When I am weak, HE is strong

*meant to post last Thursday*

What's been going on in life:  It was a long week.  An exhausting week.  But I was still able to see God's hand at work.  I was able to see His hand more because I desperately needed His help.

Last Sunday night I spent an hour talking to mom and dad about our latest fieldtrip, about getting me a visa to teach here, about trips, about life... I love talking to people from home, but it also can make me a little homesick.  On Monday guess what I finally got in the mail: my birthday package from Sydney!  It felt like I had a little piece of Oregon here with me in the DR.  Just what I needed.

Chandler sent me this sloth picture on Tuesday, and it brought a smile to my face.  Sloth pictures and videos are the key to cheering me up.  Only 114 days until Chandler and Sarah come visit me. (insert party hat emoji here)

Tuesday night I did my laundry, but I wasn't able to start it until I got home from teaching Amalie.  By the time I got my clothes hung up, it was dark.  In the morning they were still a little damp and I did not have time to take them down.  When I came home Wednesday afternoon, Amanda had taken them all down for me and folded them.  It was the best surprise to come home to.  It was just one little less thing I had to do and worry about.

Every Monday I go to the SCS Bible study.  We are learning about Gideon this semester, and I love the study we are doing.  It's by Priscilla, and it is all about God using our weaknesses.  Tuesday night I was feeling really exhausted, drained, and overwhelmed.  I texted those words to my mother.  Wednesday morning I decided to be good and get up early and read my Bible.  I opened to a day of the Bible study.  Guess what the first words on the page were...  I couldn't believe it.  The whole section was about us being overwhelmed and exhausted and how God uses those moments even more.  It was exactly what I needed to read.    

"Our weaknesses are the conduits through which we experience God's strength."  

Tomorrow I leave for the beach for the weekend (yay for Independence Day and no school Friday!).  I thought I was going to have to go to La Sirena to pull out money from the ATM.  I know going to the grocery store may seem like a little thing, but for me it means walking or getting a ride there.  It means having to wait in lines, and it means having to take a taxi cab back to my apartment.  Taxi rides can sometimes mean  spending 5 minutes in the car with a creepy stranger.  But this morning I looked in my desk, and I found just the right amount of money to cover my expenses for the weekend.  AKA I do not need to go to the store or ATM anymore.

This week I also finished reading God's Smuggler.  If you haven't read it, go buy it on Kindle or Amazon because it is one of my favorite books.  I am teaching it to the boys later this spring.  It is about Brother Andrew who smuggles copies of the Bible to communist countries.  It was such an incredibly convicting book.  There are and were people in this world who don't have access to a Bible, who can't afford a Bible, whose government doesn't permit the Bible to be read.  I have access to it whenever I want.  I have the ability to read it in English or Spanish.  I need to use that incredible privilege and not take it for granted.

from: here 

THANK YOU, JESUS!  I needed these little reminders of Your presence this week.