Thankfulness...

Being that Thanksgiving just passed, and my devotional has been talking about giving thanks for the last 7 days or so, I figured I´d write about thankfulness.

I´ll start with some great quotes or Bible verses from my devotional. This devotional has been great for me, it has applied to what I´m experiencing here and it is one thing I´m thankful for right now.

            -Remember that JOY is not dependent on your circumstances.

-Be willing to follow wherever I lead you. Follow me wholeheartedly, with glad anticipation quickening your pace

- Instead of regretting or resenting the way things are, thank ME in all circumstances.

- Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:17

-You need to look beyond the flux of circumstances and discover Me gazing lovingly back at you.

-Complaining to others is another matter all together. It opens the door to deadly sins such as self-pity and rage! Bring your grumbles to me.

-Live fully in the present depending on Me each moment!

-Trust Me enough to let things happen with out striving to predict or control them.

-A life of praise and thankfulness becomes a life filled with miracles. Instead of trying to be in control, you focus on Me and what I am doing.

-When your mind is occupied with thanking me, you have no time for worrying or complaining.

All of these quotes have hit home for me. I have been struggling with all of these things and I love that God has so clearly shown me he is there and with me through all of this through the words in my devotional.  

Other things I am thankful for:

-My AMAZING team here in Paraguay. They are such a blessing and I am so glad to have this experience with them. I don’t know if I could do this with out them. They are all great in their own different ways, I love them!

- My wonderful family back home praying for me and thinking of me.

-My friends and church back home thinking of me and praying for me.

-I´m so thankful for my mom. She listens to everything I say, hears it all and gives me the strength to power through when things are hard. I appreciate that she stays strong for me and pushes me to change my attitude towards the positive. I appreciate her more than she knows.

- The long bus ride to work to listen to my music and just have some time to think. I sometimes don´t want to get off because I´m caught up in my thoughts.

- My family here. Even though it´s been hard, and adjustment. We have our good times. And I´m thankful for the freedom they are giving me to have experiences her with them or with others around me. I really have it good here.

- I´m thankful for one student in my class who every morning runs to me and gives me a big hug and says, ¨hola profe Cotty (Katie)¨. It makes me feel so good. And at times when I´m at work feeling like I´m not doing anything or helping, I can think of those kids that I get to be with and have grown to love already.

-This one is a bit superficial but I´m seriously VERY thankful for it; the air conditioner in my room. With this I am able to sleep some at night (I just don’t sleep well anymore in general) but with out the AC I´m not sure I´d sleep much at all. I thank God every morning and every night for this.

-The Klassen family. They are our directors here and they have welcomed me into their family like their own daughter. I am at their house 3 afternoons a week. I especially am thankful for Edulia, the mom. She is so sweet and so patient with my Spanish and is always making sure I´m doing ok. I love her.

-My new friend Bianca. She is great and we have a lot of fun together. I love when you meet a person and it feels like you´ve already been friends for years. :)

-I´m also thankful that I have been able to see all the things I take advantage of at home, just the simple ordinary things to us, that they don’t have here. For example; cold water and ice, free water and refills at restaurants, my car, AC everywhere you go, speaking the Native language fluently, people not staring  you down because of your hair color or skin color, family and friends that know you and love you unconditionally. There are many others but I am thankful in general for the things and people I have at home.

Being here so far has shown me how to appreciate my family back home and not take advantage of them because they ARE my family and will always love me. I have learned to appreciate every positive thing and try and hold onto those, even though I don’t always do that, I´m trying. To just be thankful in general. I tend to think I´m the only one going through something difficult or challenging, and that is not true. God is trying to show me the good in every situation and that it is MY choice to think that way. He has provided me with everything that I need. God is my focus! This is my continual prayer, that I can remember and do this at all times.  

Here is my list of things I feel God is working on with me:

-Trust

-Thankfulness

-Complaining and comfort

-Being in the moment now, not focusing on the future

I would love your prayers in all of these things and I thank you for all of your prayers so far. Talk to you soon, wishing you all happy shopping and whatever else you are doing in this Christmas season.

P.S. Enjoy the cool weather and actual Christmas feeling for us down here in South America. A bit hard when its 105 degrees out and really humid. But hey, I´m getting a pretty good tan! :)

Going good...

So there isn´t really much to update you all on but everything is going great here. I am enjoying my job and making new friends. My spanish is getting better, still is not great but so much better. I´ve been able to have a few deep conversations and been able to get to know people better as well. That is really nice and has made a big difference in my experience here. I´m very glad for this. It was kind of hard at first because I couldn´t hardly communicate with anyone but now it´s going good, slow and steady:) I can´t wait until I can really really talk to them!:)

I have been teaching a lot of English and have been asked multiple times to teach other people, which is ok, but I would like to learn Spanish a little better before I start teaching English to a lot of people. So we´ll see how that goes, hopefully I can teach more people after a few months when my Spanish improves. Also, at my work, they asked me to be the lead teacher in a few months when the teacher now goes on maternity leave. That´s a bit scary but I think I´ll be able to do it since I´ll have about 3 more months to practice my Spanish.

My group is going to cook a Thanksgiving meal for all of our families and our leaders, about 38 people! We are going to take the day after Thanksgiving off from work and spend all day cooking together. It will be the first test to see if we can all work together in harmony! No, it should be great and we are really excited. We are sad we won´t be home with our families but we are going to bring a little bit of home here to help us celebrate! Can´t believe its only a week away! So excited! Hope all of you are well and I will try and update again soon! Ask me any questions, anytime! Chau!!!!