La vida renovada

Starting life with new eyes feels so good.  I wish I were announcing that I had LASIK done, and I physically could see with new eyes, but I'm talking about drinking deep of contentment and joy again.  We choose joy, yes.  It is not based on our life circumstances, but there is something refreshing about when it bubbles in one's soul without having to very itentionally choose joy under heart duress.  This Year of Jubilee, I have hope restored, love restored, laughter restored, belonging restored.  It's a lovely season to be in.  God is so generous in His compassion, love, and goodness!

 I'm teaching for my fourth year, continuing to develop a Spanish program.  I had the opportunity to travel with a group of students from Helena Christian last year to Costa Rica on a missions project, and I look forward to taking a small group of my own students down to Guatemala this coming spring break to a recently-opened baby orphanage.  I love foreign soil, cultures distinct from my own, the opportunity to live a brief stretch of life with people from a completely different background.

Perhaps not quite surprising is the foreign culture, background, piece of soil God brought into my life this year.  I never considered West Africa.  But West Africa it is!  It's been a crazy ride thus far; crazy because of all the amazing connections, verifications of his character from a plethora of people who have known me for my whole life, or at least very intensely for a period of time, and unlikely web of circumstances that allowed us to even meet.  I would love to see a visual map of it some day....

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