Learning to be flexible...

Well,

It's been a few weeks since my last blog...i get so busy and am honestly too tired to write at times...forgive me.

I am almost in my 4th week of school and I have to say it has been somewhat frustrating. In the beginning I was so excited about my new big classroom. I stayed late everyday and on the weekends fixing it up, making it look fantastic. THEN, last week I was informed that they needed me to move out of my classroom because they were adding another class to one of the grades and me having the smallest number of students made it ideal for the other class to move in. SO, with a smile on my face and frustration filling up inside of me...I moved to a very small classroom which used to be the boardroom. After all that, 2 days ago one of the teachers informed me they have scheduled a 3 day major event and will need my room for it because....they can't imagine the meetings being held anywhere else!!! I find that hard to believe, but once again, I am being stretched like a rubber-band...flexibility is being mastered in my life :)

I have discovered that to be sent on the mission field you have to go with the flow so to speak. Surprises await you around every corner and if you don't have any expectations, you won't be disappointed. After all, the reason I am here is to serve, not to be served. And what seems to be a frustrating event but not "life altering" turns for the good. I looove my new cozy room!! I have created it into a beautiful place that the children love. It is more private than the last one. I have my own private courtyard surrounded by beautiful flora where the children and I can teach outside on nice days (which is everyday) AND there is the most wonderful avocado tree right outside my room....YUMMY!! So they can have my room for 3 days...I'll teach outside...no biggie in the scheme of things, right?

I have learned alot about myself moving out here. The old way of doing things, the thinking, is quickly being sloughed off. It just doesn't work out here and if you bring that way of thinking here with you, then you will be a miserable person. And who wants to be miserable?? Actually - I am wrong, it shouldn't matter about location. God is the same and we all are dealt with things that gives us a chance to be stretched. And I truly believe God allows these tiny or huge events to frequently appear in our lives. It is all about revealing less of us and more of Him!

I have a feeling more surprises await me here.... who knows..they might just tell me to permanetly teach outdoors :)

Yellow, Red and Black and White....

Well hello again.

There are sounds of children everywhere now..well not right now, crickets actually...but most of the day you see and hear children of all color and different dialects. Belgian, Ethiopian, Japanese, French, Canadian, Israeli... the list goes on and on where these kids are all from. I love it actually and feel so priveledge to be apart of their lives.

It is providential that I am here. Long ago when I was a tween, a "prophetic" woman from my church said she saw me standing in front of different color children. Later on, another similar prophetic word was given over me that I was going to be teaching in front of children from all over the world! So there you have it, now at age 32 I am finally living out that call that was spoken over my life at a young age. I would have never thought it. I fought it for years. But God has a way of reaching our hearts when we are ready and He is so good at it that we think we thought of it all along! But the jokes on us, eh? He never forces us. He is so patient and it amazes me. But what seems like an eternity of waiting is nothing but a blink for Him.

So I pray that as I begin this school year at Rosslyn Academy "...that I walk worthy of the vocation where I am called" (Eph. 4:1). I don't take it for granted that I have a very important job to do. Not just to teach these kids how to speak English or read, but more importantly, to teach them the love of Christ - to BE the love of Christ. I pray that it is not my words that penetrate their hearts, but my actions. Christ dwells in us and it is Christ who must shine forth.

God's peace and love to everyone of you!

A first time for everything!

Hello family and friends!

It's been awhile since I have written to many of you regarding my travels over to East Africa. I apologize, but I have been rather busy setting up life here in Nairobi and preparing for a new school year which begins tomorrow.

So this is a first for me....blogging that is. I am not sure how well I will be at it, but I figure it is the best way to write to those who are genuinely interested in what I am doing over here. Plus, it will be good for me - I think.

What am I doing over here some of you may have wondered and have even asked, but all I can say is that God has set this path before me and I am walking down it. I would be lying if I were to say that it has been a piece of cake - it hasn't. It has been one of the most trying and difficult things I have had to do. But, there is grace from our Lord and most of all, there is this amazing peace that I am in the center of God's will - so He is the one who has to work out all the worries I have. I eagerly hand them over to Him.

What worries? Well, I want bore you with all of them but there is this worry of not quiet finding my "fit" here. Ya see, I fit rather fine in good 'ole Nashville. I was comfortable at my church, New Song, and I have to say I had the most amazing friends anyone could ever ask for. I felt safe. Then there is the worry of missing family and not seeing them alot. FAMILY is a word that is so concrete in my life. I have the most wonderful family and I miss them everyday. And the worry of being here at a new school teaching something I really don't feel quiet qualified for (facilitating a literacy lab). But, as my pastor's wise words ring in my ear, " God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called," I hand over those cares to Jesus. And how wonderful my Jesus is.

Jesus has supplied all my needs. He has supplied me with a teaching job at a wonderful Christian school. I also have new friends that love God and are fun and I have been supplied with a beautiful apartment that is taken care of by the school. I have my dear friends here, the Keans, whom I will work along side of with their new church plant - New Song Nairobi. There is so much to be thankful for already.

So I thank Jesus for this new path I am on. And I am reminded of C.S. Lewis writing about Aslan, the Christ-figure in The Chronicles of Narnia - "He isn't safe, but He is good!" How true of our Lord. The "safe" path isn't for me anymore. I'll stay on this one until I am led to another one by the One who knows the way. For Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Light!