raindrops

Two days back in the US and I am still quite jet-lagged and slower in my movements than usual. As I sit here in the living room, a random thunderstorm blew over the house for five minutes leaving raindrops dripping from the roof and painting connect-the-dots on the back window. As quick and sudden as it may be, the effects of the rain benefit the grass and trees for long after the drops cease falling.
I feel that represents a lot of this summer trip. In a flash of lighting I felt like I went from moving in with Jen, Justin, and Kevin to teach English to all of a sudden boarding a plane in Germany to come back to Texas. Before I could realize it had happened, the trip was over. But the water from the rain continues to impact both my life and the lives of others in the Middle East.

I couldn't have expected for God to do so many things with one trip, but I stand back in awe of participating in His blessings raining down. I still can't put my finger on how much happened in five weeks, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to process throughout the next few days yet. One week in Texas, one week in Arizona, and then back to Long Beach. I can't wait to hear about what God did in the lives of my family and friends across the US this summer. Still discerning where all the drops went in the midst of trying to discern what all I am being taught. A beautiful place to be.

Home stretch

I can't believe (to quote Michael Jackson) This is it! Tomorrow is our last day of class and on Monday we leave the Middle East.

So many amazing things have happened this past week and the conversations we have had have been surrounded by the fragrance of the Son. We are all hoping to each share our story one more time with someone before we depart. Last Tuesday was an amazing day for me, after class I met with the dean of the university. She was asking me about my job as a campus mentor and in very loose terms I got to explain about how I prayed about what to do with my degree and felt I should take the job I currently have.

Explaining to her more about what I do, she was so excited and asked me if I ever thought the University here could have something like that! I had to laugh in my head knowing she only knew half of what I really do, but it was so neat to be able to share a part of my story with the Dean and have her be honest with me in return!

Afterwards, I grabbed lunch with Z*, one of the students I've bonded with a lot since coming here. She comes from the same background I do, but sees God as distant and believes in relics and the power of the Saints. We got to look through the Word a little and talk about what role Dad has played in our lives. I plan to leave her the book "Prodigal God," with a little more of my story written out. Pray these last 3 days in this village will be intentional and Dad will be working hard.

We have students coming over to our house in 3 hours for lunch...so I have to go cook, clean, and try to finish the newsletter I'm working on for this University!!

I look forward to sharing with many of you on July 30th in Texas what all Dad has done both this summer and last year.

Keep praying!

Good Morning America!

If you read Justin's post, you know the meaning behind the title of this post:) When I woke up in the states yesterday morning, I cracked a smile and said to myself, "Good morning America!" It's crazy how I could be on the other side of the world a few days ago and how I will be flying across the other ocean today to get to China, but I feel extremely blessed by how well my body has taken the traveling so far.

I just want to share one last story of God's goodness before I go.

One afternoon Marsha and I decided to go around town meeting people and practicing our Arabic. We went with open eyes for what God wanted to show us. We saw a man holding a little girl wearing an eye patch, so we stopped to pray for her. The father spoke great English and said that although they were Muslim he knows that people can be healed in the name of Jesus. We had the opportunity to speak with some different groups of people, but as we started looking for somewhere to grab lunch, we realized that Marsha's passport was missing!

As we retraced our steps, we asked God for pictures that would lead us to the passport. The Chiccle boy kept coming to mind, but Marsha felt like God wanted us to continue to focus on meeting people rather than worrying too much about the passport. God gave me two other pictures as well. He reminded me of a time when my family was vacationing in Mexico and our shell necklace got lost in the ocean. My siblings and I prayed for the necklace to be found, and the next morning, I found it in the waves. From this picture, I gathered that we would find the passport the next day, and I was comforted because if God cared enough to help me find a shell necklace in the sands of an ocean, how much more would He care to help us find a passport along the side of the road. The other picture I had was of someone handing the passport to Marsha. So I decided that we wouldn't find the passport along the road--someone would actually return it to her.

But I still had this picture of the little gum seller, so when we saw what looked like another Chiccle boy across the street, we went to meet him. It turned out he was not a Chiccle boy, just a Brazil fan. However, there was some kids playing in the alley behind him, so we approached them to ask if they had seen the passport. The family living there invited us in to their home. We were able to practice Arabic with them, and they fed us a delicious meal (we were starving by this point). So Marsha was right. God didn't want us to worry. He wanted to bless us with kindness.

Many people helped us that day, including our friend R* and our host family's niece, F*. Everyone told us that if someone found the passport they would return it to the police, so we made an appointment to go see the passport office the next morning. So, the next morning as we were walking through the market on our way to the passport office, this man yells after us, "Mademoiselle!" We turned around and "bam!" the man slapped Marsha in the head with her passport! He was very distressed that she had lost her passport. He had seen us around town earlier that week and recognized Marsha's picture. He had been searching for us since 7 am!

The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.

Fulfillment

"God is not a man that he should lie. Nor a Son of Man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" Numbers 23:19

This verse has been stuck in my head the past few days. And it is so true. We have prayed for some time now that we would represent the fragrance of Christ in this village and it is evident that He is at work and not us by any means. T.I.M.E. This is the Middle East is something we say often as rarely do plans work in this culture. Spontaneity is functional here...or at least it can appear to be that way!

Last week we ended up attending the University's graduation ceremony and mini-prom after. Jen and I went shopping with a few of the girls and they insisted we get our hair done with them. So we did and the conversation I got to have with Y was a sweet one talking about how she feels about the wars and drifts and political instability. I'd like to get to know her on more of a personal level. The best part of the graduation ceremony was it ended in fireworks! Their prom is not what you probably picture, but it was about 30 students sharing a meal together over a long table and getting up to dance their traditional dance a little now and again with lots of clapping and jumping.

The worst part was only getting 4 hours of sleep before teaching the next morning! But it definitely was a good time to hang out with the students.

Probably one of the most encouraging things was talking with Marsha yesterday about what God had been teaching her. My heart is to see students from Universities in America to go abroad and grasp more of God's heart for the nations and understand his love extends the neighborhoods we live in in America. Marsha told me that she thought she understood this before coming, but since being here, she realized how little she truly did understand and is glad of what God has been teaching her.

Will you pray with me that the students not only on the Middle East Team, but also those currently in Russia and Japan and New Zealand will grasp God's love for the nations and will be like a wildfire when they come back sharing what God taught them with their friends? How sweet would it be for the next large Workers movement to be from this group of students!

Good Morning America

This is a phrase that my new friend N* loves to say whenever he sees us. So if you are on my email list you have already heard this story but I will share a shortened version here plus there is some more that has happened since my email. I have had the opportunity to become friends with an amazing guy in our English class. N* and I have really connected and within the past week we have become extremely close. I would even consider him one of my best friends. This relationship is a perfect example of how God orchestrates everything in our life so intricately.

The first day we hung out we watched one of the World Cup matches and then he brought me back to his house to meet his family. After spending only 3 hours with him he pretty much poured his heart out to me about a lot of the hurt and pain he has and all the medication he is taking for that. My heart completely broke for him. A few days later God gave me the opportunity to share my testimony with him and tell him about Jesus Christ. I shared Matthew 5:43 with him in response to one of his questions and he was absolutely floored!! He immediately asked, "Can we read the Bible sometime?" I was speechless and tears were welling up in my eyes! I responded with an enthusiastic yes! Then that night when he dropped me off at my apartment I asked if I could pray for him and after I did he looked at me with a face I will never forget and said "Thank you so much!"Since that night I have been praying for him from the bottom of my heart that God would rescue him and pour his peace and love on N*.

Wednesday night we were hanging out after the University's graduation and he dropped me off at home (again) around 2am, haha. Before I got out he grabbed my arm and said with wide eyes, "Can we pray again?" He said that last time I prayed for him he felt a peace from within that he has never experienced before! He told me that he has met a lot of foreigners before but we are different and he absolutely loves being with us. He is tired of going in all different directions and wants to go on a straight path and he said, "I think you can help me find that path." The thing that hit me the most was when he said, "God must have sent you to help me! You are such a close friend and we should make our own culture, just you and me!" I could not handle it at this point and tears started to roll down my cheek!

God is just so amazing and His hand is in every way a part of this relationship. N* and I were able to read John 4 together and he really enjoyed it. We had a really good conversation and finished at about 1 am. He invited me to sleep at his house and as we were getting into bed he grabbed the bible and began reading it. He said he wants to read it every night before he goes to sleep =D Man God is just SO amazing! Please keep N* in your prayers! Pray for God to invade his life and pour out His love and mercy!

Crazy things that happened this weekend.

Both of our groups got together to go for some swimming and rest on the weekend. We found a cafe to settle down and one of my friend noticed that the waiter
had a missed up eye. We found out later that a glass bottle had broke and some how it hit his eye. His vision was very limited and he could barely open it.
So i started praying for his eye and he told us that it was getting progressively better. We prayed for it about 4 times all each getting better, but it wasn't fully restored.
However, his friend / co-worker was there and watching the whole thing, he tells us about this back pain that he's had for years and it won't go away. He asks if we would pray for his back.

So i put my hand on his back and pray. When i finished he says, when my hand was all the pain had left, but now there's pain on either side of where my hand had been. Ok fine, I pray for him again with both hands on his back this time and after that, the pain with gone. PRAISE GOD!!!

The kingdom of God was near. After that they both wanted our numbers so we could pray for everyone they know that was sick. Including a friend that wasn't able to have any kids due to an accident and they wanted us to pray for him over the phone. During this conversation I got this picture of the guy who just had his backed heal, putting his hand on his friend with the damaged eye and praying for it. I didn't know why i had this picture, but my friend told me later (they were speaking Arabic) that he thought I had done magic on his back. Praise God that He had an answer to that belief.
So I called the other guy over, and put his friend's hand on his eye, however the manager came back and they scattered.

We went back to our seats for a little bit. When we were about to leave my friend went to say good bye and the man who got healed, asked him if we had some sort of book or something he could read. Boy do we have book for him. More like the living God. So we made plans to go back and see him and his friend later.

That afternoon I saw the gospel move with power. I didn't need to convince him of our Father, that man SAW our Father move. That was it, Game Over.

God 1 - satan 0

J

Everything is late in this country...including the trees!

This morning we took the photography class north for about an hour to go to a tree reserve. Our first full week of classes officially has come to a close! I am exhausted, but am really encouraged to see the way Dad is moving in this place.

I am so happy Steve and my father e-mailed me the powerpoint notes from CBC! On Friday, I walked into the photography class and met the instructor, E, at 9:30...The class was supposed to start at 9am, but nothing is on time here! So about an hour into the class, E says, "Alicia, you told me you have taught before, do you have powerpoint with you?" Stuttering, I responded yes thinking we would just go over them later, but instead, he asked me to teach! So I stood up and taught through 32 slides about photography! WOW!

We got to see the other half of our team this weekend and figure out how to catch a bus around. Our limited Arabic has been so great as the entire village we are in knows we are here and welcomes us with plenty of coffee and conversations. I can't believe the weekend is already over! Back to English classes in the morning after watching the Argentina/Mexico match with one of our students and a few neighbors we just met today! Viva Mexico! (but really..my heart is for Holland in the finals!)


-Here is a photo by me and one of the smaller trees. The larger one, nine people can wrap around and some are over 2500 years old! We had no idea waking up at 7am that it would be a hike though! Much Love!