A new day

I was sitting on my couch the other night... enjoying a nice candlelit evening with my roommates (sounds a little weird, I know..) It was around midnight when Jon walked in with Kelli- they had been hanging out- and 2 strange figures... one much shorter than the other. It was dark and I was really confused, wondering who these crazy people Jon had brought with him, and then he turned the light on. I was pretty shocked and very, very happy to see my sister and my niece... who should have been 3000 miles across the country... standing in the doorway. I jumped, I cried, I smiled from ear to ear, and I almost fainted with delight. It was just what I needed. It was common knowledge to everyone else in my life that they would be there... but I had no clue. They only stayed for a few days, but it was pretty special. I got to show them a little bit of the town and some of what I've been doing here. It was just really encouraging to have family here... there was a sense of relief and comfort I haven't really felt in a long time. I was sad to send them off on Monday, but excited because I get to go home next week. I will be with my family for two whole weeks.... and this couldn't be a more perfect time to go. Things are kind of rough back home- with the house having major water damage, and not being able to have a real traditional Christmas because of it, and my oldest sister moving to Germany soon, and Sue being sick. I have been homesick for a while and I am really looking forward to being with my loved ones again. I will have to make the best of it knowing that it will most likely be a while before I will be able to be home with them again.

It was really nice to have Mary and Kiera around for some of the things we had going on. They got to be here for game night, and then we had a ladie's day on Saturday and that night 2 of the younger girls stayed over. My niece, Kiera got along with them really well and they had a lot of fun together. I'm hoping one day to convince my sister to move out here and join the work that's going on.




It's been intense here lately. A lot of small issues being turned into large ones. mostly coming from feelings of being useless. It's been tough some days knowing that there are so many things that we could be doing that we aren't. So we decided that we need to just make things happen.. no more waiting around for things to come to us. So we did. We got applications for the Big Brother/Big sister program, and also for a food ministry that is literally yards from our house. We also got in touch with a house here that takes in the homeless during the day and brings them to different churches each night to get out of the cold. Jo and I went today and spent the day getting to know the job and the people there. Our biggest work is to spend time with the people that come there. There was a family there that we had helped in the past, by bringing them food at another place they were staying. It was a really pleasant surprise to see them there. Just the other day we went by where they used to stay to see them and they weren't there.. and we had no way of finding them. They have a 13 year old son, and we got to spend some time catching up with them. I think I had forgotten how important it is to put other people before myself. For a little while I was getting really caught up in team drama, and my own little dramas that I was losing what I was really here for. It was nice to be reminded of the important things in life. It's amazing how God opens our eyes sometimes, whether we are asking for it or not. He has really been showing me a lot lately, and I'm looking forward to see what happens in the future here.