Hope everyone had a very merry and blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
I just returned to Brazil on the 9th and just got internet today. I am so happy to be back and truly feel like this is home now.
As usual, the base was abuzz with activity: NIKO, vacation Bible school, and King's Kids had all just started and there are many new people, including a large team from the Dominican Republic here on outreach.
As I entered the base, I again heard a worship song being sung in English. Last time it was How Great is Our God and this time it was a Hillsong song. It's like God's own little "welcome home" to me.
I also noticed that today is the 12th of January, which happens to be the day I moved out here last year. Today I have been remembering fondly my excitement, hopes, dreams, and the great unknown upon my arrival...with a tad bit of romantic naivety, I must admit. Living in a foreign country sounded so adventurous and exciting!
However, looking back at the year, I feel a bit like I've lived through a war (not to diminish any of you who have actually lived through a war). Everything was so, so hard. I've witnessed things that I've never seen before. And hope never to again. There have been times I felt the weight of despair and hopelessness and just wanted to give up.
But everything in my life that has had any lasting meaning has been hard. And I look back now with gratefulness knowing I learned a lot, I leaned on God more than I ever have in my life, my character was grown, I'm a more hopeful person, and I'll never be the same...in a good way.
One of the main things God taught me this past year is that I have to challenge myself to see the beauty in a place where it seems no beauty exists.
Yesterday, during morning chapel, I got there early and sat on the end of a pew that looks out an open window towards the jungle. I put my water bottle beside me on the pew about half a foot away from me. Lucas, one of the youngest Hope House boys came in and silently sat next to me, able to slide his skinny self in between me and my water bottle, even though the rest of the pew was empty. He sang all the worship songs in Portuguese with gusto and I looked out the window at the all the beautiful trees and was just so content.
The beauty is all around. I just have to look for it.
Many blessings to you in 2013 and always.
Thank you for being on this journey with me.
Love, Joy
"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE." -Romans 5:3-4
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." -1 Cor. 2:9
No comments:
Post a Comment