Travelling.

Its crazy to think over the past 4 months of my life and think about all the things I've done. How can I EVER complain?? I've lived among the storied history of Europe, visited some of the most famous cities on earth, experienced the poverty of Africa, lived in the Middle East for a month, and will in a few weeks experience yet another culture in Central Asia. Today it only continued. Just a normal day....got to DRIVE A CAR a few hundred miles in the Middle East among the craziest drivers on earth, got to see the DEAD SEA, swim in it, and see the lowest point on earth (the Dead Sea), and got to go up Mount Nebo to the site where God supposedly showed Moses the promised land right before he died. The scenery was spectacular, and the history only made it better. It makes the Old Testament, the "fairy tales" of the Bible become so real. Once seeing this land, this culture, it makes the Bible so tangible, so full of life. These weren't some stories dreamed up by good storytellers, these are stories that happened to REAL people over thousands of years of history. Right here in this very land, this very same kind of culture Moses, Adam, Joseph, Joshua, Isaac, Abraham LIVED. This is the part of the world they called HOME. Its been so cool learning to understand the Bible simply by learning this culture and realizing why some things in the Bible are like they are. Just the experience of a lifetime. I really don't think I will ever be able to appreciate this as much as I should.

But anyways.....school is going really good. We now have 14 students, after starting with 7-8. The kids really seem to be having fun, and I KNOW I am. Its worth all the hard work and stress of planning the "perfect" lesson when you see the progress and the way they are beginning to form sentences. It makes it even better when you hear them repeating the things they have learned over and over outside of class, simply because they are so excited to be learning. Or when random kids from the neighborhood, who aren't even in the classes, come up to you and repeat phrases that you have been teaching the kids....meaning your students are so excited about what they are learning they are teaching other kids!! Its such an amazing opportunity. An opportunity to teach this kids, give them more chance of a future, but more importantly, a chance to show them the love of God. For the first few days of class all I did was freak out about making the "perfect" lesson, making sure the kids were excited and having fun, and all it did was stress me out. It was partway into this week that God just showed me something that has changed my entire perspective. It isn't about not making mistakes, because those will be made....it isn't about teaching the kids a ton of English, because that isn't realistic in 3 weeks....its about showing them the love of God....its about the kids I am doing this for, and the God I am serving. I was so wrapped up in what I was doing, when it was all meaningless. If it isn't for God, there simply isn't any enjoyment. So its just been really good to get myself out of focus and to focus on these kids, hang out with them, play games with them, laugh with them, and show them that I love them more than they know, and hopefully that God loves them more than they could ever imagine. Its made everything go much better. All in all, it has been very hard and stressful and uncomfortable and frustrating, but God is working and using us....and that makes it all worth it.