Thank you for waiting so patiently for my next update. I really wanted to write an update a week ago, but I promise you that I had nothing to write then.
Most importantly, I have internet access at my host family's house now! Ok, I'm kidding about that being the most important thing. But it does mean that after next week, I'll be able to keep in touch with all of you better...hopefully.
As far as what I've been doing lately... Last week I was working in the daycare, helping teach English to kids, and also doing construction. This past week, we had a small team from Tennessee at the Project, and we all had a blast together. I got to work with a few of them doing something very interesting indeed. We stripped the paint off of a crib using shards of broken glass. Let me tell you, that is not an easy thing to do. The whole project--stripping, sanding, varnish--took two whole work days. But it looked beautiful in the end. Although the foreman at the Project said it wasn't worth the work and would be much quicker to just make a new one (which is what they decided to do in the end), they will now be able to give this to someone else who needs it instead of just throwing it in the burn pile. We're fans of re-using things here.
What I've been doing for fun...playing Monopoly, Uno, and Rook. :D No, really. Last night, I got to play a partial game of Rook and a partial game of Monopoly with a couple interns, one of the intern's host parents, and one of their brothers. It was really fun. I've enjoyed getting to know the other interns here, and two of them are already leaving next week. So sad!
On another note, I want to share how God has been working in my life more specifically. I want to be honest with you all so you can praise God with me and also know how to pray.
Up until this past Monday, I was really struggling with a lot of things. My host mom and I were not getting along at all, and I barely talked to anyone else in the family. The following is an excerpt from my journal, in retrospect, about how things were going for the first 2 ½ weeks:
I think I felt very confused about everything… What was I doing here? Why
was I away from the place I was thriving in so much in Madison? Why was I in
this house where nothing was going well? I didn't feel useful. I didn't feel
like I was keeping busy. I didn't know where I would be serving, like in the
church and in the Project. And I just felt so confused about everything, like
none of it made any sense at all to me. And I just kept getting more and more
confused about things and more and more unhappy. But that's what the enemy likes
to do, right? He's the master of confusion. Where God wants to put things in
order, the Enemy wants to confuse them. God is not a God of confusion but of
order… and the stupid thing is I was totally blinded to it. I guess I thought
this confusion was supposed to be kind of normal or something… you know,
everything's changed… new country, new language, new life, new purpose.
Things had gotten to the point with my host mom that I was preparing myself for the worst…moving out, which would not do anyone any good. There was a big fiasco on Sunday night, and we both ended up angry with each other.
Well, there is a lot of detail that would make this story really long, but that’s not the point so I’ll try to make a long story short. Basically, we ended up getting together—me, Dona Olga (my host mom), and Candace (the intern coordinator)—on Monday evening to try to straighten things out. After talking, it turned out to be one huge problem of communication and cultural misunderstanding. The thing is, none of us realized that until we got together and talked about it. It was really amazing how God turned the whole situation into something good. Apparently, all of us had prayed about what to do on Sunday night and felt that we needed to talk together. And on Monday afternoon, God reminded Dona Olga that He had told her I would be coming to her house before Candace called her to ask if I could stay at her house. For me, that is a huge confirmation that He has a purpose for me right here, in this house.
I believe that God has big things planned, but I also know that Satan will try to mess with that any way he can. Take this situation as an example. How could it have happened? I know the language quite well. I’ve been here before for two months and have already experienced the culture. Dona Olga heard from God that I would be coming but conveniently forgot about it for the first few weeks I was here. And we both are “prayer warriors” as Candace calls it. (See my last post for more on this.) This family is also quite prominent in the local church and could provide me with many opportunities that I may not have had by staying somewhere else. This is a fantastic situation, and I shouldn’t have had problems with communication. But, Satan likes to mess with a good thing so… communication is the perfect thing to mess with. Why would he want two “prayer warriors” in the same house praying together? Praying together is a unifying thing, as I’ve experienced in the past. And a unified body of believers is powerful and effective. I praise God that we are no longer having problems. In fact, at the end of our meeting we prayed together, and I believe we gained freedom from what Satan had been trying to do. I certainly felt a lot of freedom after that, even down to feeling more comfortable and at home in the house. But there is still a lot that needs to happen.
Please pray for the following:
-Continued development of relationships with my host family… relationships founded in Christ.
-Alertness against the Enemy’s schemes and protection in all areas that might be vulnerable to attack.
-Pray against loneliness, as I have been feeling very far away from my friends and family from home. Along with this, pray that friendships would be formed here and that I would find a community to be a part of.
-That God would show me my purpose here and that I would be listening when He speaks… I am definitely re-learning how to listen to Him and am making it a daily practice to spend time doing just that.
Be blessed! I think about you all very often and so wish that I could call you up and talk to you at any time! I am praying for you so please let me know if there is any way I can pray more specifically.
Steve, the coordinator of the children's homes, and I wore the same t-shirt on the same day...twice :D
One of the views from the second floor of my home.
Out the same window but in another direction
