Sunday, October 9, 2011

Flags

We just finished our FLAG week at Hope International School, and though it was a lot of work, it went really well and much more smoothly than I thought it would. :) FLAG stands for "Forever Learning About God", kind of like a Spiritual Emphasis week other places, and the theme this week was from Micah 6:8:
         "He has shown you, O man, what is good.
               And what does the Lord require of you?
          To act justly and to love mercy
              and to walk humbly with your God."
So we explored the topics of justice, mercy and humility.  These kids have such a different understanding of those words because of what they have seen...the first day we talked about justice and as part of the worship time, the students were asked to write prayers for a justice need that they felt strongly about in response to what they had heard.  They have seen injustice, they have seen poverty.  Many of their parents work as full time missionaries dealing directly with these issues.  The kind of humility and passion that can be seen in these prayers is truly amazing.  I took a few of them from the wall...
"Praise be to you for you are the God of justice and the one who blesses us daily.  Lord, please help us to bless you by not standing down and staying silent in the face of injustice, but help up to speak out against injustice by standing up and saying it is wrong."
"Lord, everyday I see a country broken by injustice, poverty and slavery.  Only you can heal these people and this nation.  I pray for healing."
"Lord, help me to play my part and not to be overcome by fear or lethargy."
"I pray for all the street kids here.  And how they are ignored and blend into the background.  Gelop me and fellow Christians to open our eyes and see them as beautiful people you ahve created and treat them as you would.  Thank you for the opportunity to live in this country and have the opportunity to impact the lives of the people around us here."
Please pray with me for the students who understood more about God and the way He has called us to live, that what they heard would not just be a week-long thing, and pray for the staff at school that we would have wisdom in how to follow up with what happened this week. Thank you. :)

Last week for our week off from school I went with one of my housemates Kelly to Malaysia.  I am not very good at taking vacation, and by the end I was ready to be useful again, but it was a good break for my brain and much needed before the craziness of the rest of the semester started.  One of the craziest things about Malaysia was the number of flags that were everywhere there! See picture...

 













Yes, that was a normal sight pretty much everywhere we went. :)



Other pictures from Malaysia:





The highlight of the week for me was going to Port Klang to see the Logos Hope.  I got to see an old friend from Hungary, Tarissa, and I got to have dinner with my sister's friends from her year there!  To add to the great day, when we were walking through the bookstore, I ran into a Hungarian guy and got to speak Hungarian with him for a bit.  It felt so OM-ish...hard to explain any other way, but it was like a flash-back to old life.  


This past week was so full it felt only 2 days long, and I have a feeling that fullness will continue till December.  I really do love what I am doing.  The responsibility is overwhelming sometimes, especially because the things that I am responsible for don't only effect me anymore.  But my competence comes from God, and I have to remember that as I'm speaking in meetings and making decisions that I don't feel qualified to be making--it is not me who has to have the ability to do things and I am so thankful for that.  So thank you so much for your prayers, and I will try to be more consistent in my blogging. :)