Entrusted.

I love the word entrusted.  It carries a deep imagery of care and compassion that I find difficult to put into words.  I picture God holding me in His hands, entrusted to continually take care of me.  I picture Him, in turn, challenging me to hold onto others, Him trusting that I can give an outpouring of His love into the lives of others.


This morning, my personal devotional was about the passage in Luke that talks about the master and his servants.  The servant beats the menservants and maidservants because he doesn't think his master is coming back.  Jesus tells the parable to prove this crucial point, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."  (Luke 12:48)
 As I think over what God has entrusted me with over the last 3 years here, my heart is definitely filled with joy and gladness over what He has given me.  These precious girls have been such a blessing in my life.  They have taught me how to love.  They have taught me what it looks like to be supportive and encouraging friends.  They have taught me that I desire to someday have children that have many of the personality traits that each one possesses.  I could go on and on as to why I love them so deeply.
God has definitely entrusted them into my care.  Although I deeply miss them as students, I know that God is still working on our relationships.  I am lucky enough to see them everyday during break time, lunch time, after school, and any other random times I happen to bop into their classroom.  They still make me feel special every time that I get hugs or notes or encouragement from them.
They still invite me to their birthday parties and their parents still love on and accept me, just like they did last year.  It feels good to still be loved by them and their parents too.  I love having them over to my house.  I love that God has entrusted me with guarding their hearts for the future, teaching them about Him and his beautiful saving power, and the deep glorious riches that they can possess when they trust in Him.  For them, I would ask you to pray that they would continue to grow in their knowledge and faith in Jesus, despite what the world may tell them.  I love their innocence and pray that it would continue throughout the rest of their lives.  These precious little girls have a special place in my heart, and I am so thankful that I have gotten to know each and every one of them.

Entrusted.

Another area in which God has entrusted me over these three years is with the friendships that I have built.  I know that God has definitely blessed me with the gift of encouragement and I love to pour out the love that God has shown me onto my friends.  When I first came to this country, I was so unaware of the deep love that I would feel for my coworkers.  In our small, close-knit community, my coworkers have become deep friends that I can't imagine my life without.
 I feel entrusted with the ups and downs of their lives.  I feel entrusted with the need to pray for them.  And now that many are starting a new chapter in their lives, I feel entrusted to care for them in a new way, supporting them and encouraging them.  As I honestly realize my time
here in the DR is short, I feel burdened to deepen the relationships and really pour myself into them as I know that so many have done to me in the past.  I'm thankful God has given me the opportunity to shine and pour myself into the people that I care about.  I also love that I am able to entrust my life into the lives of my friends here.  I feel such warmth and encouragement when I am able to talk about life and my heart with the people that I know care deeply about me.



In this season of Thanksgiving, I realize more and more how thankful I am for the blessings that God has so graciously given me.  Blessings of new and old friends, blessings of students and how they teach me how to love, blessings of the joy of the journey...

Maryed's Outreach



Laura, Maryed, and I



One of my favorite students from my class last year is a part of of a camp through YWAM where she goes and learns about how to become a missionary.  Once a month she goes to camp and they do some pretty awesome things, but at the end of the weekend they go out into the community and perform:  dances, skits, monologues, etc. to the people.  It's so awesome. 



Maryed, Laura, and I waiting for her outreach to start!





October/November Update

I just sent out my October/November update!  Comment with your email if you would like a copy!!  :)

This morning I saw my breath.  It was so cold!

I miss...

One thing I miss more than anything else is American Football.
It's so hard not to watch it!

oh.  and unlimited texting.

okay, shallowfest is over.

How I Spent My Weekend: A Comedy

Laur, her IV, her baby, and Me.

So this past weekend was quite an adventure for me.  Many firsts.  Many adventures.  It all began on Saturday around 12.  My friend Laura came over and had been feeling sick for a few days.  We decided to take her temperature and it turned out to be 104.4 .  Given her present condition, (she's pregnant) we decided that we should probably take her to the hospital.  Her husband Tim was having a rough day too, as he was on a motorcycle ride to Constanza (about 2 hours up in the mountains) where he got 2 flat tires and fell off his motorcycle.

So we took her to the "emergency room".  But actually the emergency room door was blocked by a gurney and was locked so we had to walk around to the normal entrance.  Once in there the lady kept asking who Laura's doctor was.  We said, "Dr. Fernando" because we didn't know his last name.  The lady there kept insisting that there was no Dr. Fernando in Jarabacoa.  So we called Dr. Fernando and he told us to bring Laura to his clinic.

Melisa and Tim during our intense Euchre game

We get to Fernando's clinic and he takes her temperature and sees how high it is.  He gets slightly concerned, so we have to take Laura back to the "emergency room" to get blood work and a urine sample analyzed.  We go back to the clinic and are taken down a dark flight of stairs into the basement of the building, where there were a ton of 70's style couches.  We are led into a dark room where the lady finally flips the lights on.  The lab tech. takes her blood and then hands her...literally...a Gerber baby food jar.  She directs Laura to the nearest restroom, one with no lights, no toilet paper, and mediocre running water.  Melisa, my cohort in this whole Laura expedition, hands Laura her cell phone to use as a light.  What a trip!

So afterwards we head back to Fernando's clinic.  I run home to grab some shorts for Laura and head back to the clinic.  By the time I'm back, Laura has an IV.

Fast forward...we bring her home around 4?  4:30?  5?  6?  somewhere around there and she's not looking too good.  I drop her off at her house with Melisa (because Tim's still not back from his man trip yet) and come home and hang out with my roommates and Karen.  Around 7, I went back to Laura's and we watched Nacho Libre as our Euchre family.  Around 10:30, when we were leaving, Laura's temperature was back high and Fernando told her to come back in. (Tim was back so he took her) so Melisa and I slept over at their house to guard their animals.

Our Happy Euchre Family

The next morning, Melisa and I went over to the hospital and took the Stanley's some breakfast.  We ended up playing euchre and hanging out for the morning.  Laura's temperature was still pretty (frustratingly) high.  So we left so they could rest for awhile then brought them lunch around 2.  We ended up staying at the hospital until around 8pm.  Laura ended up staying in the hospital again overnight.

On Monday, I went and spent my prep period with Laura and thankfully she came home that afternoon.  And has been on the up and up since then! :)  Hopefully she'll be back to school tomorrow or Monday!

Hurricane Earl!

is supposed to make ground fall ... not in the DR.  We've been watching him on the radar and his winds (only 39-57mph) are hitting the northwest side of the DR.  Needless to say I live up in the mountains and we're a little breezy today.