A Reason to Smile

Today I was helping Angie out with some of the kids while Pastor Alex is out of town. Mason (2) and I were looking through a book of animals. We came to a page that had several kinds of fish on it, one of which was a clown fish. "What kind of animal are those?" I asked him. "Nemos," he replied. (Finding Nemo...Nemo was a clown fish...get it!?!)

More Than You Can Imagine

In the Beth Moore study of Genesis (called The Patriarchs), Beth discusses Abraham’s faith in reference to his willingness to sacrifice Isaac, the son of the promise, the son through which God was going to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham figured that if God said Isaac was the child of the promise, and Abraham’s descendants would come through Isaac, then they would. Abraham did not doubt God’s goodness or trustworthiness when asked to sacrifice his only son. Beth pointed out that there had never before been a recorded example of resurrection, but, as cited in Hebrews 11, Abraham assumed that God would raise Isaac from the dead after Abraham killed him; Isaac had to end up alive for the promise to be fulfilled through him. Beth went on to say that often we believe that what is possible with God are things that are probable already. Yikes! God, give us faith to believe that you are capable of things more incredible than we can even imagine! Teach us how to pray with great trust in you! Teach us to assume that you are honest and good all the time!

The Merging of My Worlds

I have mentioned this in previous updates, but my church here in Florida is feeling more like home. As I look back, I remember it taking a while before Rooftop felt like home, too. I looked around at a BUNCH of different churches for the few months after I moved here and ended up going to this church around March. In April, I got involved in the Sunday night college/young adult worship services. In May, I started going to a small group with the college/young adult girls on Wednesdays. In June, I started going to Sunday School with the college/young adults. In July, I started volunteering in the nursery once a month during the Sunday night college/young adult services (some girls from the Lifeline Pregnancy Center go, along with other adults who help out and have kids). Slowly, but surely, I am getting involved. Though I have hung out with some of the girls from the House (That's what the college/young adult group is called) one-on-one before, and Sarah from NMSI went with me to the House once, it is only now, during August, that my two worlds (NMSI/work and church) are beginning to merge a little.

Two of my new housemates went to the House! They have also gone running or biking with me. I love that they want to be involved in activities I love! That is so NICE!. Furthermore, I invited some girls from the House over to NMSIland (my house) for the first time this very week. I know that the two worlds don't have to merge completely, but I think it is an indicator of increased comfortability in each world that this is happening occasionally. How fun!

As far as other world merging opportunities, I am planning to go back to St. Louis to do some more support-raising and vist family, etc. over the holidays (probably during December). I'll keep you posted as I decide when exactly that will be. I would love to meet up with you during that time!!!

A Blast From the Past

So there are two cool things about being a missionary and sending monthly updates. The first is that I have to take more time to process what God's teaching me so I can explain it to other people. The second is that people write back! I love hearing from people! I love that I get to interact with people that I may not have otherwise!

Case in point: Just this week I got to talk to a former high school youth group sponsor from my church and my elementary art school teacher. How cool is that!?!? Art was by FAR my favorite special class in elementary school! Writing back to her made me think of fun conversation inspired by one of the projects that we did when I was in fifth grade.

Not too long ago, I was telling my friend Lydia (4 years old) about some masks that we made. We put Vaseline on our faces, got some cloth/plastery strips wet, overlapped the strips on our faces with only holes for our eyes and nose, and let them dry. After they set for a few minutes, we pulled them off, scrubbed some crusty stuff off our faces around the hairline, and returned to class. The next few classes we decorated the masks with paint and feathers and such. They were SO COOL because they were individualized...exactly the size of YOUR face! Lydia seemed interested and asked a few questions to better understand the mask making process. Then I told her that we made another mask like that in seventh grade and that my face was a different shape by then. I was thinking about how I had really chubby cheeks in fifth grade and how the mask I made in seventh grade was much smaller, less rounded...my seventh grade face seemed so small when I tried to put it into my fifth grade mask. Lydia, however, stared at me wide-eyed and asked, "What shape WAS it?!?!" It turns out she was thinking my face had literally changed shapes so that it was triangle or square or another "shape." Ha ha!! I love kids!