Faithfulness...

I'm just so excited right now.

#1...I ONLY HAVE 8 WORK DAYS LEFT OF INSTITUTE!!!!!! AND ONLY 4 MORE LESSONS TO TEACH! Praise the Lord...Seriously.

The end is in sight!


I can see it...I'm going to survive this. (It hasn't been that bad...but I will be glad to get my life back. )


#2...I don't know if I've mentioned this to any of you...or maybe just a couple of you...but I've been craving christians. Seriously. I mean, I just want to be around christians so bad that I can't stand it. I dont' think I realized how much I took for granted the community that we all had (together and w/ others) in auburn, and that I've had in Dothan. Even if it wasn't always intentional community, it existed at least...NONE at TFA so far. It so hard to be in such a secular environment. EVERYTHING is F*** this, F*** that, Let's go get wasted. I seriously had a conversation w/ a guy about drinking last week, and he thought I was CRAZY because I don't go get nasty drunk ALL THE TIME. I told him I'd only ever been drunk once, and I count it one of my bigger mistakes in life, and he didn't believe me for a long time, then he just didn't understand. This is the prevailing attitude of most people here.


SO...That's good, because I am learning patience and how to deal with people who are different than me in a non-judging, just loving (that's good...non-judging just loving) way. ANYWAY...all that to say, last monday or tuesday I just realized that what was missing was christian community. I just prayed and cried out for that, because I need it.


THE NEXT DAY...I found out about this church that has dinner/bible study on wed. night and some of my corps was going to meet in the lobby at 5:45 wed. to go. 5:45 came and went. No one showed up. I've been really home sick this week (which I think is a result of no community) and I just cried wed. night. I saw the girl who was suppose to be organizing it later, and she said that everyone was just really busy so they cancelled at the last minute (UGH! True though...I can relate to the business). I was dissapointed to say the least.


Which brings me to today. I knew a group of people was going to go to this church tonight (midtown community church...if you know people in atl. tell them to check it out)...I woke up and decided that I just really wanted to go to First Baptist Opelika (their pastor is really popular in the southern baptist convention). It was a great service. But it was their 4th of July, honor the military service. Which is great and SO important, and SO NOT WHAT I WAS NEEDING THIS MORNING. The afternoon came and went...I went to the MLK Jr. Historic site, and saw the museum, his birthplace, his church and the fire station he spent time at. I got home and decided to take a little nap... I slept through the "meet up time" for church tonight, and honestly, I wasn't sold out about going anyways. So I got up, ate some oatmeal and thought "you know what, I'm going to church...who cares that I have to go in by myself, who cares that I haven't done ANYTHING for school tomorrow and I'll be up WAY late...I'm going" BEST DECISION EVER! There were 8 REAL NASHVILLE PEOPLE THERE! Real people who love Jesus. And in my judgements that EVERYONE was terrible and currupt I missed at least 7 other people who love the Lord (and I know there are at least 2 more).



The service was phenomenal. A retired missionary from Indonesia spoke (which is good for me, because I feel like my heart for missions just keeps growing and growing).


There were 2 points in the service where they told us to turn to a neighor and pray for them/over them. The first time was @ the beginning and it was to pray for someone. I was w/ Jessica...a TFA girl from Nashville, and it was just so good to pray w/ her...then later we prayed God's blessing over each other.

AHH!! So Good. Afterwards...Anita (one of my roommates for next year) wanted us to all pray together after the service before we came back to GATech, so we did, and it was just good. I don't know these people well, but I'm so excited for the opportunity to get to know them more. It's gonna be so good. Okay, sorry for the novel. I am just so excited.