ayoba or not ayoba

ayoba or not ayoba (cool or not cool)

devotional

the pfled at kids club

everyone at our house is starting to leave, it's really saddio. but it sort of makes me really excited to come home and back to Amurica. i secretly have started to mentally 'check out' but then i have to remind myself i still have a few weeks left! can i first say that i'm really excited to eat mexican food, and be in hot weather!

i've been doing a lot of reflecting lately on what i've learned and what my purpose has been here. and what i've come up so far is this:

maturity is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go.

it almost seems unfair because i feel like i have learned and soaked up more than i will leave with the people of south africa, but at the end of the day i know i've done something that i never thought i could do, and the only explanation for that is trust. nothing has really gone according to MY plan but somehow is has all worked out perfectly. it's too often easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. and i have realized that allowing myself to listen and take action even if it isn't easy is all that we are ultimately

today, at the shelter i sat with a woman named, Sharon, she's a drug addict with a sleazy boyfriend, naturally we've become friends. after tea & morning devotional she approached me tears in her eyes, i immediately pulled her outside and began asking what was wrong? turns out Sharon's boyfriend got a little rough this weekend and had punched her in the jaw.

hmm well since i'm not really an expert with relationships let alone abusive ones.. i did the only thing i felt appropriate, i asked her if we could pray together? my heart breaks for these people and their stories. Sharon sat there telling me how she wants to get off the street, but doesn't know how and i sat there feeling so hopeless for her, not really sure what to tell her. i kept quiet and we both embraced my silence.

before lunch we had another devotional, and it was as if God had written it for Sharon, it was everything i should have said, but was too nervous. basically the message was Nothing is too big for God, & no one is too far gone for God to love. the more i think about it the more i realize that sometimes we are all just as lost and hopeless as Sharon, but the good news is we DO have something or someone to seek hope in..

Can't wait to be home. hugs from here.

Romans 8:31 "what, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?"

ps. we taught the kids about sexual abuse today, totally serious subject matter, but funny poster. "good touch, bad touch" skit was included, starring, yours truly.