A Blessing of a Day!

God blessed my socks off yesterday, and I wanted to share! It all started with a wonderful and uplifting time in God's word, followed by singing morning prayer acapella out of my hymnal (maybe not such a great sound- but it brought back memories of morning chapel at Concordia!). I went to Sanjo kindergarten as usual, but this week I taught an extra class for parents and children who are looking into enrolling in the school. Before the class started, one of the mothers approached me and began to converse in English (rare here). It turned out that she had lived in California for 6 years before her son was born. She told me that I was the second foreigner she'd seen in Sanjo since she'd moved back 4 years ago!!! We exchanged phone numbers and I am praying that it will be the beginning of a new friendship. My kindergarten students were all really energetic yesterday too- but I had just the game- color tag! My ladies class was the best it'd ever been, and I really felt that God not only gave me more patience with my upper elementary kids, but I felt that I am learning more how to communicate love through discipline. I came home and made dinner, and then had a very interesting conversation with a teacher from the University where I teach Tuesdays. He's a Muslim from Lebanon working on his PhD in the pharmacology program; and teaching Arabic classes on the side for the University. (He's taught me two words in Arabic so far- "sahabo" which means hello, and "shukarn" which means thank you.) Anyway, it has been really interesting to learn about his culture and country, and it seems that the doors are begining to open too for conversations about faith. Last night we talked about the reason for moral living in Christianity as opposed to other religions' established moral standards (in Christianity the motive is always love, so outwardly it can look like the morality of other religions, but it is of a different substance entirely), as well as the authenticity and reliability of the New Testament that the church uses today, and why there are so many different faiths claiming inspiration from the same book (this was actually the topic of my senior thesis in my senior seminar class fall semester of '06). I feel so blessed and am so thankful to be serving in all the places and relationships into which God has called me. Thanks again for your prayers!