tenor sax (which are similar enough to flute that you shouldn’t be impressed) and grew up playing piano and singing. I just wanted to write about that real quick since I’ve read that many of you future Novas comrads love music and I am so looking forward to engaging in the arts together (yes, I’m speaking to you dancers, too! ; D)!!
Okay, I think that’s quite enough – it’s looking rather lengthy, though I’m not entirely certain I even covered what I ought to have. ; ) Thanks for caring enough to read!
~Jessica Leonardi
Nadia – you are such a sweetheart!! 🙂 You do sound like a very compassionate and passionate soul – I love that about you already! I definitely am looking forward to our time together, too!! I was wondering though: I saw in your bio that you’re seventeen…is your birthday prior to our departure, or did they make an age exception for you knowing just how wonderful you are?! 😉 And thanks for the condensing compliment – though I daresay, I don’t know if I can agree! ;P
Everyone’s passion for this just astounds me, and yours especially for the human trafficking scene. Although, I will not be following you to those destinations where you will be completely consumed with restoring the victims (for I surely could not stop crying daily and I might think of torturing the perpetrators you would try to help) I am sure I will be glad to know you for our time togeter. P.S. I think you condensed much better than I did.
Hey Jessica,
welcome to the team, I am really excited to be able to get to know you. I can’t believe how many musicians there are on the team it’s awesome. I’m not very musical, I played the flute for a couple for years but that’s it. I’ll be the cheerleader on the side while everyone rocks out 😉 oh and thanks for the fact about North Idaho being an hour and a half from the canadian border because I’m one of the canadians on the team, although to be honest I still had to look on a map to see if Idaho was on the east or the west side; I guess I need to brush up on my US geography 🙂
Thanks Tara – I’m definitely very excited to get to know you, as well! : ) That’s really cool you played the flute for a while…just curious, was that during your time in the all-girls’ school in Zimbabwe? It is so amazing to me that you grew up there, by the way!! Especially with you having that background and now going into culinary arts…I hope your cultural roots still influence your cooking! ; ) And totally no worries about not knowing where Idaho is – there are people here in the states who don’t even know where it is…or even that it IS a state! ; )
I loved reading your story! How He has led you and possessed your heart with His heart was an amazing and beautiful story to read. And just so you know I completely agree with Nadia and thought you did a great job at condensing, a million times better than I did! Your passion and humility has blown me away and I can’t wait to meet you.
hello sweet girl!!
Thank you so much for responding and giving me some things to pray about. Im terrified as well to speak in front of others. Just talking I am fine with but when I feel like I have to preach Gods word it terrifies me. I know you will do great, if the Lord has put a calling on your life for public speaking he will supply to you exactly what you need. But anyways I just need prayer that while I am at home and I feel like I am in a state of just waiting. Like waiting for September 23rd to get here. So I need prayer that I would not just sit around and that I can grow with the Lord now and prepare for this trip…and always money to come up for the trip. Thank you for asking. Cant wait to see you in Mexico!!