tanto tiempo

Hey everyone, just now getting online after almost 5 days here in Monte Cristi... the past 5 days have seemed like a month's worth, we're not even close to getting settled in, but what is settled in is my heart. After about a day and a half of, "crap this is real life", I remembered why I came: I love these people and this place. Everything else... my Spanish, teaching, living out of a suitcase for a week or so before we move, and just getting used to daily life here... is slowly coming, but definitely not there yet. I'm learning to be okay looking like an idiot sometimes, and I'm learning how to give things over to the Lord, mainly because I have to!

I'm reading The furious longing of God by Brennan Manning, and in it I read an anonymous quote that said, 'He that would learn to pray, let him go to sea.' In my situation of vulnerability, I'm finding how real the power of God is.

I'm also just incredibly thankful for my two sisters here, Heather and Christine. God is already forming beautiful community in our home here and through our friendships and I am so blessed to have that kind of support in my life here. The little apartment we live in for the moment is already filled with so much joy and laughter and prayers. The Lord provides :)

Be in prayer for my first week teaching which starts tomorrow... God is so faithful, and He's already working out his perfect plan here. Things feel right.

More illustrated and well-thought-out updates to come!

Dios les bendiga

ciudad de luz :: city of light

Just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Martha (Lazarus' sister) was skeptical. I can imagine and almost feel and identify with her negativity and anxiety when Jesus told them to "take away the stone" from the tomb. (John 11)

But in response, Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?"

If there's one thing I've learned in the past month or so, it's that when God provides, He explodes expectations. So it has been with this whole journey to the DR. We have tons of ideas for ways to serve and love the community in Monte Cristi, but our main plan was to follow the Lord's leading to specific people and ways to serve.

Well, last week Heather and I were both offered positions to teach at Ciudad de Luz, the Christian school in Monte Cristi where Christine now teaches 1st grade. Both of us, feeling that this was completely the Lord providing for us, accepted the positions! Heather will be teaching kindergarten and I will be teaching English to the elementary students. We are seriously just in awe of how many needs this meets for us and the community. Here is a pic of part of the school:


The honest truth is though, that in all the excitement of this new job, the thought of being a teacher makes me a liiiittle nervous... will I be good enough? Do I have what it takes? It's a challenge for sure. A challenge that I am both excited and nervous about. But in thinking about being out of my comfort zone, I realize that even that is a gift from God. It leaves more room for Him to be glorified. There is no way I can do this on my own steam...it'll take trust and letting go, and once again that is a good situation to find myself in... dependence.

*breathe*

So, in less than a month, I'll be a real teacher. in the Dominican Republic. How is that for unexpected? My expectations now are that God will always surpass them, whatever they are.

because, didn't He tell me...?

let me fill you in.

to update everyone on what's going on:

if you haven't noticed, we got our t-shirts and we're real excited about it. they arrived on Heather's doorstep in a big box and they are ready to be ordered and shipped :) click the "t-shirts" page at the top of this site to read about them and order one for your very own.


God is providing for us like crazy. He thinks of everything. i am amazed at how this is all unfolding and happening in perfect time. this is what it feels like to put it in the Lord's hands. i never knew! now i feel like it's the only way to live.

i spent last week in Kentucky with my family and my sweet Mammaw, dealing with the death of my D-daddy (when i learned to speak i couldn't say "grand-daddy"). he was very special and it was very hard, and it still is very hard. the past week drew my family closer together and grew me a little as a person. i saw a lot of ways the Lord redeems even the hardest losses...i was deeply encouraged by people i had never met but felt like i had known forever. i saw what true friendship is. i cried and i let go. life is a lot of letting go, in a lot of different ways. this was just one of them. be praying for my family, especially my Mammaw, Pearl.

there's a lot more to come! thanks for checking up on me every now and then. it means the world.

my best,
em