Final Week!

Well friends, I am now in my final week before I leave. Yesterday I shipped all of my belongings that I will be taking with me, so I am now officially living out of a suitcase! 

Look at all that stuff! ...I'm starting to wonder if I sent too much...oh well. It looked better once they were all in boxes, I just forgot to take a picture of that...oops! ;)

This is really a bittersweet time. I am getting excited (and nervous) about going, but I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to my dear friends here. It is encouraging to know, though, that I am following God's will for my life, I will be gone for a year (Lord willing) before I can come back and visit, and with today's technology, it's almost as if we were never apart, so that is comforting. 

Fun and crazy times with my sister while we were mini golfing!

This past week was the last week for me to spend time with my dad before I leave as he will be traveling next week, so we have been able to have some good family time. He also was a HUGE help for me as I packed my stuff this week! I am very thankful for my dad and will miss him (and the rest of my family)!

Enjoying a fun family game night consisting of Ticket to Ride and Quiddler (which I again failed to take a picture of).

PRAISE

The Lord has answered all of my prayers in allowing me to get everything packed, and giving me this past week where I could spend with family and not have to worry about work. 

PRAYER REQUESTS

If you could pray for me for this upcoming week that God would just prepare my heart for the move and that when the time comes I will be ready and excited to go. 

Also, that He will give me safety as I travel and my stuff will all make it safely, and it will just be a smooth transition both into a new school year and also moving to a new country. I will be honest with you, I am nervous about this school year. It has been almost a year since student teaching, and I am now responsible for everything in my classroom, I don't have a host teacher to lean on and bounce questions and ideas off of, but I do think that the other teachers will be very helpful when it comes to that. I guess the thing that worries me the most is establishing a good classroom discipline system and coming up with enough things to decorate my classroom and bulletin boards, all in just 2 weeks! But I know it will all work out in the end, it may just be a bit of a stressful 2 weeks, but God is good all the time, and He will give me the strength to get through!

Thanks again everyone for your continued prayer and support! It means a lot to me!

God's Faithfulness

A couple weeks ago I received 4 different books to read in order to prepare my heart and mind for the upcoming school year. These books have been very good and challenging at the same time. They are not only applicable to my life once I get to Guam and start teaching, but also my day to day life here during the summer. I have been babysitting, and that has brought its challenges, but God has been good and faithful and shown me He is good no matter the circumstances, and I am learning a lot through it. 

Here are the books that I have been reading. I will also start reading through the books of 1 and 2 Timothy soon.

I am just about finished packing my first box to ship over to Guam. As I have been sorting through my stuff, I am realizing that I don't have as much as I thought (or at least not much that I am planning on bringing at this point ;-), which will be good. My goal is to get a couple more boxes filled and put in the mail this week. 

Things are slowly starting to come together, and departure date is creeping up quickly. Many people have asked how I am feeling about everything at this point and if I am getting excited. My honest answer, is that I am excited for this new adventure, but I really am not looking forward to saying goodbye to many good, close friends and family. I think I have started to feel too comfortable where I'm at, which, I guess means it is time to move on to some place different, where I have to rely on God more, and this is a good thing. 

There are not really any new prayer requests, however, God has answered prayer by  giving me strength and motivation to get my packing done, and wisdom in what to bring and what to leave behind. I am very thankful for this, and am looking forward to getting everything finished. Also, it does not look like there is any way at this point that my parents will be able to come with me the end of July when I leave, but I am praying they will be able to visit later in the year, like maybe around Christmas time. God knows best, and it will all turn out well in the end. The people in Guam have been very helpful to answer any and all questions that I have, in addition to providing extra beneficial information, so I am not worried or nervous about getting settled and adjusting on my own.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support!