God’s Work is Sanctifying

So it has become more evident to me than I really realized before I came how much God was going to grow me. When you are jumping into something you don’t know much about, it is hard to know completely what to expect, but I can say that I have struggled in areas that I didn’t think twice about before coming.

Lucky for me though God is good and soverign, technology is amazing at keeping in touch with the people I love, and I have a friend that feels like home who is only 2hours away.

In staying honest with everyone it has been harder than I thought for me to get adjusted, and I find myself longing to come home- even though I know this is a one of kind experience and fully plan on embracing the entire year and living one day at a time. My friend Craig, who lived in Swiss land before, summed it up well when I told him how I was adjusting to the change.. he said ‘it was like you were asking for water and you got a fire hose. ‘ Umm yes, that sums it pretty nicely.

Several things really come into play in terms of areas of growth:
1. Raising kids is difficult and I have a new respect for every mom up to the task. (I have even more respect for any parents attempting 4 or more kids.. wow.. I would need an au pair as well)
2. on gospel mission: being set apart and sent. Set apart as a Christian in my faith, in terms of the way I live and the way I choose to love. But at the same time being sent in the world in the place where I am at to share that love and grace that Jesus fills in me. (like I said that is an area of growth that I am praying Jesus gives me more of a loving heart toward.)

While my time so far has had major moments of missing home, as well as those time where you wonder what you are doing; there has been highlights.
The other day the kids discovered I had a guitar and we sang great old tunes some might recall like ‘old mcdonald’ or ‘twinkle twinkle’ I felt a little like maria from the sound of music.

Last weekend I went to visit Bern, the capital city of Switzerland and saw Courtney Thompson. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have a good friend so near. She had Saturday off, so we climbed this mountain/hill near her house to a place called Gurten Bahn. At the top you could look out over all of Bern. We also discovered on top a child’s dream playground- after seeing it, Courtney stated that if she were younger she would have every birthday party there.

We later went into town, where we saw the movie ‘Mamma Mia’ and pondered why all of life couldn’t be a musical. We decided it was in our power to change that- so we did. There is no reason why you can’t break into song about something in your day!