The First Day

And so begins the fruition of a dream God put in my heart nearly 7 years ago. It's funny how when  our "dreams" become reality they are so much like real life. Walking out a dream isn't usually romantic, it isn't rose colored, it isn't to the tune of a Hollywood theme song. It's nitty and gritty. It's feeling uncomfortable, uncertain and missing the known. But it's all part of the journey. The awkwardness passes eventually and you embrace the new role, the new adventure you are a part of. One of my teammates shared a quote recently that really resonated with me: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards" (Soren Kierkegaard) I like this because it is so true. We don't always understand the "why" or the "what" of things but yet we move forward by the grace of God as He directs us. We know that one day we will look back and we will understand, at least in part.

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. I have dreamed long and hard of the day I would stand in front of a group of students, in a different country, as a teacher, as a missionary. And suddenly, it was a reality. Instead of experiencing the emotion and the passion I had imagined, I felt the weight, the challenge, the unknown, the insecurity of being the teacher of these children. I hope this doesn't sound sad to you. I don't find it sad because I know one day I will look back, I will remember my first day teaching at Highlands, and I will smile because I will see how that one day was a significant piece in the puzzle that God is creating. I will smile because I will know that despite my humanness God was very much with me in the tough moments of that day and used those moments to teach me how to rely on Him and to cause me to grow closer to His heart. I will smile because I will be able to recall how the amazing days by far overshadow the difficult days. I will smile because I will think of the lives of students I saw transformed by the powerful love of our Almighty God!

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power 

is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."
 2 Corinthians 4:7

An amazing group of students (missing three)!

Coffee in hand, let's do this!

Welcome!