Today is the three month mark. I was gone three months, from May 26-August 26 and now it is November 26th. I think I read somewhere it takes however long you were gone for life to feel like normal on the other side of your mission trip too, or to be readjusted. So I guess we'll see what that looks like. The past three months have been challenging as I've tried to find where I fit back into life here but they've been good too.
A Day Of Thanks
Today is also Thanksgiving. As I reflect on this past year there is so very much for me to be thankful, my heart spills over in thanks! I had to work for several hours today but then I was able to join my best friend Sarah and her family for some good food and good company. So what is there to be thankful for? Well...quite obviously there is the summer in Czech, the fact that people prayed for me and decided to support me to get there. It was, as you may remember quite a miracle that I even made it there. I am thankful for all the new friends I met in Czech this summer. I am thankful for the team I got to spend the summer with. I am thankful for the friends I met in Phoenix. I am thankful for the old friends I was able to revisit while there. I am thankful for technology that allows me to keep in contact with my friends in Czech and Phoenix and Minnesota and Indiana. I am thankful that Nate and Emily Hughes were able to come visit last month and were able to come see Evergreen. I am thankful for a church that causes me to grow and think. I am thankful for my nephew. I am thankful for my friends here who have been patient with me as I've grown and changed, who love me however I am but always encourage me to grow. I am thankful that I got my job back the day I landed. And I'm sure there are other things too but those are the things that are most near my heart at this time as I reflect.
Life, Death and A Strong Faith
As the holidays approach and are, I guess, now here, I have been thinking of my friends who have lost people who are very dear to them. Some I knew, some I did not but still, I've found my life affected as I've watched my friends deal with death and continue to hold fast to their faith in God. There was Laura and Tony who I wrote about earlier in the year. And at the same time, Pavel. And recently my friend Jenn lost her fiancee Joe. In ways it seems it would be easy to just blame God for these deaths, to believe that He cannot be good when young people die, when people who are in the prime of their lives and are so full of faith die, some may become angry at God. But I have watched my friends deal with these deaths by choosing to still trust God. To believe that He is good and that He somehow has a plan still.
How to join the adventure:
1)Take time to thank God for the good things, the hard things, all that has made you, you this year. Tell those who you are thankful for that you are thankful for them, because the truth is you just don't know how long they'll be around.
2)pray for The Silva family, for Pavel's family and girlfriend Tessa, for Pavel and my good friend Mark, for Jenn and Joe's family and Joe's son as they all have their first holiday apart from those who they love deeply.
3)Pray for God to continue to direct me concerning Czech and next summer.
Thank you so much! Love to you all,
Em
