you are fearfully and wonderfully made..

We have been watching sermons preached by a pastor from Atlanta named Loui Giglio. Me and Annie have both fallen in love with his sermons; he is so genuine and down-to-earth.

Yesterday I had a lot going through my mind- which is easy to have considering everything still being so new as well as so much down time. I have learned to appreciate quiet time as well as rest. For many of you who know me this is a tremendous change as I have always needed something to do- even when I was little- it was what game can we play next.

Writing in my journal, we have been learning a lot about being fearfully and wonderfully made as I have written in my last post. I have been thinking a lot about how God, the creator of everything in this universe, has created us all uniquely for a specific purpose. So many times in life I have tried comparing myself to others or tried to become someone who I am not. I feel as though this is a struggle for many people. Even though I sometimes wish I would look a little different or have a better personality, I am coming to realize that God created me with all of my flaws, quirks, physical traits, passions, and interests for a reason. I was thinking about how this summer I want to learn more about why God made me the way I am as well as how He could best use me.

Not only has he knitted me in the womb, He has knitted all of us. Life is amazing when you really stop and think about it. Every second of life is due to grace as well as a miracle. When you think about how he has created everyone it is truly humbling; when someone is bothering you to the point of screaming or a little baby is crying for what seems to be no reason at all- you stop and think God created them as well.

Yesterday after thinking about all of this, the sermon was on You and who God created you to be. Of course it was! Also, he already knows what will happen in our lives as well as what he is going to do with us. One of my favorite parts of this amazing sermon called Unthinkable was when he was talking about how God knows everything already and the pastor said maybe I should just step back and try to learn from the genius of creation. So many times I do not listen or try to comprehend why I am going through a situation or what I can learn about it.

Door of Hope is amazing. Today we learned of another little girls story. The doctors said that she would not live past the age of one. At seven months old she still only weighed five pounds. However, she just turned two years old and is walking and beautiful! There are so many stories like that here. Each one of these children are fearfully and wonderfully made; they all have a purpose. I am truly blessed to be able to be a small part of their journey.

I have learned to love things changing and not going through the motions. I am glad God has slowly taught me this throughout the years. Today we received a phone call asking if we were able to work in the Johannesburg hospital for night shift the next four nights. We are truly excited to be able to serve there where it is desperately needed.

The nurses are supposedly not the best; they do not take great care of their patients. We will be feeding the babies as well as changing their nappies (diapers) throughout the next four nights from 6 pm- 7 am. We will be serving in separate rooms on the same floor- loving two different babies. It will be a humbling experience as supposedly the nurses are very harsh and we will have to submit to all of their requests.

Timing has worked out perfectly as well. We were out of groceries the other day; yesterday we filled our cabinets with food. We will have plenty of food to bring along with us for the night shifts. We would have not felt like doing it during the day. Also, we will be able to see the United States play in the World Cup tomorrow at four as we are not working during the day :)


Please pray that we can keep up our energy, get some rest during the day, and the babies remain in a stable condition.