Praise God!

Mood: satisfied, and as usual, a little bit tired
Stage notes: 6 AM and only Pia (the 2 yr. old) is awake, I'm trying to be as uninteresting as possible so she will go back to sleep

Although yesterday did not begin optimally, the rest of the day more than made up for it. I went to language school after the government office, and God gave me several good oportunities to serve other students and engage in fun banter with them. The mood of my classroom is so friendly. There are 11 people now, including the teacher, and between us we represent 10 countries and 15 languages. With so much diversity you might think that it would be difficult to communicate and get along with one another, but this has not proven to be true at all.

After school a student took me to a swimming stadium. I was a bit dismayed by the lack of privacy in the changing rooms. Until I closed it, the door to the main public hallway was open to our single-room changing area! Oh well, the park was great, and early into our time the student started a conversation about God. It lasted for nearly 6 hours through swimming, ice cream, and a sidewalk cafe. I was able to completely share my testimony and the gospel. I don't know if anything will come of it, but it was a highly encouraging encounter. Please pray that she would continue to think about the things we talked about, and that she would be open to having more conversations.

That evening I went to a bible study and met 'E'. I don't know how to spell his name, but his faith was encouraging to me. He is a 60+ year old Korean man who has travelled around the globe and has good thoughts on what it is to be a Christian in the world. The study is done entirely in German, so as usual I was not able to understand most of it, but I caught a lot more words this week and it was on Acts 18 which was a good passage for me.

I started the morning with the prayer, 'God, I'm too tired to accomplish any thing apart from you today. Please help. I have nothing to give.' Although I have an intellectual awareness that these are the times when God seems to work most, every time this happens I find myself feeling a bit suprised and awed. I guess it is because at core there is a place in me that does not really accept that God does not need my help. It is very gracious of Him to keep reminding me.