As I write this up-date, it is actually Sunday night...typically I up-date my blog on Monday mornings since I don't have to go into school until late morning, however, the PreK teacher has dengue (a rather serious illness spread by mosquitoes...it has been running rampant in Bolivia for about the last month so I've known a lot of people to get very sick from the disease) and needed someone to substitute for her tomorrow. So, I'll be doing that until about noon then finishing up a couple of my own students, then I have basketball practice after school. Since tomorrow is Monday and the new semester has also started up in CIET, I'll be there teaching classes from about 7:15-8:30pm. As you can see, it will be a busy day so I thought I should go ahead and up-date my blog before going to bed tonight.
I will confess, this may be a rather short entry. Saturday night, there was a wedding at my church with the reception afterwards...typical Bolivian wedding...I got to get all dressed up...the reception included dinner at about 10:00pm or so plus cake sometime after that and loud music in between...no, I didn't catch the bouquet (much to the chagrin of several of my friends from church...hee hee)...I was taxi driver to an older couple (parents of the groom) and a friend of theirs so fortunately we left "early" at about midnight or so...but by the time I took them home and then got home myself, it was after 1:00am. Of course, I still had a few things that I wanted to take care of around the house, plus I was a little wired after the wedding, so it was about 3:00am before I went to bed. Needless to say, my Sunday afternoon nap wasn't quite enough to recover from that. All in all, the wedding was beautiful and I think everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
Do you ever have one of those Sundays when you go to church and get the feeling that the pastor preached both sermons specifically for you? Well, today was one of those days for me. This morning he used the example of David and Goliath and how we all have giants that we face on a regular basis...he chose three giants specifically: loneliness, inferiority, and the battle to forgive ourselves for things of our past. All three of these are a struggle for me as I'm sure they are for many other people...but the first two are particular struggles for me on the mission field. The pastor used Paul as an example in helping us learn how we can combat these giants as David did Goliath. It was an excellent sermon...but one that's so hard for me to put into practice...it's much easier to hear something than it is to actually believe and live it out! This evening's sermon was from 1 Kings 19 (the first 7 verses) when God sent an angel to Elijah. Elijah was extremely depressed, wishing he were dead, so after falling asleep for some time (getting much needed rest), God sent an angel to him with food and water, then allowed him more rest, and sent him more food and water...giving him strength and encouragement when he needed it most. The part that struck me a great deal this evening, was that in the afternoon I toyed with the idea of staying home from church. I didn't need to play on the worship team so I had no specific role, I was tired, feeling discouraged, feeling lonely, etc. Basically, I didn't want to go. I decided to take a nap (knowing that was the root of my problem) and only set one alarm. When I'm really tired, that's not usually enough to wake me up. So, I said a little prayer...not always the best to make bets with God, but I said that if He really wanted me at church tonight, then he was going to have to wake me up with this ONE alarm. Of course...He did! He had quite the struggle to wake me up...several times I think He tried, until finally I remembered my promise and decided to get up. Levantate y come (Get up and eat)...the angel's words for Elijah and God's words for me today...Get up and be fed by my Word...let it encourage and rejuvenate you! Oh, and that it did!
The last thing I wanted to share with you is that on Tuesday night I have a CIET board meeting...you may remember a couple of weeks ago I shared how difficult that was for me so I would appreciate your prayers this week, particularly on Tuesday night...as well as in general...this will be a busy week and I expect that I'll be tired...which is often when my giants of loneliness and inferiority attack...pray that God will help me to defeat them with one stone in my sling! Thank you so much for your prayers and friendships! You are such a blessing to me!
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