joy

"To him who is able to keep you from falling
and present you before his glorious presence without fault
and with great joy -
to the only God our Savior be
glory, majesty, power and authority
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all ages, now and forevermore!
Amen."
Jude 24 & 25

To HIM.
I must pray continually to keep my heart
and mind
in the presence of the Lord.

Thank you for your Spirit, Father.
You fill me and overflow into others.

When I feel empty,
it is only because I am empty
of myself.
It is his strength.
HIM.

You, Jesus.
You are able to keep me from falling.
You present me without a blemish before the Father.
(Though I have many)
My sins stain everything I touch.
Like the deep red of a wine stain
on a pure, white tablecloth
there is no scrubbing it out.
There is nothing I can do to remove it.
But you?
You cover me.
You have written on my slate
the good things you have done.
And you take joy in presenting me
as blameless.
Hallelujah.

This is Christian reminding me to be joyful every day. I love my kids so much.



Happy Independence Day, America! We celebrated in Kindergarten yesterday by making patriotic muffins...or at least attempting. We also learned about the US flag and made our own personal flags.

We all worked together to make muffins from scratch. Everyone got a turn to stir the batter, too.
At this table is the lovely Besines, Viviana, Jose and Christian.

This is my darling little Roman, thoroughly enjoying his muffin. He informed me last week that his real name is Prince Aladdin. He also has a magic carpet and continues to remind me on a semi-regular basis what his real name is.

Sebastian, Alan and Aaron enjoying the fruits of our labor.














We already said goodbye to our apartment for the first month. We bid a cheerful farewell to Mr. Bojangles and packed up the van with Bobbi Jo, the MTW short-term team coordinator, who arrived after our first week of program. We were delighted to meet her and she has been a blessing to us since. She drove us a few blocks over to our new apartment where we are now staying with the short term (read: week-long) teams. We are blessed to have our own little "intern wing" of the apartment - basically our own room with a bathroom. It's a great place and we love the extra space.

It has been a good week, but still tough. Thankfully, we had the day off today. While my teammates went to Coney Island for some fun, I opted to stay back. I knew I needed rest, and a long day in the sun at a crowded place did not sound restful to me. Tomorrow, we are taking a trip to the Hall of Science...so I am resting up for that excursion.

I am learning so much from my kids. Every day I am stretched and challenged. They are teaching me so much as I teach them. The Lord is continuing to show me how deliberately he works and how he is working in me. He has surrounded me with wonderful people who encourage me and keep me sane. What a life. It is full, it is rich and it is beautiful.

Though I've had my share of come-to-Jesus moments, overall it has been an awesome experience. I am weary every day and it is exhausting to come home every night needing to plan for the next day. I need to get some lesson plans done for next week so I don't have to linger in this day by day state.

Your prayers are appreciated! Thank you all so much for the love and support you have lavished on me. Though I barely have time to stop and think anymore, when I do, I think about where I am right now and how much it took to get me here. Praise God.

There are so many stories to tell. Now that our internet in our apartment is fixed, maybe I will be able to update more regularly with some funny kid stories. They truly fill my life with joy.

I am blessed beyond what my words can describe.

May the grace and joy of our Lord Jesus Christ fill your hearts.