Ok so I have always been protective of my things. I like for people to ask before they borrow things and I like for stuff to be in order, at least where it makes sense to me!! In other words, I have a personal bubble, and I have always been particular about who invades that personal bubble and how much they do so!! :) Well i think God is working in overtime to break me of this attitude in my life. lol Every day here at the Lar is kind of like a personal bubble invasion...I am not saying that I dont like it, just that it takes getting used to is all!! :) For example, the kids love to come in to my apartment and hang out, listen to my ipod, take pictures with my camera, and the girls love to try on my jewelry, etc!! Everything in my nature wants to yell at them to leave my things alone and leave my "space"....but then God so gently says, Melissa...these are not your things, they are mine and you are simply taking care of them for a while!! And then He says, Melissa...why are you here at this orphanage? To show them My (Gods) love...so do that...show them my love!!! I am also reading a book, you may have heard of it..."The Purpose Driven Life"! This book talks about this very thing and the fact that this earth is merely temporary and the things we have here will all pass away someday. I need to be storing up treasures in heaven (loving and serving these kids) instead of storing up treasures here on this temporary earth (worrying about these things)!! So anyway, just an honest insight to what God is teaching me!!
This week was the third week of our Discipleship Bible study with the teenage girls! The first week was the introduction week, and the past two weeks we talked about our identity as believers! This is a very important topic and I pray that i represented Christ well as i taught it! The girls are very shy about opening up and sharing in front of each other, so it will take a while for them to really talk and share in the Bible Study! The most important thing, though, is that it is resonating with their hearts and souls! So on Tuesdays shout out a quick prayer for these girls, that they would be open to hear from God and to accept what He wants to say to them! Pray that I would have wisdom and allow God to speak through me!
This past weekend we had some fun trips for some of the kids. The Lar has a point system set up for behavior and progress in school, etc. Once they earn so many points (kind of like an allowance), they are allowed to go on some kind of trip! So on Saturday morning and afternoon we took 4 of them to the beach and a small water park at a hotel along the beach! Sadly it ended up being a rainy day, but we had a lot of fun anyway! That evening we took a separate group of 4 to go bowling! This was the first time for 2 of them, so they absolutely loved it...it was so awesome just to see their excitement and huge genuine smiles! :) I was also able to go with a friend to her karate class on Friday night; it kicked my butt!! haha :) Karate is hard-core working out for sure, but it was definitely a lot of fun. It was cool to learn defensive moves, some kicks and punches, and just watching all of them do really cool forms!!
Its hard to believe that I have been here for a month already! I can honestly say that it has been so fulfilling, being here...and God has taught me so much! Teaching is still difficult, more some days than others, but God continually gives me grace, strength, and wisdom in this! The most challenging part is still the language barrier...I am able to communicate farely well for the most part with the kids and I can understand a lot of what is going on in conversations (if i concentrate)!! One of the house moms and one of the tutors that comes to teach the kids both want to learn English really bad so I help them with English and they help me with Portuguese.
And for those of you who know that I am not much of a cook, they are def teaching me how to cook from scratch!! :) So hopefully before too long, ill be a pro in the kitchen!! hehe Lets Hope!! ;) Well i think thats all for tonight...continue to keep me in your prayers as i seek to shine the light of Christ, may i always represent His name well and bring nothing but glory to Him!!!
-Liss
Hahaha! I def know how are about your stuff. I'm kind of the same way so I can relate. I love that you got to do karate. That's so cool. And you're learning to cook? You go girl. I love it. I'll def be praying that the girls hear from God about their identity in Him. You're right, that's a very important topic. :)
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