Faith to be strong

Give us faith to be strong
Father, we are so weak
Our bodies are fragile and weary
As we stagger and stumble to walk where you lead
Give us faith to be strong

Give us peace when we're torn
Mend us up when we break
This flesh can be wounded and shaking
When there's much too much trouble for one heart to take
Give us peace when we're torn

Give us hearts to find hope
Father, we cannot see
How the sorrow we feel can bring freedom
And as hard as we try, Lord, it's hard to believe
So, give us hearts to find hope

Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it's hard
Give us grace to go on
Make us willing and able
Lord, give us faith to be strong
Give us peace when we're torn
Give us faith, faith to be strong
- A. Peterson

It's been a long week...but God's grace has surrounded me at every turn. I am working 25 more hours now than I was before...15 landscaping and 10 tutoring someone from Saudi Arabia for pay. So my life has kind of drastically changed, schedule-wise. That's been pretty tough. It's what the Lord brought me here for, though, so I am trusting Him to get me through it and learning to let go of my personal goals for my time in the next six weeks.

Yesterday I taught ESL for 7 hours, off and on throughout the day. Then it took me hanging out with a group of young people from the church for an hour and talking to a good friend and eating a bowl of brownies with raspberry ice cream and whipped cream and reading half the book of Daniel to be quiet and rested enough to go to sleep. So, see, even though it's tiring and tough, God knows what I need and He supplies. I never knew you could get so tired of speaking your own language, though.

Oh, and speaking of supplying what I need. Check out this little man who is basically making my summer right now. Ms. Linda, THIS is Cedric. I got to watch him on Wednesday night after 8 hours of working landscaping in the hot sun. It was pure therapy. We smiled a lot at each other and exchanged lots of slobbery kisses and he's a very good listener and I was teaching him how to give a high five. Oh, and Ingrid Michaelson was by far his favorite artist of all the different ones I tried on him, although he liked Best Years of our Lives by the BaHa Men (Shrek soundtrack). HeHe.






This weekend I'm headed home with my friend Leah from Emmaus (from Ft. Collins, north of here), for my cousin Chad's wedding! I'm exhausted through and through so I don't have a lot of energy to be excited, but I'm looking forward to it all. And praying that we'll be safe driving. God is so good to have provided a good friend to come down with me for the 17-hour round trip in one weekend. :) I love how He provides. He is good.

Oh, and PS, Why do I always have to be in the 3% of people who get the side effects in antibiotics? 3% seems like a nice, small, unlikely-that-you'll-get-it number...but it's not encouraging. :P