Interdependence and Random Praises

Lots to blog about! Let's start.

A couple weeks ago I went out on my own for the first time to go to the grocery store. I was thinking about how glad I was to be independent and go somewhere by myself again. That thought lasted a brief moment, and then turned around. One thing I am learning this year is how dependent we should be on each other. God didn't create us to be independent, but to one, depend on Him, but also to depend on each other in community. I have definitely been experiencing that here more than I ever have before in my life. I don't know my way around, don't have a car, and don't speak Spanish. The greatest time I experienced this was the day I was very homesick. Of course I needed to give everything to God, but sharing with people here was so helpful and freeing. I am not an open person at all about my own emotions or thoughts. I generally do that because I either think I have nothing important to say or because other people are more interesting or because no one asks. It's hard for me to share my feelings, but I was very vulnerable that night, and it was great because we need to depend on each other here because we are a team. Since I am growing up, I have the American mindset of wanting to be more and more independent. Here, I am developing the Christian mindset of depending on a community. How great!

Random praises:

1) I have been cooking lots of things that have been turning out well! Hooray!

2) Today I borrowed 2 eggs from the Onishis. The last times I used eggs it was close to impossible to break them properly. They were so hard that I kept messing them up when I finally got them open so they spilled everywhere. Today I didn't have the hard bowl to crack them in, so I didn't think it was too strange that they weren't breaking on the little plastic bowl I was using. The problem was that I was hitting the egg on the same spot and it still didn't crack, so I went almost all the way around. Then I figured out why. I discovered that the egg was hard boiled! I was so sad that I wasn't going to be able to make my walnut banana bread, even after borrowing eggs. I prepared to go to the grocery store, but checked the fridge and there were some eggs! So I borrowed 2 of them and made my delicious baked good! God provided. :)

3) We have been having water for longer than 6 hours each day! It's kind of random...I never know how long the water will stay on, but I definitely feel like it is staying on for much longer than previously. Totally an answered prayer. I feel like this is happening because I sent out my prayer letter recently so more people have been praying. Yay!

4) I got to play poker tonight!! Sometimes I really miss poker and crave playing it because of how much my friends and I used to play in high school. We would seriously play at every party and almost every time we hung out. It was so fun, and everyone was great and took it seriously even though we never bet real money. In college it was always difficult to find people who could play well or at all, and my friends from high school lost our touch (myself included). Tonight we played and it was so much fun! Haha I got really excited about it, and I'm sure I was overwhelming everyone with my desire for the game to be played seriously. But no one seemed too offended (Rachel tell me later if I was too mean! :P). Anyways everyone played really well, probably because Andrew explained the betting system really well. So that was perfect. I didn't win, but I good practice and feel like I played pretty well (tried to figure out other people's strategies and guess what hands everyone could have). Anyways it was very fulfilling since I had wanted to play it really bad today.

5) SOOO many things that my friends have told me about have made me really happy! I just feel like every time I talk to anyone from home they have really great news about what God is doing in their life or something else that makes me happy. I'm sad that I can't be in person with them to celebrate or be excited, but I appreciate God's timing in me getting to hear good news here, because it always brightens my day.

6) On that note, I am going to be a bridesmaid in Danielle's wedding! She finally asked...I suppose it is official enough to put on here. If not, whoops - sorry. I am so excited though! I can't wait to celebrate with her at the wedding!!

7) Continuing on that note, Evan is finally dating Courtney! ;) I am really excited for them, and glad Evan made the move. Courtney is so sweet and will be great for Evan. Haha I was a little mad that I found out my brother was dating someone via facebook, but am happy for him nonetheless.

8) Since following God's will in being here, and learning a lot about confessing sin recently, God has been opening my eyes to His truth a lot! I haven't felt super tight with God, but I have been learning so much when studying His Word. He has also been teaching me a lot in day-to-day life, changing my thoughts and attitudes to make them more like His, giving me realizations, and helping me to apply things to my life (which I am generally bad at - I love learning, but don't like application. That is true because of my personality type). I love being open to the Spirit and growing in my faith!

9) We finally get to have a Day with the Lord tomorrow. Instead of going on campus or meeting, we get to individually just devote a day to the Lord. I am really excited and think it will be much needed for me to have that focus and not let other things distract me.

Okay, I still have ministry updates to write about, but they will come later. Hope you like reading long, random blogs!