Happy almost 4th of July! Countdown - 82 days until I leave for Nicaragua. Realized that this coming weekend will be the last 4th of July I celebrate in the USA for a couple of years.
DATE CHANGE:
So, in my last email I mentioned a Potluck Picnic Goodbye Party. The date has CHANGED.
My family & I will be hosting this event on Friday, August 26th from 4pm-8:30pm at a local park.
I'm looking forward to this chance to see old friends, family, former/current co-workers, and new friends as well. We will have hotdogs and ice tea. More details and RSVP info to follow.
JUNE HIGHLIGHTS.
-Praise that all my medical appointments are completed and I now have almost all of the official documents I need to take with me.
-Praise that my dad's treatment seems to be making good progress.
-Praise for a church in NY that sent a team to San Juan del Sur to do a children's VBS at the church there, and for all the lives impacted through their efforts (22 children turned to Jesus). This team also really helped me out by bringing down one of my suitcases. When I leave in September, I'll only be able to bring a few suitcases, so this church enabled me to send some of my luggage down in advance. What a great blessing.
-Praise that I got to see several old friends on different occasions this month, and for some special family times as we celebrated various birthdays.
-Praise for some additional financial gifts.
UPCOMING:
A friend of mine recently moved overseas full time to serve as an English teacher in a very far off country. I heard she was only able to bring 2 suitcases!! Wow, how to fit your whole life for years into 2 suitcases!! I can't even imagine. But she did it. So thankful I am able to bring 3-4 suitcases.
As you can imagine I have a huge "To Do" list of things to accomplish in order to wind-down life here and prepare for departure. Big items like setting up accounts to handle banking internationally. Small things like canceling memberships. Buying a printer, mosquito spray, sheets, & towels (hard to get good quality down there). The list seems to keep growing of what I need to do. At the same time facing the challenge of how to minimize what I bring so everything will fit in the suitcases.
Pray that I'm able to find ways to get everything done, and figure out what is absolutely necessary to pack vs. what can be left behind.
LESSONS:
This past week I had some challenging life lessons in the areas of fear and failure. It is a humbling thing to fail at something you thought you would succeed in. I failed a class and I'm sad to say that I took the fail rather hard. Thankful for God's great love and grace in helping me work through that.
He reminded me that when Jesus died on the cross, the crowd saw it as the WORST FAILURE. But in reality Jesus's death and resurrection were actually the GREATEST VICTORY the world will ever know. So too God can take my real failures and turn them around by using these failures to do even greater things in my life.
Exodus 33:13 "...let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight."