Here is my long overdue update. Sorry I have not written in a while. Life has been busy for me as I'm sure it has been for you. First of all, I want to thank you for your e-mails. I have heard from many of you and it has been such an encouragement! I am sorry I have not been able to personally respond yet.
Things are going well here. I have a ridiculous amount of school work to do and I often feel as if I am barely keeping my head above water. It is such good stuff though. It makes me want to do my homework and I wish that there were more hours in the day! The picture above is of our back porch where I spend many hours doing homework! What a beautiful place God has given me to learn about Him in. I have been learning so much about who I am in Christ and my relationship with the Lord. I agree with Erik (if you get the Wahlen's update) that I have learned more this past month than I have in the past year. It is amazing the things that God is teaching me. It is hard and it is good. I have had many walks with God in the past month! I find that as I am doing homework sometimes I need to just get up, go on a walk with God and talk about it for a while. Then I can come back and continue reading or whatever I had been working on.
Life outside of homework is good as well. I am making some really good friends and that is such a blessing and answer to prayer. The girls I live with are wonderful and I have great neighbors! We have been having lots of birthday parties lately and that is fun. We have another one this weekend! I am so grateful that we are not allowed to do any homework on Sunday's. They have become very special days of rest for me and I have come to see how much I need them. In the future I am going to be very intentional about keeping a Sabbath (be it Sunday or some other day) as I have seen the importance of it. We hear over and over how what we do flows out of who we are. I am learning how to focus on being and it is wonderful!
Another exciting thing in my life is that I am planning on going to North Africa this summer. I am super excited about this and I'm sure you will be hearing a lot more about that in future blogs!
Please continue to pray for me, that I would have deep relationships even though I am only here a short time. Also keep my studies in prayer. I have a lot of homework and it is hard to balance the discipline of study with the rest I need with time with my friends. I have a large amount of work due for my on-line class next week - please pray that I would get it all done! Thank you for your prayers. I covet them and would not be doing as well as I am here without them. Thank you!
