Highs and Lows

The past few week has been like a roller coaster of events. But God is faithful, and i am alive! :) A continual thanks to all who have been so encouraging to me! I have been blessed beyond measure and i have so much to be thankful for! :)

Well for starters, last Thursday I got to go with Donna to Makro! Makro is equivalent to a Sam's Club or Costco in the States. I remember going there with my mom 7 years ago. I got excited seeing all the fresh produce that you can buy in large quantities. :) There is just something inside me that makes me want to cook and bake for people. I think i get it from my mother! :) Along those lines, last week was a bit hard. There came a time when i had a strong urge to go help people. I just wanted to leave school and go care for people, give them a hug, and let them know that Jesus loves them. I don't know. I think with school right now, God is teaching me perseverane and working on my heart for something in the future. I need to keep relying on His strength to get me through school.

On Friday night, I had the opportunity to go to a Vigilia at church. A Vigilia is similiar to a lock-in but, it is a lot more "spiritual." It was for the youth group, so i got to meet some new friends from church. The worship and fellowship was great but at times i got frustrated and tired because of the Spanish. haha at 5 A.M. we had a mini American Idol thing. We all split into groups and someone from each group had to go up and sing in front of everyone. Well lets just say that my group decided to flee and by the time it was my group's turn to send someone up to sing, there was no one left- except me. So i went up there, extremely tired, and took the microphone. They started playing a Hillsong song that i know in English and Spanish. But i couldn't remember the words- in my head i would sing a few words in English and then i would go into Spanish. So i just stood up there. Haha it was bad and i was pretty embarrassed. But life goes on... Aunt Donna picked me up a few hours later and i came home and crashed until 3:30 p.m. Overall it was a great experience, good practice time for my Spanish, and most importantly, a good worship time!

Church on Sunday was yet another great experience filled with heart-felt worship and a touching message. The preacher this week had a great insight on a passage in Genesis 14 about Abraham and Lot. He was talking about our life battles and how what we depend on will determine the victory. This was a message i really needed to hear because i feel like recently i have been going through a spiritual battle. There are so many things i am learning right as well as many simple truths that i need to be reminded of every now and then. I also had a great conversation with my dad on Sunday night that was much needed. I love him and miss him so much. I am excited for him because today he left for Kenya! So cool- and i have to admit i am a little jealous! I can not WAIT to hear about how God is working over there! I am so happy for him because i know Africa has a special place in his heart like Venezuela does in mine.

Also on Sunday after church a few of my teachers came over for a while to hang out and eat lunch with us. I have really started to develop a great friendship with my English teacher, Miss Bullock. She has been a great friend for me to talk to about life and i am able to connect with her. I think we are going to start meeting weekly so she can disciple me and so that we can have some good time to talk. God has blessed me so much with this relationship in my life along with many others! This is such a huge answer to prayer for me as well. :)

Now to last night. Last night my procrastination tendencies led me to working for about 5 hours or more on a paper for U.S. History. I had it all written out and was just getting ready to type it up when my stomach started hurting really bad. I was extremely nauseous and felt horrible.. well it all went down from there. Enough said. So today i stayed home from school to rest and i finished up my paper. Thank God i am slowly starting to feel better because tomorrow my school is heading out to a camp for a few days for a retreat type thing. I am SUPER excited because i have heard that people get really competitive and also one day we get to hike up a mountain. More importantly, i am looking forward to getting to know some of the people in my high school better and develop deeper relationships. :) I just hope that i am feeling up to doing everything and i am glad i got sick here instead of camp!

One other thing that has been pretty frustrating for me is my spanish. I do not remember if i talked about this in earlier blogs, but with my school being English-speaking, my spanish has become almost a discipline. I really have to force myself into working at it but i am having trouble finding the time for that. Weekends are my favorite because i get to be around church people and also practice my spanish! When it comes down to it, it all comes back to balance in life and time management. There are so many things i want to do here but i do not feel like i have enough time for! Priorites, priorites... welcome to life!

Well that is about all i have for this week! I still can not believe i am actually living in Venezuela and that i have been here for over a month! Thanks for everyone's prayers and support!
LOVE YOU ALL!
mariah