Community

The past few weeks have flown by! Life has been good and I've enjoyed lots of time in community with others. I've been to coffee shops with friends, Wednesday night dinners at church, church Sunday School class with my best friends, lunches with friends, birthday dinner celebrations, spiritual direction and more! I've had the opportunity to listen to others, learn from others, share with others, and just be with others. It's truly a blessing to be surrounded by those who can share freely with you and vice versa!
I've also received some great news from Thailand! My latest newsletter should be in the mail this week so be looking for that! I learned that a Thai young lady has decided to join me in the area where I will be serving in Thailand. That is super exciting and an answer to prayers from me and others! I've also learned that the ministry in the northeast of Thailand has outgrown their building and is preparing to build a new pavilion. Prayers for the funding to come through for that project! I think I may have mentioned it in the previous post, but it bears repeating because it's awesome. I have officially reached the halfway point in funding for my service in Thailand! I'm at 54% and continue to be amazed at how God provides! That means I only have 46% more to go and that gets me pumped!! I'm so ready to leave for Thailand, it's unreal. I cannot wait until I am fully funded so I can buy my plane ticket, pack up my bags, and leave for Thailand for at least the next 5 years!
I'm also currently looking at a possibility to visit the Thai couple I will be joining when they come to the states for a visit and speaking engagements. Not sure if it will work out for me, but it sure would be great to see them again while I'm waiting to leave.
Cool story: On Saturday I went to a Special Olympics area meet with a couple of our athletes and another coach. While I was there, I got to visit with a coach I previously worked with when I lived in Conroe. I told him about how I was planning to move to Thailand and he asked if I'd like for him to introduce me to one of his friends that was there who just so happened to be from Thailand! He introduced me and I got to share my story with her about serving in Thailand and she shared about Thailand's beauty and how much the Thai people would love having me there. She shared about herself and her mission experiences and asked about mine. We had a wonderful conversation and she asked for my contact information. How awesome is it that I can meet and chat with a Thai woman in Texas?!
Other than those things, I can't think of much else to share. Work is going well. It's still hard trying to break down lessons from teachers in a more simplified way for the students I work with; especially when I barely understand what they're teaching! But all is well and I'm finding a bit of a rhythm with it. Of course, I say that the day before I have to assist a student with 4 different tests tomorrow! Yikes!! Test days always seem to fall on the same day! We'll survive, though. And if not, we can always do test corrections!

Overcome

I was reading a post from the Velvet Ashes website today and was struck with some major truth. What does it mean to overcome? In the dictionary it is defined as succeeding in dealing with a problem or difficulty, being victorious over opposing forces, or being overwhelmed. American culture tends to view it as victory, staying power, undefeated, conquer, persevere, outlast, excel, not give in, and winner. The opposite means giving up, quitting, not willing to stick-it-out, and a sense of loss. But what does God mean when He talks about overcoming? Scriptures on overcoming focus on God, NOT us. What God has done for us, NOT what we can do. At MTI training this summer we learned about the paradox of life. For every one side, there is another. They are contradictory but true all at the same time. Kind of bittersweet. Velvet Ashes brings up an interesting idea of overcoming being a paradox of our faith. Because I don't think I could word it any better the following is part of the post from Velvet Ashes:

"What if one of the invitations of the word overcome is  o "come over" to God's idea of overcoming? What if we wean ourselves from how our home cultures see overcoming and slow ourselves down enough to ask God what it means to be an overcomer? I understand why we are drawn to unintended formulas like "Overcoming equals ____." Fairly predictable answers help to create a sense of control and safety.
Overcoming equals staying on the field.
Overcoming equals not taking medication and praying more.
Overcoming equals going to the field under-supported, trusting that God will provide.
Failure equals leaving.
Failure equals getting medical help.
Failure equals waiting.
God is inviting me to see that overcoming is moving beyond formulas and into an intimacy with Him where the answer will vary. Maybe for you, overcoming in a situation does mean you stay on the field. Maybe for a teammate it means they return to their country of origin. As long as we wed the idea of overcoming to an outcome, we are missing out on the wild fullness (and at times maddeningly unpredictableness) of God.
What if instead of talking of staying or going, success or failure, victory or defeat, we ask:
What is God's invitation to you in this?
What are you learning about God in this?
Where is God growing you?
Ah, now that might truly make us overcomers."

Wow. Great reminder that overcoming is not about me and what I can do, but all about God and what He has already done. A sense of failure invades my mind so often, but if I change the way I view what it means to overcome, the way I view failing will change as well. I need to constantly remind myself to set aside my mindset of succeeding or failing and focus on what God is doing in and through me in the process. We are more than conquerors through Christ.

Always a beginner...

Howdy! This week starts my third week back to work with students. As you may remember, I started this year with mixed feelings, anxiety, and a bit of trepidation. Now that I've been at it for two weeks, I can say it's not THAT terrible. No, I still don't enjoy sitting through high school classes. Yes, I miss spending time working closely with my coworkers. No, it's not the end of the world. Yes, there are aspects that I actually enjoy. My day seems to go incredibly fast for the most part (some classes can be more boring and slow). I am learning some things on a fairly daily basis. High school was a very long time ago for me, so some of it's like new! I'm in all of the typical core classes and a couple of fun electives. I've never really cared for English much but the teacher focuses on writing skills a lot so who knows, maybe I'll become a better writer! This is the second time in the past 4 years that I've sat through World History. Not much has changed there except the teacher and the detail included in each lesson. And oh my... science. Never been a favorite of mine; except for maybe the fun labs. And even then, I found the processing of labs blah. It's obvious that over the years, my mind has shifted gears. My creativity and inference skills have nose-dived in areas of little interest to me. Having to create and infer for myself and THEN explain in a way that the students I work with can understand is extremely challenging! So maybe, just maybe, sitting through all of these classes will be good for me. Maybe, just maybe, it will sharpen the skills that have dulled with age. In conclusion, this change in job responsibilities may not be the death of me, but might actually be good for me. At least a little bit. Only time will tell. But in the meantime, prayers for patience and the ability to aid my students in learning the best way possible would be greatly appreciated!

Outside of work, things are busy as usual. I've been going through boxes that have been packed up for at least the past three years to divide up into trash, garage sale, and keep piles. Needless to say, my room is quite a mess of random stacks. On the upside, I've officially emptied two boxes. On the downside, I need to start packing my books and other things into those boxes to move to the next house. I've also continued to make contact with possible financial partners to support me while I serve in Thailand. I've had some success and have actually jumped almost 20% in less than two months! Yay! I'm no longer stuck! That's a HUGE thanks! I still have a ways to go, but I will keep pressing on! If you know of other people or churches who may be interested in hearing my story, let me know!

Feeling a little lonely lately, I've tried to take advantage of time spent with friends. I've actually had quite a few opportunities the past few weeks. It's been fun and I've enjoyed listening and being a part of those groups, but something is still missing. I think I'm just low on the quality time spent in real depth of conversation. Even though the fun conversations are nice and bring about lots of laughter, I'm a person who is filled by talking at the heart level. In groups, that's just not a real possibility for me. I'm more of a one-on-one to tiny group person where there is space to share. It also may have something to do with not having that constant time of community at work anymore with my coworkers.

That brings me to this weekend. It is my once a month spiritual direction class. There is always depth there. Although I have quite a bit of homework to do before then, it will be a wonderful day. In spiritual direction we learn how to sit with and listen well to others as they explore the depths of their heart and try to deepen their relationship with God. It's a three year program and I'm just starting the final year. When I first began, I had hoped to make it through the first year before leaving for Thailand. As the first year came and went I found myself still here and starting the second year. At that point, I had really planned on making it through the second year and leaving for Thailand before the third year started. As you can tell, I'm still here. MY plans have not come to fruition. I stress the word MY because my plans are not always His plans. Isaiah 55:8 says, "'My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,' says the Lord. 'And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.'" Which then reminds me of Ephesians 3:20, "Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." This is my prayer. These verses give me hope. I may not have made it yet, but I will make it at some point according to God's great plan. So year three, here I come. Obviously, the Lord has a plan and it includes year three of the spiritual direction program. Maybe only half, or maybe all of it. Only God knows.

These are my wonderful spiritual direction classmates.