Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, April 28, 2011
tonight
Tonight was a beautiful night. There was laughter. There was food. There was praying. There was joking. There was care. There was dessert. There was English. There was Spanish. There was Jesus.
My friends, Leah and Amanda, hosted a dinner with more of my other friends that I have made while here at Doulos. It was such a good time to be with them and enjoy life together.
My time here has been more than a blessing. It has been complete and full. These past four months will always be apart of who I am and who I become. The people I worked with everyday are apart of that. God knew. He orchestrated. He provided. He Loved.
I lay my head down tonight content. I hope and believe that God is honored by that.
My friends, Leah and Amanda, hosted a dinner with more of my other friends that I have made while here at Doulos. It was such a good time to be with them and enjoy life together.
My time here has been more than a blessing. It has been complete and full. These past four months will always be apart of who I am and who I become. The people I worked with everyday are apart of that. God knew. He orchestrated. He provided. He Loved.
I lay my head down tonight content. I hope and believe that God is honored by that.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
How Beautiful!
It's been a slow day and exactly what I needed.
The past couple days have been full of hanging out with people I get to see every day at work. Amanda mention the other day how funny it was that we even spend Spring Break together. What a testimony to friendships that are made in Christ. Spring Break wasn't a week for us to get away from each other but a week to grow closer and do more than just work together. Do life together. I think it is beautiful and pleasing to God.
Tomorrow we begin work again, and I must say I am ready for the routine of it. I am ready for a few more days there. But it will not be long before I am returning home. I am ready and thankful that the Lord blessed me with a desire of my heart.
He is a good and fun God.
The past couple days have been full of hanging out with people I get to see every day at work. Amanda mention the other day how funny it was that we even spend Spring Break together. What a testimony to friendships that are made in Christ. Spring Break wasn't a week for us to get away from each other but a week to grow closer and do more than just work together. Do life together. I think it is beautiful and pleasing to God.
Tomorrow we begin work again, and I must say I am ready for the routine of it. I am ready for a few more days there. But it will not be long before I am returning home. I am ready and thankful that the Lord blessed me with a desire of my heart.
He is a good and fun God.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
La playa Fronton
This is where I spent spring break! You would have thought that I was straight out of a travel magazine or something!
We camped on the beach from Sunday to Wednesday. It was the perfect amount of time. There was a lot of resting, eating, reading, sunscreen, laying in hammocks, talking, and admiring the beauty God created. For most of my life I have always done something non-traditional for Spring Break. This was first (or maybe second) spring break that I went to the beach. Definitely a great one to end on and worth waiting for.
I still have a few more days off work and then before I know it, I will be on a plane back home. Bittersweet.
Happy viewing!...I will write again soon.
We camped on the beach from Sunday to Wednesday. It was the perfect amount of time. There was a lot of resting, eating, reading, sunscreen, laying in hammocks, talking, and admiring the beauty God created. For most of my life I have always done something non-traditional for Spring Break. This was first (or maybe second) spring break that I went to the beach. Definitely a great one to end on and worth waiting for.
I still have a few more days off work and then before I know it, I will be on a plane back home. Bittersweet.
Happy viewing!...I will write again soon.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Today
hallelujah grace like rain
falls down on me
hallelujah!
all my stains are washed
ARE WASHED AWAY
when we've been there
10 thousand years
bright shining as the sun
we've no less day
to sing your praise
then when we first begun
Hallelujah!!!
Today I sit a small room on the island if the Dominican Republic. I sit with windows open to the warm breeze and noise of the neighbors beside me. I sit forgiven. I sit not worthy. I sit beloved. and I sit restored.
You know those days where you just feel different. You can't pinpoint why today more than any other but your heart, your spirit is radiating from you and you can feel the difference. You can feel peace swelling in every muscle of your body. You feel rest. You feel right. You feel God. You remember Christ on the cross. You remember your sin. And you are content. You remember where you have come from, the stupid things you have done, the shameful things you have thought, and the people you have hurt. You remember the resurrection. And you feel life.
Today I feel that. Nothing in particular has occurred, but I can feel it. I am confident that the Lord brought me here. To the Dominican Republic for Himself. Not for Doulos. Not for me. Not to graduate college. But for Him. I feel that this afternoon and I am content. I am able to just be.
With every new experience, adventure, journey, peak, and valley the Lord brings me I feel like I have only scratched the surface of it all. There is so much more. He is so much more. HOW COOL!! it NEVER ends! Forever and EVER we get to feel, experience, know, learn, and be more.
God wants me. My doubts, my questions, my emotions, my thoughts, my actions, my rest, my discipline, my wardrobe, my friends, my future husband, my family, my life. Everything that is apart of me, He wants. Not to fix. But to be with me. To take me farther, deeper, stronger, weaker, harder and softer.
How exciting! How scary! How Beautiful is our God.
Today I am in the DR. In two weeks I will be in the United States. In three weeks I will be a college graduate. In six months I will be a wife. Forever I will be adopted by God through His only Son, Jesus, who died on a cross for me and then woke from His tomb and presented to me living water. It tastes so good.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
sleepy time
So I feel like most of the time that I have blogged about my time here it has been positive and exciting. Which my time here has been but there are also some annoying things that make me so excited and thankful
Sleeping here can be one of the most frustrating things. Especially when you are someone like me who makes sleep a priority :) Here is why:
The mosquitoes here have superpowers and find there way to any human possible. In the states I was already a Hot commodity with the mosquitoes and therefore here I might as well draw my blood and hang it outside for their convenience and make the whole process easier.
Therefore at night when I am trying to sleep I will wake up at some odd hour of the night and have 5 or 6 mosquito bites burning and itching on any exposed skin to the air (most commonly my arms). Last night this occurred. It requires me to get up, grab my bug spray, go out of the room (as to not wake up Stef), and spray myself down. However this does not dampens the intense itching that is holding on strong.
By this point in the night the rest of the Dominicans have actually gone to sleep which means I can take out my ear plugs. (If you go to bed before 12 or 1 noise will keep you up if you are someone who can't sleep through it). So I get the freedom of taking out my ear plugs (they kinda hurts after a while) but at just the right time when I am drifting back into sleep and I have forgotten about the itching, one of these precious super-powered little creatures (the mosquitoes) will think it's fun to circle directly above my ear playing it's beloved mosquito anthem of "bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". It is enough to wake you up and keep you up. (Matt is a witness from his visit here).
Ideally we would have a fan that ran all night which is the trick for people who don't have mosquito nets (the strength of the wind is too strong for the mosquitoes). But naturally ours broke about 2 or 3 weeks ago right as it was getting warmer and these little beast were coming back out to play (more than they already had been).
This is definitely a part of my time here that I am looking forward to coming to an end.
http://monkeywong.com/2008/07/17/i-hate-mosquitoes-do-you/
I couldn't have said it better.
Sleeping here can be one of the most frustrating things. Especially when you are someone like me who makes sleep a priority :) Here is why:
The mosquitoes here have superpowers and find there way to any human possible. In the states I was already a Hot commodity with the mosquitoes and therefore here I might as well draw my blood and hang it outside for their convenience and make the whole process easier.
Therefore at night when I am trying to sleep I will wake up at some odd hour of the night and have 5 or 6 mosquito bites burning and itching on any exposed skin to the air (most commonly my arms). Last night this occurred. It requires me to get up, grab my bug spray, go out of the room (as to not wake up Stef), and spray myself down. However this does not dampens the intense itching that is holding on strong.
By this point in the night the rest of the Dominicans have actually gone to sleep which means I can take out my ear plugs. (If you go to bed before 12 or 1 noise will keep you up if you are someone who can't sleep through it). So I get the freedom of taking out my ear plugs (they kinda hurts after a while) but at just the right time when I am drifting back into sleep and I have forgotten about the itching, one of these precious super-powered little creatures (the mosquitoes) will think it's fun to circle directly above my ear playing it's beloved mosquito anthem of "bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". It is enough to wake you up and keep you up. (Matt is a witness from his visit here).
Ideally we would have a fan that ran all night which is the trick for people who don't have mosquito nets (the strength of the wind is too strong for the mosquitoes). But naturally ours broke about 2 or 3 weeks ago right as it was getting warmer and these little beast were coming back out to play (more than they already had been).
This is definitely a part of my time here that I am looking forward to coming to an end.
I hate to say, I hate those pesky mosquitoes in every way!
I hate them buzzing around especially near my ears!
I hate them biting on me whenever they have chances!
I hate them leaving red marks on my fair skin and make me so itchy!
Unfortunately I’m like a mosquito magnet. Mosquitoes just love me so much.
I must have pretty tasty blood! :grrr:
I hate mosquitoes, do you?
http://monkeywong.com/2008/07/17/i-hate-mosquitoes-do-you/
I couldn't have said it better.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
goose bumps
It is Saturday (the day that I usually put up a blog post). Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share this time. i have not received them from the friend that had the waterproof camera on my last adventure.
This morning I got to talk to my daddy! It was so good to talk to him about life here and life here. As I have said a number of times. I am glad I have three weeks left here but I am glad I only have three weeks left here all at the same time. I miss my family and friends at home. I was talking to my dad about food that I miss and I think it has made me hungry for the entire day. I keep wanting things I can't get.
I did laundry this morning but could only do one load because we lost water and haven't had it since. No telling when it will be back on. Maybe any minute maybe tomorrow. I remember when a pipe broke in the house I lived in at Georgia College. We didn't have water for 48 hours and you would have thought that we might die. Ok maybe not that extreme but I remember being way more inconvenienced by it then than I feel here and not. Here it is just a part of life and it is not worth getting worked up or worried about. It was a blessing to get one load done though! Luckily it happened to be the "essentials" load :)
The rest of this day has been slow and magnificent. I love slow mornings that transition into chill afternoons. It is so good for my soul. I finished reading the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia today (The Last Battle). The ending gave me goose bumps! it was so good. I feels so good to get to read for pleasure. In college I always knew that I should be reading for class and had a hard time allowing myself to spend time reading when I knew that the same activity could be "productive." I worry too much about being productive. I am trying to get better at it.
All in all, I am sitting in my room here in the DR and just being. It is such a good place to be and I love it more and more I allow myself to be taken by it.
This morning I got to talk to my daddy! It was so good to talk to him about life here and life here. As I have said a number of times. I am glad I have three weeks left here but I am glad I only have three weeks left here all at the same time. I miss my family and friends at home. I was talking to my dad about food that I miss and I think it has made me hungry for the entire day. I keep wanting things I can't get.
I did laundry this morning but could only do one load because we lost water and haven't had it since. No telling when it will be back on. Maybe any minute maybe tomorrow. I remember when a pipe broke in the house I lived in at Georgia College. We didn't have water for 48 hours and you would have thought that we might die. Ok maybe not that extreme but I remember being way more inconvenienced by it then than I feel here and not. Here it is just a part of life and it is not worth getting worked up or worried about. It was a blessing to get one load done though! Luckily it happened to be the "essentials" load :)
The rest of this day has been slow and magnificent. I love slow mornings that transition into chill afternoons. It is so good for my soul. I finished reading the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia today (The Last Battle). The ending gave me goose bumps! it was so good. I feels so good to get to read for pleasure. In college I always knew that I should be reading for class and had a hard time allowing myself to spend time reading when I knew that the same activity could be "productive." I worry too much about being productive. I am trying to get better at it.
All in all, I am sitting in my room here in the DR and just being. It is such a good place to be and I love it more and more I allow myself to be taken by it.
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