Happy thanksgiving. I want to thank all of you for all your support while I have been gone. I appreciate all your prayers and staying in contact with me. It has been three months (one of the students told me 93 days). Time has flown. I want it back. But the time has been good. I try each day to live in the moment and with no regrets. I have had many great adventures while here, made lots of good memories, created inside jokes, and left my GAP with some good stories to tell when they go home... I have grown a lot, learned a lot, and fallen in love with the people here. I am so thankful God brought me here.
I had a great Thanksgiving with my GAP family and SCORE missionaries. It was Thanksgiving! It was great. The food was great. After our dinner, some of the students had their small group and then one of our leaders had a meeting to give us some fundraising tips. As of right now i still need a little over $2,000, but my church has put the sunday school offering towards me this month so I do not know where that leaves me yet. But I am praying. God is so much bigger than 2,000 dollars.
This past month I was able to spend a weekend at the ministry God called me to. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed spending time with the lady who is encharge of us students when we are there, Adrienne. This past weekend we took a trip to the mountains to help a missionary family who just moved there. While we were there we put on a kids program and we did it all in spanish! It was hard, we triped on our words but with God's help the program was a success.
I love Emanuel House and I am so thankful that God called me there. The girls who serve with me are great. Our leaders are awesome. And the kids are... I do not know how to put but they have stolen my heart. I love talking to the short term mission groups about them and sharing with them about sponsorship. I have seen God move many individuals' hearts to want to sponsor kids that they have intertacted with while serving. It so exciting. Adrienne, Jaime, and I are thrilled.
This just one of the many ways I have seen God at work this month.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
Friday 7-11-14
Last night I had a conversation with a high school student, who is here on a short term mission trip, about how he wishes they had taken the trip the first year of spanish so he would have been motivated to learn spanish for the rest of the high school years. I was thinking about that this morning and about Colossians 3:23. For me, Colossians 3:23 has come up several times this week so I know God is trying to get my attention. Several of us students have said I wish I would have known that God was going to call me to a spanish speaking country or I wish I would have known I was actually going to use this one day. That is where Colossians 3:23 come in. We need to do everything as though it is for God (because for us Christians it is) not for people. We need to do our best in school not for our teachers or parents but for God because it might help you with what/where He calls you. - this is what God has been teaching me this week
Yesterday i bullot noted some things that God has been teaching me while I have been here. I was quite amazed not only by how many things but also how many times each of those things have come up. For example
- thursday 30-10-14 (start) Colossians 3 ( reading through Colossians at Carter's repeated suggestion to our Bible class, Jaime at huddle, Pastor Nate's sermon on Sunday, Adrienne's prayer before we started our day on ministry day. )
This is what my notes about what God has been teaching me looks like. God has been using all the adults in my life to teach me things and it was humbling to see that written all out in front of me. God is good.
One of the first things God started teaching me here was that He was going to redeem my weaknesses. You would not believe how many times 2 Corintians 12:9 has come up! It comes up at least weekly for me still. I know I have not journaled every time it has come up but I know the first time was when JAime shared it at huddle and the last time was this pasat week when she gave us each a little poster with a verse on it and mine was 2 Corithians 12:9. Lets just say I have the verse memorized now. God is so amazing. I love to see Him at work.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Sunday 2-11-14
Recaping for last month... I am sorry I have posted in awhile. I have been away the pact couple of Sundays. This month I have started ministry, which has been going great. I have gone for three times and got to spend the night twice. We started host homes and have gone once. We will go a second time this month. The family I stayed with is known for serving his kids fish. There were all making jokes because I told them I did not eat fish. Lets just say that it was the best chicken i have ever had. He made fried and grilled. They were both delicious. I cannot believe I have deprived myself of something for so long just because I did not like the smell. He hosted a party at a lake and we were invited (us students) and the church. He fed us lunch and i was given the choice of chicken or fish. Everyone chose fish. They had all heard from me how good it was and they liked it too. Even the other students who did not usually eat fish.
We spent a week in the mountains. It was a much needed break for us and for our leaders. They banned homework and we had no wifi so it was each other, our Bibles or our pillow. It was great. We were near a beautiful stream/river which was a soothing sound to wake up to every morning. We spent hours reading our Bibles. It was an awesome weekend. God knew we needed it.
When we got back, we hit some hard patches. I have seen or heard about 7/12 students crying this past week. I also know four of the adults around here had a hard week too. We know satan is just trying to bring us down after an amazing weekend with God. My apartment pulled together for each other. They are awesome. When someone starts crying we gather together and start praying. I am so blessed. This past week was the second time I have dealt with being home sick. I was journaling and listening to K-love when i just started crying. I had been think about how much fun i had had with Sophia and Tuari last halloween that morning. I went back to my apartment and girls all gave me hugs and got me laughing about something. I cannot say it to many times. God has blessed me with awesome apartment mates. Also my small group really affirmed one another this week and a lot of,what we talked about hit home. We wrote each other encouraging notes and then our small group leader gave us a card with an encouraging note too. Their notes to me almost made me cry. I read them over and over again as I was struggling this week. They helped me get through. I love Wednesdays because of small groups.
Also this past week we had an exam and a oral test. Hard stuff. Amongst all the stress from homesickness, short tempers, studying and worrying about failing tests, we kept our eyes on God and the trip on saturday that we were invited to. It was prefect for us. I feel so much better. We spent our day swimming, playing games and talking with each other. It was great to hang out with some of the missionaries that we only see in church or at our ministry.
We spent a week in the mountains. It was a much needed break for us and for our leaders. They banned homework and we had no wifi so it was each other, our Bibles or our pillow. It was great. We were near a beautiful stream/river which was a soothing sound to wake up to every morning. We spent hours reading our Bibles. It was an awesome weekend. God knew we needed it.
When we got back, we hit some hard patches. I have seen or heard about 7/12 students crying this past week. I also know four of the adults around here had a hard week too. We know satan is just trying to bring us down after an amazing weekend with God. My apartment pulled together for each other. They are awesome. When someone starts crying we gather together and start praying. I am so blessed. This past week was the second time I have dealt with being home sick. I was journaling and listening to K-love when i just started crying. I had been think about how much fun i had had with Sophia and Tuari last halloween that morning. I went back to my apartment and girls all gave me hugs and got me laughing about something. I cannot say it to many times. God has blessed me with awesome apartment mates. Also my small group really affirmed one another this week and a lot of,what we talked about hit home. We wrote each other encouraging notes and then our small group leader gave us a card with an encouraging note too. Their notes to me almost made me cry. I read them over and over again as I was struggling this week. They helped me get through. I love Wednesdays because of small groups.
Also this past week we had an exam and a oral test. Hard stuff. Amongst all the stress from homesickness, short tempers, studying and worrying about failing tests, we kept our eyes on God and the trip on saturday that we were invited to. It was prefect for us. I feel so much better. We spent our day swimming, playing games and talking with each other. It was great to hang out with some of the missionaries that we only see in church or at our ministry.
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