"Because of the Lord’s great love,
we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself,
'The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.'
The Lord is good
to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord."
~Lamentations 3:22-26

This week has been evidence enough that this is indeed true- God's compassion and faithfulness is new for us every morning. It was a hectic, tiring week but also very, very rewarding! Each day there was enough strength and wisdom for that day- never more, never less, but each day God faithfully provided for every need. I'm really not sure where to start as I reflect on it...

I'm thankful to now be at the end of the week where I can look back and see how God brought many little details together to make this a great week. For instance I was feeling pretty discouraged on the way home Thursday afternoon because one of the boys in my class had gotten pretty upset when some of the others had been picking on him. When his mom arrived to pick him up he was quite adamant that he wouldn't be coming back. I spoke with his mom and the boys who had been picking on him, but nothing was really resolved, and I didn't expect to see him again. But, Friday morning there he was, looking a little unhappy, but he was there. He and his mom and brother all showed up at the church this morning for the closing program, and this time he was very happy and talkative. He seemed so excited about being at church, and when I spoke to his mom after she said, "My boys loved HBC and we're planning to join the church." Ha, I wasn't sure what to say- Honestly, 3 days ago I would have said we'll never see them again, but surprise, surprise, God had a plan!

Another thing that surprised me was some of the helpers that God sent us. There must have been 10 or 12 teenagers who have come to HBC many, many times when they were younger, and some of whom have been to the church in the past but aren't really connected at all now. They showed up at the beginning of the week asking if they could help, and we had already decided that because we were short handed and because we really wanted to draw these kids in that we would find a place for them to help out. My thought was that it was going to be almost as much work looking after the teens as it would be looking after the younger ones, but that it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I was right about it being a good opportunity, but I was wrong about their ability to contribute. The four helpers that I had in my class were great! They did everything I asked of them, had great attitudes and really looked after the younger kids. I was so impressed and thankful. I kept telling them what a good job they were doing and encouraging them to come to church and get involved. They would be such a huge blessing to our church. I found out that two of the boys who helped out play basketball for their high school (very few schools have basketball as an organized sport here) so I was excited to discover that, and we are planning a time to get together and play- I do miss basketball so this would be a very fun way to connect with them.
We had a really good turnout for our closing program at church today and the picture is of some of the kids during the service. I honestly don’t know what the attendance was, but I did feel as though there were a lot of good connections with families. I’m continuing to pray that families will come and get connected in the days ahead.
There are a lot of opportunities ahead of me right now and at the moment I feel too tired and too emotionally drained to get real excited about them, but they are wonderful opportunities and God’s great love will be new tomorrow to give me the strength and motivation to pursue them. I’m going to be teaching a small group during the week now that will hopefully draw in some of the young adults, school starts this week so there will be plenty of opportunities there and I have a lot of plans for potential ministries at the Kenneth Garden apartments.
I have come to just expect that at the end of a great week like this past one, I will always need to be careful to go back to the basics of prayer and surrender to God. Though God has accomplished much, I feel my weakness and remember my need for Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing, but by abiding in Him we can bear much fruit!