in the presence of the living God

"He is not the God of the dead, but of the living..." 
Mark 12:27

The Lord's faithfulness continues to overwhelm me. 
"Oh, how he loves us!"
He revealed to me the power of his presence this week.
He asked me the question:
"How could you think that it is possible to be in the presence of the living God and not be changed?” 
And I prayed, Lord, break my heart of stone. 
Give me a new, fleshy heart that beats with strength 
and feels all the pain there is to feel.
Yes, the pain may come back, but so will life. 
I want a heart of flesh and blood. 
Sitting in the room with the tutors 
opening up my heart to the Lord 
and being in his presence was beautiful. 
The waterworks began as I imagined a stone crust breaking off 
a bloody, red, beating heart. 
But, Lord, forgive me if ever my heart becomes hard. 
Break the stone and give me a new heart!

After all, He reserved harshest judgment for the hypocrites and religious types.

God, save my heart from moralism masquerading as Christianity!
Wreck my heart to teach me the truth.
Hold my heart.
And mold it,
Master craftsman, Potter.
I have read and heard of your miracles
and I believe you are the God of the LIVING.
The living God.

The week began and looked something like a princess party:

One of our little girls, Viviana, had a birthday over the weekend and her parents went all out. When I say all out, I mean a pizza party, decorations, a cake, cupcakes and lots of pictures. Oh, and Viviana came dressed head to toe as Jasmine. What a little princess. We celebrated on Monday.

Tuesday, we learned about animals! We were getting ready to take our trip the Bronx Zoo on Wednesday. I had planned a little more thoroughly (but not enough, as I learned) and the animal lesson went okay. I overshot it, though, and it was a little above them, but I improvised and revised it on the spot. I seriously have to acknowledge the hand of God when I am up in front of kindergarteners changing my plans as I have quick realizations what I'm doing isn't working. We made animals masks and Besines told me she wanted to name her puppy after me because she liked my name. Melt my heart!

Puppy love

Sweet Kaitlyn

That night, we had our traditional "Bedtime Stories with Bobbi Jo," featuring one of the many children's books I snatched to use while lesson planning. Love the late night chats. Love these ladies.

Wednesday, we took the two Pre-K classes and our class to the Bronx Zoo for our trip. It was insane, and we didn't get to see a lot of animals. But it was still enjoyable for the kids, though the heat drained them pretty quickly. We got to ride on the carousel, though!

Sweet Christian

Sometimes, riding the train with kids is a lot of fun. They are so cute. 

Sebastion & Aaron

And sometimes, my kids bring pancakes. (Every day this week) (What?)

Spiro with a light morning snack of pancakes

Thursday was a day of relying on the strength of the Lord. He blew me away with his great mercy to me as I rested in his presence. Mary Frances was sick and stayed back, so I was wondering how the day would go, how many kids would show up, etc. The Lord was so gracious and gave me a great day. I taught a lesson on money and they were so good all day. I was so impressed and gave a ton of shout-outs at the end of the day to acknowledge the good things my whole class and individuals had done. We also made fun crafts during creative time! The girls decorated flapper dresses and the boys colored 1920's style outfits to model, since our theme this week was the early 1900's.

Sweet, sweet Roman

My little diva, Alina

Patick & Aaron being silly

I could go on and on because I am just so proud of them. We won an ice cream party for our class because of how much we have been reading. And yes, that does look differently for kindergarteners than it does for the older kids. I am all about literacy! I read to them at least once a day and then we have an additional reading time where we can work with them individually or they can read on their own if they are able. Thursday was a great day and ended wonderfully by sharing "Brinner" with Bobbi Jo and the short term teams at Exodus in the Heights. 

Despite a late night spent with sweet friends, I arose early the next morning and the Lord continued to give me strength to make it through the day. Friday was more of a relaxed, fun day, but we had some special visitors (aka Mary Frances and Rachel, the Exodus resident storyteller/actress) tell us about their lives when they immigrated to the US! It was a lot of fun. We ended up having an improvised ice cream party later, due to unforeseen circumstances, but it was still a lot of fun. 

I was overjoyed this week to see my kids finally participating in and loving praise time! Usually they just sleep through it or stay sitting, but at the end of this week they were going up on stage and dancing their little hearts out for the Lord! Such joy.

Friday evening we were blessed to spend with our co-workers outside of work! Martha left for home, just for this week, and Hannah moved into our apartment! Next week will probably look very different than the last three, but I am excited. 

It is late, and I'm getting up early to help CCF with worship tomorrow. This is already a giant blog post, but I am so thankful for the opportunity to be here. 
In the Heights. 
This summer. 
With these people.
Praise God.

May the grace and peace of our Lord and Savior fill your hearts.