The first few days

I am here! and all settled in. I have been here for about 5 days and we have already seen the Lord answer so many prayers. Thanks for the prayers in getting us here! After 20 hours on the plane we were exhausted. But it turned out that through some pretty funny and strange circumstances our luggage was untouched and waiting for us on carts when we arrived in the capital city. (Lets just say the funny circumstances included us waiting a very long time at the wrong baggage collection and then running across the airport... as if didn't already attract enough attention being the only foreigners) But God was so good... we had been a little nervous about getting our very heavy baggage of the baggage belt anyway... so instead the Lord went ahead of us and it was waiting for us on the carts. We went through customs (actually they just waved us through customs) to some very friendly faces holding a sign with our names on it. We had several hours to rest, regroup, and go back to the airport for our last 45 minute trip to our final destination. Our baggage was driven down to meet us at our house the next morning. A huge blessing when you see just how much baggage we had. It was such a huge relief to see our baggage and finally unpack. Not only had our bags gone untouched but everything was in great condition! (which was a huge miracle... considering all the other bags that came off that plane were torn apart and ripped to shreds. The Lord had definitely protected even our luggage.

We have spent the last few days buying new clothes (So much fun!!), taking the clothes to the tailor to be made, unpacking, walking throughout the city, going to school, setting up my classroom, looking at my curriculum, and attending a local meeting! I also ate with my hands for the first time and learned a few words in our new language. It has already been quite the adventure and I am slowly learning to adjust to the sights, sounds, and smells. We met these precious children on the street one of the girls knows them well and they recognized her immediately it was sweet moments in the midst of it all and reminded me of why I am here.

I have been constantly reminded through it all that this journey is not mine so I can trust where I am being led. What a blessing to know that I am not alone and while everything else changes; He does not. He is still faithful. And it reminds me- that is why I am here. Because those all around me don't know the God that I know; his love, mercy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. They don't know the pure joy of knowing our Father. And I so desperately want them to know. My heart has already begun to break for these needing people.

"For God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, and love, and a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7

In His Grip,

Jen

Nights of Prayer

Psalm 104: 27-35

These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your Spirit,^[c] they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.

May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works,
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD!

For the past four years on this very night I would join in Liberty University's all night of prayer. On those nights my prayers would range from restlessness to peace, sinfulness to forgiveness, despair to hope. But the main theme of those prayers would be of brokenness. A prayer that would beg for the brokenness of my heart so that God would strip away and restore. It was four years ago on this very night that I was handed a glow stick. I was told that a glow stick cannot glow until it is broken... then... and only then can it shine brightly to the darkness around. And we... when broken before God... can be restored to purity and given the ability to shine to the darkness around.

Now just four years later... my night of prayer is no longer at Liberty but in the silence of my room. And this time... my night of prayer does not look to four years of college and the changes that will come but instead to two years in South Asia... and all that God will do through a broken and contrite heart. It is on the eve of change that I am reminded of the faithfulness and goodness of God. He has shown himself to be faithful! Bless the Lord oh my soul and remember his loving kindness and grace that has followed all the days of your life! Bless the lord oh my soul with all that is within me bless His holy name!