September

The last several weeks have been event-filled and busy as you can imagine. I am so thankful for the grace of God. He is so good. His Word encourages me every day. It is hard to try and summarize all the things that have happened and all the things I am learning.

Church: I thank the Lord for a kind, caring church. The people are so generous with the little they have. I had the opportunity to eat at one of our deacon's houses the Sunday after my birthday. We were given a huge bowl of chicken soup (very delicious) and then the main course (I have learned to expect that now), which included a heaping plate of 3-4 potatoes, salad, and a big slab of beef with a special sauce. This was after Mrs. Carlton asked if us girls could have a little less, since we didn't have as big of appetites. :) You have to eat slow and steady, cutting your food into little pieces and taking it step by step. I don't say this because it didn't taste good, but because there is so much of it that it becomes a challenge to eat it all! Please pray for a teenager I am trying to get to know. She has some great spiritual needs, and I am trying to connect with her. I am praying the Lord can use me in some way. This Saturday we are having a medical clinic come to the church for the entire day. Pray that our church people would have their needs met, that many neighbors would come and hear the gospel, and that these neighbors would continue coming to our church. Please continue to pray for my time management, so that I can spend more time working with my church.

School: I am learning new things every day. I have always loved working with teens, but hadn't experienced too many difficulties in my past work with them. Being a high school teacher has given me some new challenges and at times difficulties, but there are great joys in my work with them. Please pray for wisdom for me as I teach high school. Please pray for one of my students and her spiritual needs. I believe she is saved, but the Catholicism in her family is confusing her. Also please keep praying the student who is unsaved. She is counting the cost of salvation and isn't sure she wants to repent.

We went on a staff retreat two weekends ago, and the Lord did a work in my heart. The theme (in English) was "The Love of God is Greater than __________." We studied different Bible characters and the effect of God's love in each of their lives. The life of Joseph was especially a blessing for me to think on. We also discussed philosophy of evangelism, which was encouraging and reviving for sharing the gospel with others even when we don't speak the same language. I roomed with one of our librarians who is Peruvian and was able to speak Spanish all weekend. It was fun to get to know her and others that I work with but didn't know well before.

Other: We have had several birthday celebrations in the last couple of weeks. It seems like there has been one a week at least. We had a party at our house for my birthday as well. It was very fun. The girls were very thoughtful!