Joy Cometh

It's now past 10pm as I start this and I'm wincing a little bit at the fact that I should be in bed by now. Haha, I'm such a granny some days. Yesterday I was fairly sick after having gotten some sort of contaminant in my food and I was reacting pretty strongly. I felt quite miserable and lay down on my bed at 8:30 to hold my my stomach whilst curling up in the fetal position (adult-like, I know) and suffer through it and it was about 8:45 when I drifted off to sleep. 
I slept quite soundly til 6am this morning when the Lord woke me up and invited me to a quiet time with Him. 
How delightful! I felt refreshed (and mostly recovered) as I blended my celery and almond milk smoothy together for breakfast before sitting down in the peaceful, empty kitchen with my Beth Moore homework and my Bible.  I love spending my mornings like that! Of course, starting out with a run or a brisk walk whilst listening to praise music is also a good warm up before quiet time too! :)


After my delightful time with the Lord I headed off to pray with my co-workers and fellow laborers before we all headed off to our assigned roles in the adult English classes. Today, instead of working with the students, I helped with the childcare that is provided during the summer as the kids are not in school. I LOVED this. I honestly can't say what I love more between working with the students and working with the kids. It was SUCH a joy to color pictures and work puzzles and make friends with the kids and the time passed so quickly. 


During my lunch break I was able to chat with my siblings a little and then do a whole crossword with Mom before heading back to one of the neighborhood centers to work with the kids. 
I had a joy-filled afternoon walking from trailer to trailer meeting families and asking if they'd like their children to come to VBS (Vacation Bible School) with us. 
ALSO!! One of the trailers we came across had a litter of 9 of the CUTEST little puppies you've ever seen. I *wish* I could have taken a picture but they were tiny, maybe both of my hands put together, I they were CUTE. I think I fell in love. The mom said she was giving them away, so I'm half tempted to go get one for myself when they're a little bigger (we'll see how well I could convince my parents lol). 




I realize that I need to share more pictures and so here are two pictures from an event at one of the neighborhood centers a week ago. Every week we have something called Neighborhood night when we get the neighborhood to come together and we just have a cookout. The food is good and the company and relationship building is priceless!

These are some of the ladies that cooked for neighborhood night. The one on the far right behind the fridge is one my my English students :)

Tonight I had Bible study too. It would take a whole other blog post by itself to try to explain all the joyful things that God is teaching me in that. My heart is bursting and I feel like God has only *Barely* scratched the surface on all the great things he will do in my heart. I will say this, though, He's been doing BIG things in my heart. I'm not sure if people can see that on the outside yet but God is doing massssive things.  


Stay tuned!! More stories and joyful memories will be posted soon!