Peace among the storm

Those words are the translation of a song I heard this morning at the beginning of this long, tiring Sunday. "En Medio de la Tormenta"....that Jesus Christ is the peace in the middle of the storms of live. This week will not be stormy, but rather just exhausting, overbooked, and crazy. Pray for me as I try to get a million things done and I trust God to give me the strength to do what He wants me to, to prioritize important over urgent (very hard to do) and to calmly get through this week.

Today was a perfect example of peace in the midst of the storm. I woke up after six short hours of sleep to begin the busy day. By nine am, I was in the car with the Navarrete's on the way to church. At ten we had prayer time, ten-thirty church service. After church we had a one-and-a-half hour drama practice for the VBS dramas. Our drama leader, Carmen, is getting very stressed out and drained as the kids still do not know their lines too well. I was exasberated by the stress of the situation and I am getting a bit nervous that things will not all be tied together by the date of VBS, in 2 weeks. After the drama practice we had an explosion between two teenage girls who tend to butt heads and argue. One wanted to go home in tears and the other one was not happy either. After a thorough talk with Pastor Antonio they both came back in to celebrate the one's primary school graduation. Daniela's mom had brought food for the church so we all ate together. Afterwards we had an important church leader's meeting which went well, but was also emotionally draining. From there the Navarrete's gave TJ, Alyssa, and I a ride to the church in Atizapan. There is a youth group from Alabama here this week on a missions trip and they will be helping me paint a castle backdrop for our VBS among other projects. From five till ten pm I spent with the USA teens and their leaders. We drew, painted, fellowshiped and just had a great time. The most amazing blessing of the day was singing praise songs in English for an hour. To those teens, it was just a normal time of praise and worship, but to me it was a spiritual refreshement and spiritual food that I have been craving so badly! I didn't realize how sweet and precious it is to sing in your own mother tongue and how much I had missed that until tonight. After singing, one of the teen guys whipped out a bag of twizzlers and my mouth began to salivate! I had forgotten all about the beautiful invention of Twizzler's. The one cherry Twizzler I ate was the most savory Twizzler I've ever tasted. It was so awesome to just have a little time with kids and teens and adults from the US and fellowship. It was the peace I needed during such a crazy day.

The rest of the week will continue just as crazy:
-Tomorrow I teach English and give my students a test in the evening (4-8 pm)
-Tuesday I have a Las Trojes Team meeting in the morning and more painting and preparation for VBS in the afternoon.
-Wednesday I have more English classes, with the afternoon dedicated to preparing more VBS materials.
-Thursday I hope to take my day off to spend more time with the group from the US.
-Friday I will be finishing up VBS prep, and preparing for the youth meeting on Saturday
-Saturday is our first ever youth group meeting
-Sunday is church and a huge drama practice....
the following week the madness continues!!!! We are all so busy until VBS comes from July 23-27. After that I think I would like to just celebrate with a day of having absolutely nothing to do!

All of this busyness is a bit complicated by the fact that I still cannot drive my car, until I get my visa...please keep praying!

I know that none of these jobs and tasks will be accomplished alone in my strength. It will only be an endless list of "to-do's" with little direction. But if these are the tasks God has given me and the busy schedule he has for me these next two weeks, he will surely grant me all the strength needed to finish well.

I am happy to have this crazy week, because God has already shown even today that there are blessings to come and that He brings blessings in ways we never expected. Singing praise songs and eating Twizzler's was the perfect blessing I needed.

Thank you for your prayers.

Buenas noches,
Bethany

ps...I am going to be able to come home for Jessica's wedding after all as I have found tickets for under $300. Praise God!