My beloved

Rosa working hard on her card!

I spent my morning off lounging around the house listening to music and catching up on things that got pushed to the side all week. When I did go up to school I jumped right in to gym classes for the day. The sun was shinning bright, so naturally all of the kids wanted to be in the shade...I was ready to lay out in the sun. We played soccer in the hallway with the second and third graders which went well, then worked on the dance routine for tomorrow with the oldest girls. It is a teacher's birthday tomorrow and instead of having English class they spent the hour making her cards. The girls were having a blast working on pop-up cards! Library went well and enrichment consisted of playing go fish. I can't complain it was fun even though they were peaking at cards once in a while. When I was all done at Casa de Fe for the day I went over to Marco's for his first day of tutoring. Marco is the young boy that I met yesterday and I continued to be impressed s I got to teach him English. A couple of years ago Marco was unknowingly playing with dynamite and it exploded. He lost both of his hands, cannot see out of one of his eyes, and has scars covering his neck. What seems like extreme adversary in this boys life has been overwhelming encouraging to me and many others around him. Although I have not spent much time with Marco, his desire to live, learn, and just be a normal kid is incredible. I thank the Lord for this boys life and allowing me to work with him even though it will be for a short period of time. I started him on some basic English introduction and material and I can tell he is going to be dedicated and a quick learner! When I finished teaching him I went down to the dique and sat near the river. I had a nice quiet time beside the river and I enjoyed listening to the water flow. God for knows exactly what I need and His timing is perfect. This morning was one of those mornings I was questioning where the Lord has me. I don't mean why does He have me in Ecuador, but more so the stage of life I am at. I am glad I came across a verse from John 20:29, "Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" Although I have not seen God I believe in His perfect plan for my life, because there are countless times throughout my life His presence is undeniable. I may not know what lies ahead, in fact I don't even know what tomorrow will be like, but I believe it will be good because God is in control. I have had my fair share of doubts, but being unsure of certain things in my life caused me to explore, learn, discover, and grow in my understanding of what it means to walk by faith. As a Christian I am responsible for working through doubts, God meets me where I am at in every struggle and helps me through it, but I must also take action in order to grow. When I got home I had a light supper and listened to My Beloved by Kari Jobe on repeat. This song was exactly what I needed to hear and I just didn't want to stop listening to it! The lyrics are: "You're my beloved, you're my bride to sing over you is my delight. Come away with me my love under my mercy come and wait till we are standing face to face. I see no stain on you my child, you're beautiful to me, so beautiful to me. I sing over you my song of peace cast all your care down at my feet. Come and find your rest in me, I'll breathe my life inside of you, I'll bear you up on eagle's wings and hide you in the shadow of my strength. I'll take you to my quiet waters, I'll restore your soul, come rest in me and be made whole. You're my beloved, you're my bride to sing over you is my delight, come away with me my love." I can just her God singing me this song, because we are his BELOVED children and he delights in each of us. Then it was time to pick up the girls at Pattie Sue's for dance and meet the girls from the orphanage at the Coliseo for zumba! They did a great job participating and working hard at dance, I was very impressed and enjoyed dancing with them. After riding in the back of the taxi to drop them off and taking the girls back to Patti Sue's, Cheralyn and I went to Johnny's for supper. It was pretty late, but we had a lovely conversation and I enjoyed a relaxing end to a loaded day.