Weeks 5 and 6

Wow, completely forgot to update last week! I have no real excuse, I just completely forgot. Sorry! And if you don't regularly read this, well, then guess it's not a big deal!

Ok, so Week 4 was quite good. The month of July we've had a plethora of visitors in the house. A good friend of the base's, Clare, is staying with us the entire month. A friend of John and Sarah's, the DTS leaders, Jess, is staying as well. And lastly the AIM Team, a teen mission group from the states is staying here for three weeks. There are 12 people on their team, a guy and girl leader, six girls, and four boys. They're doing all sorts of outreaches in Paisley, working with homeless, talking with people, and just being generally awesome. They're all a lot of fun, and it's been awesome to have some teens in the house. I love working with youth, so it's been really cool to hang out with them and talk to them and make some friends! Seriously, seeing high schoolers with a heart for missions and close relationships with Christ is not something you see every day. I've been impressed with how much they love what they're doing. They leave on Friday, and it's definitely gonna be sad to see them go!

Having forty people in the house has been a bit crazy though. Lots of extra dishes and noise! There's not really anywhere to get privacy either. I think we've gotten a bit creative with finding places to be alone. I went in the pantry of the kitchen one day, one of my roommates prefers this tiny room where we keep luggage, and then of course there's Narnia, which is a tiny prayer room you get to by going through a closet. I've learned in the past two weeks that you just have to be careful where you go, so you're not intruding on somebody else's alone time. But personally, I love the people in the house. Growing up with such a big family I always thought of myself as introverted and preferring to be alone, but I've realized being here I'm definitely an extrovert. I get tons of energy from being around people, and I love all the noise...well, most of the time. Guess I don't miss Nathan, Jonathon, and Sarah running down the hallway at 6 am!

No further news really on Turkey. We're still contacting people and getting plans figured out. Please continue to pray for us, for wisdom on where to go, and especially finances and cheap plane tickets! I'm getting really excited about going. The country is 99% muslim, which is going to be very interesting and challenging. I think God is gonna do awesome things, though.

I'm definitely learning a lot here about emotions and compassion. If you ask my family, they always say I'm super emotional. I've never agreed, but I'm really realizing how little I express my emotions. Everyone here seems to be crying about stuff all the time, and having these emotional revelations. There are five girls on the DTS, and two girl leaders, and only 1 guy on the DTS with 2 guy leaders. So too much estrogen I think. But I find myself relating more to the guys here, at least as far as emotions go. When one of the girls starts crying I'm the only (female) person who doesn't run over and start crying as well. I've really struggled with that, and trying to decide if I need to become more emotional. I've never worried about this before. It's never bothered me that I hardly ever cry. But I seem to be the oddball here. I think God's showing me lots of things through this, first off being compassion. I think I need to learn to be a lot more compassionate and understanding because when someone cries, I usually just find myself confused and not particularly desiring to comfort them. I have no idea what to do with the crying person. I've just prayed that God teaches me to understand the whole mushy gushy feelings thing and if not being able to cry too, at least empathize with them instead of sneaking away and putting in my iPod.

I think God is also teaching me a lot about understanding myself as well as others, as well. I've always sort of decided that everyone needs to relate with God and learn about Him the same way I do, but I'm starting to think that's not the case anymore. God reveals Himself to people in different ways, and teaches them different things. For example, there's one girl here who God speaks to through song. God gives her songs and she plays/sings them on the spot. It sounds bizarre, but it's actually beautiful and awesome. I think I just feel like everyone should be doing exactly the same thing as me, but in fact God has a different plan for everyone. It would make sense that since everyone has different personalities, different life experiences, and different ways of learning, God would speak to everyone and grow everyone differently. It may seem matter-of-fact to some people, but to me it's been an interesting revelation. Especially because I have been comparing myself to others, and thinking "why isn't God revealing Himself to me like that?". I just am majorly different than everyone else here, so I think God reveals Himself to me in a completely unique way.

Anyway, Scotland is still wonderful and lovely, and I absolutely love it! Getting a tad bit homesick, though, but nothing too bad. It's only been a month and a half. But if you feel like it, letters would be a lovely way to feel a bit closer to everyone back home! My address is:

14 Stanely Crescent
Paisley, Scotland, PA2 9LF