And Mary Treasured up all These Things...

I feel so close to the weekend right now and am amazed at how quickly this past week has gone. Like I said earlier, the days have been full. Fulfilling is also another good way of describing them. 


As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm doing a Beth Moore study on the book of James. I LOVE it so far!! I've done two days of the homework and we still haven't even gotten to James. Beth starts by giving a background of the family of James who was one of Jesus' brothers. One of the things I've seen in the text a bunch is how Mary was storing up all these treasures in her heart along the way. I've always wondered what exactly that meant, and I'm sure it's something special that all mothers do and I will maybe one day experience if I have children on my own. 


In the meanwhile, the last few days have been full to the brim with joyful treasures that I feel I could store up in my heart as well. I only have time to mention a few, but perhaps you will understand what I'm talking about. 


Today and yesterday I helped to teach the phonetics portion of the English classes. Yesterday I had no idea what I was doing and my partner, Jonathan, and I made it up as we went and pretending like we were confident in it. We received more instruction on the whole protocol this morning and were both pleasantly surprised to realize yesterdays improv phonetics performance wasn't too far off from what they had actually been doing with a different teacher. 


Today I was on my own teaching two Sudanese ladies how pronounce the letters in our alphabet. I didn't realize how complicated our alphabet is until I tried to teach it. Some of our letters are really hard to explain how to get the right sound. I'm learning, though! And they are improving! I was so delighted when one of my students correctly made the sound "Zee" and both of my students were able to distinguish "M" from "N!" Such joy in the simple things!! It almost makes me want to go teach in Africa. Haha. :)


I also helped to teach reading with my Sudanese ladies, the ones in my phonetics class plus one more. 
After going through our book a couple times (Sandcastle is a really difficult word by the way) I asked them some questions about the country from which they had come. I gave them each white boards and had them draw me pictures of their houses. (They're quite artistic!) 


I was fascinated to learn they lived in round mud huts with grass roofs fitting 10 or more people in one tiny one-room hut. I also learned about their decorative scarring or tribal marking. I had noticed their scars before but I hadn't payed much attention to the pattern. I am absolutely LOVING getting to know these women and learning more about their culture. I feel like by doing so I'm getting to know God better!! My heart is awakening to all these new things that I didn't know about before and it's as if God is saying, "Here's another thing! I made this person too! I made this culture. I made this language. I made this, this, and this." I'm just amazed. I mean, it's not like I was unaware before. I just didn't feel loved by knowing about all these people before. Now that I'm a part of investing in these people and God has filled my heart with a love for these people, I feel loved just getting to know them. Funny how that works, huh?


I haven't even begun  to describe all the joyful things I've encountered so far. I love the people I work with, I love the people I encounter, I love the time we spend in prayer and the time we spend getting to know each other. I love the fellowship and the encouragement and the unity. I love the big family feelings and common purpose and goals. 


I don't have time to describe it all, but I treasure up all these things in my own heart. :)