Family Matters

This is a small introduction to me, what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it. I’d love to just launch headlong into my thoughts and adventures, but I know they will be less meaningful without first giving a little background, so here we go!

My name is Lauren Nadolski. I am 20 years old, and going into my third year at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. Southeastern is a school of leaders and dreamers. That description seems to qualify it as a “Hippie School,” but what it really is is a Jesus School.  I am immeasurably blessed to go there, and am inspired daily by the people, professors, and leaders I have met on campus.

I am a double-major in Missional Ministries and English and Intercultural Studies, and a Spanish minor. When I graduate, I would like to go into full-time ministry one way or the other. Whether that means teaching English abroad, or working with refugees and English language learners in the United States, I am not sure, but I am so excited for whatever God comes up with!

I thank the Good Lord that I did not grow up in Florida, but hail from the wonderful state of Wisconsin. To me, Wisconsin is one of America’s best-kept secrets. It is full of friendly, easy-going people, the climate can be harsh at times, but is always, always beautiful, and the summers, although admittedly short, are the most wonderful months I’ve ever spent anywhere. Green farmland, rolling hills, incredible sunsets, and the greatest freshwater lakes America has to offer makes my home state a dreamland.

But the greatest reason for my love of home, by far, is my family. My family is my most important entity. I have a mom and a dad, an older brother of 22 years, older sister of 21 years, and younger sister of 15 years. Also a perfectly docile, snugly yellow lab shelter mutt named Lia.

My parents are the most wonderful people (separate and together) that have ever graced the face of the earth. It’s an official ranking. They are funny, thoughtful, incredibly intelligent, so generous, and easy-going. My mom is the most loving human being, and makes everyone she comes into contact with feel as though they can trust her with anything, and want to spend time with her. My dad has outstanding taste in music and humor, and spends his life serving our small community with all his intelligence, resources, and time. They are hometown heroes for sure, and the reason all of their children are turning out alright.

My older brother, Austin, is a marvel of a young man. He has always been whip-smart and adept at memorizing the most important facts about dinosaurs, marine life, cars, music, and medicine. At least, those are the phases he’s gone through that I remember. He is a nurse, but consequently an extremely talented musician and lyricist. Add on to all this the fact that he is a thoughtful, charming, stunningly generous and kind young man and he might just be America’s finest Big Brother. 

My older sister is okay, I guess.

...Just kidding! My sister Emily, if you know anything about me, is the greatest friend of my life. She has been my best friend forever, and will continue on that continuum through every stage of our lives. (I may need a separate post for this one, or maybe just a box of tissues.) She is my companion in life, and always has been! She is so incredibly talented from all angles: acting, singing, writing, painting, drawing. She is a marvel of creative energy, and an even better friend. Ask anyone who has ever come into contact with Emily Nadolski, and you will hear about how she changed their life. She has such a big heart that you will feel it immediately upon meeting hear and hearing about her life. She cares, so much. She is funny and deep and mature and selfless and it is one of my favorite things ever to just hear her thoughts on life! I am so thankful that God made us sisters, and I will never stop being cheesy about it.

My younger sister is a compaction of all the talent and grace that the rest of us may carry, all in one person. She is currently finishing up her first year of high school, and is the kind of person who gets every single positive comment available for teachers to use on her report card. She is talented in every school subject, a voracious reader, incredible singer, and gifted artist as well. She is sensitive and has a beautiful heart that reaches out to her friends and changes the whole world. She is wise beyond her years, and her maturity astounds me. She has wild auburn-colored hair, and magnificent freckles. She is very easy to love.

So that’s a small sampling of my immediate family – the ones I love the most!! They are one of the biggest reasons behind why I do what I do. It may seem like an anomaly…moving so far away for University, and even farther for the next few months, but I have a different perspective.

I have been blessed beyond measure to have the family and childhood that I have had. When I say beyond measure, I mean infinitely beyond what you could even imagine. I am so blessed, period. But not everyone knows what it’s like to experience the family I’ve had. While I can’t give them our Christmas traditions, or a weekend out on the boat with my grandpa, or a walk in the woods with my dad and dog, I can give them the very heartbeat of my family and all the same sense of beauty I’ve come to know through them.

Because while it is unmistakable that the individuals in my family bless me and move me, the true goodness I feel when I am with them comes from Jesus Christ. He is where the great Beauty and Peace come from.

And I found out that I can share that. That same joy, the same intimacy and feeling of acceptance and humor and forgiveness is all from Jesus. It comes directly from His hand, and everyone in the whole world can experience it too because it comes from knowing Him.

God put me in an incredible family – it is a taste of heaven. Rather than soak up all that heaven for the rest of my life, I’ve decided to defer it for a little while to spend some time sharing it with as much of the rest of the world as I can. It's a lot more simple than people realize.

The people I’ve been privileged to meet around the world need to know that Jesus is everything that they need. If they long for peace, if they long for acceptance and wholeness and love and complete forgiveness, Jesus can be all that to them and more.  He is our only hope, for my family and for yours.

So that’s why I do what I do.

I have embarked on a journey: It began with two weeks with a Southeastern missions team in Ethiopia. It continues now with two and a half weeks in Malawi, and goes on to two weeks with a team I’m leading in Kampala, Uganda, a two-month internship with the same organization, and finally a semester at Ugandan Christian University in the Fall.

May 5^th to December 18^th. Around eight total months in Africa.

A chance to experience and share God’s love with this beautiful continent and even more beautiful people. I am excited, missing my family, but not for the whole world missing the chance to pull others into my True Family, and that's what it's all about.