What a week! I will soon hit the half-way point in the semester and I am amazed at how quickly most days fly by, but then there are those days that seem to drag on and on. I have NEVER felt this way in a place where I served. The first 2 weeks or so are usually hard in getting acquainted with a new culture but then I always get to the point where I can see myself living there long-term. Not here. Please don’t misunderstand me. I LOVE teaching my students! I really wish everyone had the privilege of getting to know these kids better. They are so loud and crazy, but they listen during our Bible stories, they ask me questions, they give the best hugs and make me laugh until it hurts, and when they pray my whole heart just cries out with joy. I love my team! I have been blessed in the past with some teams that really learned how to work together and deal with each others differences in a way that glorifies God and I believe our team here is doing the same thing. We all have our days when we would rather stay in bed or just have our space but overall I believe that we all gel together wonderfully. It truly is a beautiful blessing! I am falling in love with the families that I have gotten to know by babysitting for them in the evenings and the weekends. I am really starting to connect with some people from our local body of believers and I am really enjoying getting to volunteer in a public school on Wednesday mornings so that I can get to know the lead teacher who needs to meet Jesus. Those are the things that make my time here seem “worth it”, but of course that is looking through the eyes of Laura Sewell and not the eyes of Christ! Who am I to judge?? I have no idea what He is doing here in the lives of the people. I can only know what’s going on inside this heart of mine. I believe that Christ is pulling me closer and closer to Him each day because I can not rely on myself or my best friends or my family here. I have to rely on Him to get me through. I am learning to pray and ask God to help me do all things and respond to all things in a way that that glorifies Him even when I am asked to do things that I might not agree with. I am learning to pray and ask God to give me true joy when I spend the majority of my time cleaning a building. I am learning to rely on Christ for all of the encouragement I need and for a moldable spirit when I feel like I can do nothing right. I am learning that it’s not about pleasing people (because that can be impossible at times) but it’s about pleasing Christ, living a life that’s totally surrendered to Him. It’s not always easy to turn directly to Christ at all times. I have not had to learn these lessons at home because I was not in an environment when I had no one else. I am thankful for this. I believe that if I can not remain faithful to Christ while serving in Lake Tahoe, then I will not remain faithful to Him if/when He calls me to North Korea or wherever in the world He wants me. I want to be able to say “Thank you Lord” when my stomach hurts from laughing with my students, when I am mopping a floor, cleaning the walls of the bathrooms, cleaning people’s houses, having a dance party with sweet kids, laying in bed listening to my wonderful team make fun of each other and talking about our days, visiting people in their homes, trying to figure out peoples love languages, getting reprimanded for things, teaching Sunday School, sitting and looking at the most incredible sunrise, and reading letters from and talking to the best support system any girl could ask for. I want God to be glorified in all. This is the season when I am seeing just a glimpse into what this looks like. I mess up a whole lot. I’m still moody. The beautiful thing is that I am daughter of The King and He loves me and is teaching me each day how to be more like Him. I have a reason to sing and a reason to worship. In every season!
“Don’t ever give up on or discount anything that Jesus was willing to die for”
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