An Update (yeah, I´m running out of good title ideas)

I realize I haven’t been updating as frequently as I said I would, and for that I apologize.  Life has gotten busier here the past few weeks, and I don’t always get to celebrate my Friday Sabbath (sad day!) which is when, ideally, I can spend time updating my blog.  Also, things have normalized a bit more and so my stories seem less interesting (at least I think so).  So I have a lot to fill you in on, but I don’t want to bog you down with reading, so I’ll try to keep to the highlights of what I’ve been doing and learning.

New Friends:

 I went over to Karlayne’s house for dinner the other night and got to meet the four other American, study-abroad girls she lives with as well as her host parents.  They were so sweet! And her host mom invited me to their Christmas dinner which will happen sometime in the next day or two; she’s making the traditional Christmas dinner of tamales for her host girls and the first girl to leave goes this Friday so it has to be today or tomorrow—I’m so excited!  I loved having dinner with a family again, it was so great!  And her host dad is definitely a talker!  He’s well into his seventies and he has a lot to say about a lot of things.  It was definitely some good listening practice!  Of course, now I’m meeting all these great people right before we all leave, but oh well, better late than never I always say.

New Lessons (Surrender):

Surrender is difficult.  This is one of the things God has been teaching me.  In one of my previous posts, I wrote about the things I’ve been learning and one of them was that to physically be here is not enough, but I have to also be here in heart, mind, and spirit as well.  That meant giving up daily my thoughts, emotions, and actions for God to have.  About day five or six, it started to become harder.  By about day 10 I simply didn´t want to do it anymore.  I was not happy giving up control of my thoughts and emotions.  That was hard—I didn’t have control over, basically myself.  That’s when it dawned on me that surrendering everything every day means making yourself powerless, and submitting yourself to God every day.  I didn’t like it; it’s easy to say you’re going to do it—surrender everything—and you can do it for a day or two no problem, but when you start to realize that surrendering every day means you get no control or power any day, it gets uncomfortable.  Yet, every day that I was resistant to surrender, God could always find a way to change my heart.  That is one of the most amazing things about God; he never, ever, gives up on us and he always know what to say or do to give us the extra oomph to keep going.  Our God is an awesome God.

New Adventure (yet to come):

Tomorrow is the Christmas party for all the women who participate at Rahab, and then Friday is the get-together for the Rahab workers.  Ya’ll, we’re going to ride horses!  I’m so excited!  I mean, we’re going to a place that has a pool, and a mountainside where you can hike, and is recreational in general, but one of the things you can do is ride horses! I’m totally doing that.  Also, I will try and remember to take pictures.  But seriously, so pumped. 

New Opportunities:

You may remember my journey through Rahab, starting with the daycare and now being the office assistant to the psychologists while being able to participate in some of the classes for social education.  It’s been a nice change, but it hasn’t been what I was looking for.  Starting in February (when everything resumes—December and January are kind of vacation months) I have the possibility of working with the woman who does the bible studies and devotionals.  I sent her an email a while ago asking if I could work with her this upcoming year, but she hasn’t replied yet….so, hopefully soon I’ll know!  I don’t think she’d say no, but I still don’t want to say for sure that’s what I’ll be doing because it’s not certain yet.  But Michelle, the woman who does the bible studies, is awesome.  She’s actually another missionary from another organization and is originally from New Jersey.  She’s been here three years and she’s so sweet.  She only works part time at Rahab, so I don’t see her every day, but when I do see her she always makes sure to check up on me and see how I’m doing.  If I could work with her, that would be so awesome.

Plan for the next week:

On Tuesday (yes, in 6 days!) I’m headed to Florida where I will get to spend the rest of the week with the lovely Wittig family in Orlando until my family gets there (and we spend Christmas in Disney!! Woooooo!!!).  I am SO excited to spend time with the Wittigs; not only was their daughter one of my college roommates, but they are also a missionary family and know what it’s like to get back from being abroad and I’m sure they will be great debriefers.  Also, they are just awesome people (ok, I can only speak about the women of the family because they are the only ones I have actually met, but I’m sure the guys are just as great!) and it should be a good few days J

Prayer Requests:

·         Safe travels for all who are visiting friends and family this time of year

·         Good weather for flying (can you tell I really want to make it home this holiday season? Haha)

·         For it to work out for me to work with Michelle next year (meaning 2014)

·         For God to continue to teach me how to surrender every day and to learn from that experience

·         For restorative time over the break so I come back refreshed (and not missing my family and friends even more than before)

Thank you so much for your support—and again, sorry I haven’t been keeping you in the loop as often as I should.  That will be a New Year’s Resolution for me, I suppose; to actually update every week…we’ll see how it goes.

Miss you all, and I can’t wait to see some of you soon!

Peace and Blessings,

Kiki

Oh, and one more thing

It's the end of the year and if you're looking for a great tax-deductable gift to give before 2013 is over, I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider making (perhaps another) gift towards me being here.  Yes, I am already here, but I am not yet fully funded for the year.  If you feel God is putting it on your heart to give during this holiday season, you can follow this link: http://www.lam.org/missionaries/kiki-noa to go to my page and click the "Support this Missionary" button and then follow the instructions on screen.  Thank you again, and Merry Christmas!

Ok, I guess it was two things

Here are some pictures for you.  Like I said, I haven't been doing a lot more "adventurous" stuff...and I just forget to take pictures.  But here are a few from a museum I went to.  We were in the butterfly garden and they had signs to describe different types of weather.  These are the pictures that came out the best:

"Storming"

"Cloudy"

"Windy"

The Sky is Broken

Ok, that really was it.  Thanks for reading! And special shout out to Kayla Treviño who just read all my blogs and left awesome and encouraging comments on several of them--thanks for your love and support, girl! I love you too! <3