|
This one might be a little different. Since moving to Guatemala, I have had countless incredible experiences! I am so thankful for each of them and I am more than thrilled that I have been able to share many of them here with you! While there have been so many positives, life cannot always be perfect and this past week brought some challenges that reminded me of just that. I have debated whether or not to share the bad (mostly for fear of sounding as if I am complaining), but ultimately decided to include it. What is the good without the bad? I hope to keep it real and in order to do that I have to be honest about the valleys as well as the mountains (speaking of mountains I got to hike Volcán Santa Maria this week!! but more on that later) So don’t get me wrong I have so much to be thankful for and my problems are absolutely minuscule in comparison to so many others around the world, but challenges nonetheless. My week started off with a slight accident on my scooter (I’ll include a picture below, but here is your warning if you don’t like blood (same) maybe don’t scroll all the way down. I was nearly home this past Sunday when I hit a hole that I didn’t see, causing my handlebars to twist and my face to meet the pavement at a rather high velocity. After I collected myself a bit, I finished the trip home with blood dripping down my face and cleaned myself up (thankfully not passing out! I don’t really do well around blood!) and went to sleep. I received a rather banged up face, a chipped tooth, and likely a slight concussion. All in all it could have been a lot worse and I am thankful that it wasn’t! I was also able to get my tooth fixed within 24 hours and the cost was very inexpensive in comparison to dental work in the States so another praise there! On top of that, the school insurance, while we do not actually have dental insurance, may even cover half of the cost since it was a “medical accident”. Here’s to hoping they will! After explaining the real story to my students I used a idea from a fellow teacher to make light of the accident; I asked them to create a story explaining how my face got banged up, because the real story is.. well… pretty lame. A couple of my favorites included details like me being a CIA agent working a secret undercover mission or another where I got distracted by an attractive girl on the sidewalk and ran into the car in front of me. A couple days after I was introduced to the Guatemalan streets and dentistry, I was doing some work on my computer (on which I had damaged the screen the week before, but it was still useable… WAS useable…) when I went to turn it on this time, it had other plans. So I now have a bruised up face, a broken computer which is now an unfortunately expensive paper weight, and a newly shattered phone! As I was placing my iPhone into my pocket this Friday, it would appear that I missed my pocket and there it was on the floor, shattered back glass. To place a final piece of the puzzle, this week was a surprise formal classroom observation by my principal and administrator. Thankfully, this went very well, but it does tend to add a little stress to the daily routine. On a smaller scale of issues, but still just seems to humorously add more layers to the week, I was returning home from the store on Saturday with some bagged groceries hanging on my scooter’s handlebars (Yes, Gladys is ok… we just aren’t exactly on speaking terms). This is a very usual scene for me as I have done this many times since living here. This time though… As I was just about home, my grocery bag ripped open from the bottom and my groceries found their way into the street. I was able to salvage some of them, but the rest I unfortunately watched get run over by the onslaught of cars going by. To close the seemingly never ending highlight reel of this week, I have also come to terms with the fact that my financial situation is becoming increasingly precarious which also has a tendency to raise the stress levels. Whew… ok so obviously I would not have exactly planned my week out this way, but in the end, I can still rest easy at night knowing that God is in control. My days will not always be how I wish they were, but they don’t need to be and I am thankful that He knows more than I and He will order my life as He sees fit. I am comforted by the words in Psalm 41 — “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” The goal of Christianity is not happiness or ultimate comfort, but rather that the glory of God can be seen in my life. This means that whether life is good and I feel like I’m flying or it’s one of those weeks where I’d rather get back in bed and not deal with the world, God is still good and He still has a plan for my life. I need only be still, humble myself before Him, and lean into the comfort of his embrace. God be glorified in my life whether or not I feel good about it in the moment. To make sure that we don’t end here I have some good highlights from the week as well! I am glad to report that we had an amazing trip to San Juan with the IAS and SMLCA students! We also had one of our IAS seniors accept an invitation to 6eternal life in Jesus and that of itself makes it all worth it!! It was so good to spend time with my old students and to bring my new students to serve alongside. So much good came of this trip! I also got to hike new mountain this weekend with a new friend from the UK! We met this week and climbed 4,000+ feet together a couple of days later! The conversation was great and the views were incredible!! Happy to check that climb off the list! This morning I was also blessed to sit beside another friend in church whom I met in the Parque Central a few weeks ago! He and I talked for a while that day in the park and exchanged Facebook info so that we could message each other. He wanted to visit church with me and it was so good to have him join us this Sunday! Still another friend, that I have come to know from frequent visits to the cafe he owns, wants to meet on the weekends so that we can each practice English / Spanish respectively. I so enjoy these opportunities that I have to interact with people! I am praying that God would use these interactions to bring them into the family! Weeks like the one that I just had can so easily bring me down and distract me from the work that God is doing. I would greatly appreciate your partnership in prayer that I would remain steady and humbly submissive to God’s way each day. That I can reframe the bad and that my eyes would be open to see how God can use me even when I feel unqualified, unsuccessful, and largely depressed from the daily ups and downs of life. God is good. All the time.
|
