Expect the Unexpected

“Expect the Unexpected”

6/7/12

Today in my Daily Bread, it said, “I know who holds the future, and I know who holds my hand; with God, things don’t just happen—everything by Him is planned”. The title was “Uncontrollable Unexpected” and gave the verses in James that talk about making plans without remembering that at any time they can change. I’m a pretty “go with the flow” type person, so it usually isn’t hard for me to not know every single thing that comes next. However, I’m still human, so it gets frustrating to not know the future. I wanted to have every single thing planned out before I got here, and unfortunately, that wasn’t able to happen. It can get frustrating wanting to do so much and having to wait to figure out what I will be doing, but at the same time, I remember that I’m flexible and am able to do whatever, whenever. I’m looking into several options on how to spend some of my time, but just spending time with my “family” and friends here has been awesome.

Curiosity

“Curiosity”

6/6/12

            After writing my last post, I went inside for a little bit and sat down with one of the little boys to see his homework. This may sound crazy, but for some reason, I was so impressed and somewhat surprised. It’s not like I think America is the only country with good education, but I guess I never realize how awesome God is to have put in place so many countries and so many languages, yet have the same universal truths, like mathematics and science. As I looked through his writings, I read math word problems, and it reminded me of when I was in middle school. The little boy was learning about pi (which is pronounced like the letter ‘p’ here) and circumference. It was quite interesting.

My Home

“My Home”

     6/4/12

It has been such a blessing being here. All of these seemingly small things impact me in such a big way. As I said before, the fact that this family is allowing me to live in their house is first and foremost such an incredible thing. I have never understood such hospitality in my life this strongly. My mom always welcomed people into our home, especially if they really needed to be there, but somehow I never truly grasped fully that accommodation is a big deal.

Es Ecuador!

***6/3/12

OKAY! SO I'm officially in Ecuador, and today is my second day! Yesterday was a pretty decent day. I'm going to post what I wrote yesterday at the bottom of this post so that you can read about my flight info if you want to.

Straight paths.

So it's been quite a while since I last posted, and much has happened. First of all, I left the country for about a week and a half last month. I went to Ecuador, and it was incredible. [to read updates, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/257699264289961/]. I enjoyed hanging out with llamas, eating awesome food, putting rock climbing walls together, planting trees, and singing with the Ecuadorian youth!

The best friend I could ever have.

As I write these entries, I always come up with these crazy analogies and experiences on the fly, so just bare with me!

Every other Sunday morning I teach Sunday school, and a few weeks ago, I had to teach my preschoolers about David and Jonathan in the Bible. Basically, if you don't know, these two Old Testament characters were best friends. Even when Jonathan's father, who was the king, was trying to kill David, Jonathan protected him and saved him from the anger of his father. That's a pretty legitimate friendship if he was willing to take his side over his father's, when his father ruled the land!

Then we had to have the kids make crafts for their best friends. It really got me thinking... and then it really got me lonely. I don't have a significant other OR best friend right now. BUT do I think this is on purpose? Absolutely! I think God took out all the distractions in my life in order to help me focus and re-evaluate.