Tuesday was the last day of school for the kids and I think they really enjoyed it. They didn’t have anything to do and we didn’t plan much for them to do, so I was really happy when I could put my Student Government knowledge from high school to use. I played team building games with them and they loved it! We played telephone, picture telephone, Pictionary, and human knot. It was a blast and I think they had a great time. It was sad for the day to end. The kids left and to my knowledge, I’ll never be able to see them again. Maybe God will call me back here to help teach (I hope not to teach lol), but many students don’t stay at that school. Almost all of them have someone in their family that lives in the states so they are trying to go there. Some of them succeed so they don’t go back to the school. Kate said she doesn’t have too many students return. They either graduate or move. You’ve got very little time to impact these kids for the rest of their lives. It’s up to God to do the work because in the limited amount of time you have to teach these kids and show them God’s love; only God can make the impact lasting and worthwhile.
I finally finished The Reason for God. It was excellent as I’ve said about a zillion times. A couple more things hit me as I finished up the book.
The biggest thing that hit me in the book was the ending chapter. It was really on how he addressed the issue of “Where do we go from here?” Now that he has made his side for why the arguments against God are invalid and why the clues make sense to point to there is a God and He is the God of the Bible, then what should they do now? He answers it quite well. He says that we need to basically repent and believe in Christ. But, then he goes on to say:
“The faith that changes the life and connects to God is best conveyed by the word ‘trust’. Imagine you are on a high cliff and you lose your footing and begin to fall. Just beside you as you fall is a branch sticking out of the very edge of the cliff. It is your only hope and it is more than strong enough to support your weight. How can it save you? If your mind is filled with intellectual certainty that the branch can support you, but you don’t actually reach out and grab it, you are lost. If your mind is instead filled with doubts and uncertainty that the branch can hold you, but you reach out and grab it anyways, you will be saved. Why? It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”
That basically says it all. Even with your doubts, hold onto God. That is not to say that you shouldn’t explore those doubts. Everyone should get to the bottom of their doubts and ask God to guide them, but never give up your faith or not try God when you have doubts. He’s ultimately the strongest “branch” we can hold onto.
Wow. Sorry I talk so much about the book. Obviously, I think it’s good.
Thank you to my family and Daryl and Jackie for the care packages I received yesterday! I got 2 care packages with goodies and it made me so happy. Thank you thank you thank you!
I was supposed to go to an orphanage yesterday, but we ended up not going because it was raining and Haitians hate rain. We were going to the orphanage to take kids out to evangelize. We can’t really evangelize with kids if the kids won’t go because of the rain. Oh well, better luck next time. I have the girl’s number and she said any day I want to go, I just have to call her. I’ll go sometime before I leave.
Yesterday, we had a new team come in. I was under the impression that it was a team of college students. I was clearly mistaken. It is a team of all adults. I don’t mind. I am really excited they are here. It’s something new and I’ll still be helping them out with everything, but if I’m being honest, I was a little disappointed. Oh well, there will be college teams coming in next week and the week after. I just misunderstood about this team. No big deal though. I’m excited for the radio evangelism no matter who it’s with. All in God’s plan.
I began reading Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris. It’s excellent. I just started it today and I am already 130 pages in. I love it. Apparently I say that about every book though, but I really mean that about every book I read :) It’s actually pretty convicting though. Tough read emotionally. It’s about courtship and dating with the purpose of marriage. It talks about when to know it’s God’s timing (although you can never fully know) and it addresses the role of the male in the courtship and the role of the female in the courtship. I never knew how mistaken I was at what it meant to court. I knew I never wanted to date by American standards, but just recently (in January) a guy and I began what I would call courting. I thought it was going well. We both had things we weren’t sure about and in the end he ended up breaking it off. I now see that this was a good thing. I wasn’t spiritually ready and the way I was approaching the courtship wasn’t the way God intended it. This book has opened my eyes to see what the Bible says about courtship. The guy that I was “courting” and I, we never really had deep spiritual conversations, we didn’t really have deep conversations at all. It was all surface which is fine for a while, but you never get to know someone unless you intentionally embark into conversations with merit and meaning. Ones where you get to really know each other and know what the Lord means to one another. And that last part is the kicker. The Lord has to be the center. He has to be the reason you are in a courtship or else you shouldn’t be in it. It’s not about me. It never was. It’s all about God and that’s why the courtship should have started.. None of that is to say that’s exactly how the courtship went. I liked it. I had a great time. And we did try to serve the Lord with the courtship, but in the end, it wasn’t going to work. Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox.
Sorry all of you who are already married or heading that way. This may not seem important to you right now, but I hope the younger ones read this and understand God needs to be the center of our relationships. (If you married ones have more to add, please do. I’m clearly inexperienced.)
Today, I had an awful day. I woke up and ran. I wasn’t feeling too hot when I was running, but I figured it would pass. It didn’t. I finished running and jumped in the shower. Not even a second later, I was getting sick all morning long. It was horrible. I feel drained and really disappointed that I couldn’t go to the Prayer Tree today (It’s a fasting and praise time at a tree with a lot of Christians just praising God. It’s amazing. I’ve been before, but I really wanted to go again.). I know it is all in God’s hands. I was able to pray a lot this morning (more like beg a lot so I would stop getting sick), but the really cool thing about this all was when I called my mom. I started crying because who wants to get sick in a foreign country with no family or friends to help them? My mom said something amazing. She said, “Honey, I know you don’t feel well. I wish I was there. I will be praying for you. But you have to remember God has a reason for this and a plan. I know you don’t want to be sick, but God has a purpose. I’ll pray that His will would be done today for you and that maybe His will can be that you get better.” The faith my mom had to have to say that is astounding. No parent wants their child to be sick especially if they’re helpless. Those words have stuck with me all day. I know my mom loves me and I know she wants me to get feeling better, but she has faith that this is in God’s hands and He is in control and there is literally nothing she physically do for me.
I think that’s it for updates. Sorry this was so long, but it was on my heart. We are going evangelizing tomorrow if I am feeling up to it. They may go without me, but I really want to go. Please pray for my health and strength. I am completely exhausted. But, like my mom said, I want whatever God’s will is to be done. Whatever that may be. Thank you all for reading! I really appreciate it!