Count Your Blessings

It's been a week since I last posted and honestly the week has just flown by. The week was marked with struggles and some heartache, but God has been faithful to reveal Himself to me and comfort me during this time. And throughout the week He has been blessing me with words of encouragement from both people here and those at home along with little glimpses into some of the hearts of the people here.

Here's a quick run down on some of the happenings:

This past weekend was pretty slow, but God spoke to me during my Saturday morning Bible study about being willing to focus on the good and turn a blind eye to the stuff that I'm not happy with. Basically, it was just a reminder that I have to get over myself and being my own stumbling block. Again, God brought up the lesson that I seem to be relearning all the time: while I may have plans, it will be His Purpose that prevails through it all. We've reached the halfway point of the trip, and while I'm excited to be that much closer to being able to see family and friends again, I need to remember to focus on the little time I have left to see what God is doing here. While I had been praying each day for God to use me, I am now praying before each and every time I enter the church, schools, or social event that God will allow me to see what He is doing and that He will give me the opportunity to share my love of Him with others whether through actions or words.

Polly and I are helping to plan a lock-in for the youth next weekend, so we've been doing quite a bit of work on that. The forms all went out yesterday and hopefully we'll get some good return on them. None of these kids have ever been involved in a service project in the community, which we have planned for on Friday, so I hope that the experience will be a bit eye-opening to them to see that there is stuff here they can do to help out.

The kids all go on holidays next week, so no one has been focused. The RE classes and Supa Clubs were crazy this week with fighting and discord, but on Tuesday, we went to Grade 1 RE classes, and it was such a blessing to interact with those kids. They were all so sweet and one even asked the teacher "Can these lovely ladies come back?" It is remarkable to know that in February most of these kids knew nothing about God, and now they are keen on it and love singing the Christian songs! Also, we talked to a Grade 7 class about knowing God, and they asked some really good questions about religion and what we believed, so it really is all about planting those seeds.

The 15+ Bible Study was over Ephesians 4:1-16, and I think we taught a little over their heads. They asked some good questions, including a couple of controversial ones...which the only way I could answer is this is what God has lead me to believe, but you have to investigate for yourself and find peace with God in what you decide. They didn't seem to want to debate (I'm not sure if they even felt equipped to debate if they wanted to)...I really think they just need to be challenged to really look into what they believe and why they believe it instead of just taking everything people say as fact when it comes to Christianity. The lesson ended up focusing on that point as we went through the verses, so I'm praying that God starts working in some of their hearts to spend more time in His Word truly studying it.

We've moved again, and the family we're staying with is nice and their house is super nice. It is on the water again, and I have a room (with a balcony!) that overlooks the canal. As Will says, I'm living the high life on my mission trip!

This weekend includes a birthday get-together tonight, a breakfast for a team going to Africa tomorrow morning, an Australian football game tomorrow afternoon, and then I'm giving my testimony in the services on Sunday.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray that God will give me the opportunity to really invest in at least one person's life here. There are a few people that God has already placed on my heart, but I haven't really had a chance to speak to them on a more personal level.
• Continue to pray for the lessons that I will be leading during July. Two children's church lessons have been added to that list, which I'm planning on doing over a couple of the stories in Daniel.
• Pray for acceptance on both my part and the Aussies' part. I have felt a little out of place this entire time so far just because I feel like they treat me like a horse of a different color sometimes, but I know that I'm not the most compassionate and accepting person either. However, acceptance is so vital to allowing relationships to grow closer.

Thank you again for your prayers and encouragement throughout the past half of this trip, and in eager expectation and hope I am waiting to see what God does with the second part of it!