What I have learned this week

We all hear the term time and time again, “When it rains, it pours.” For me, this past week acted as a reminder to that fact. As I mentioned in the previous blog, this week was very busy for me. But in addition to being busy, a number of other things culminated together to leave me feeling ‘at the end of my rope’. During the days that I was running around attempting to set up for our kick-off events, I began to fully realize how far from home I was, and how long I would be away from it. In Egypt I don’t have a large support network of friends that I can run to when I’m feeling stressed or lonely. That fact didn’t hit me until I needed the support of my friends, and couldn’t find that here. In addition to that, this past week has been a week of criticism and negativity from some parties. When that was combined with everything else that was going on, it seemed almost unbearable. I felt like I was in way over my head, being stuck here in Egypt for the next year. At the same time, Heidi (the other intern here) found out that her dad’s cancer had spread to his lungs and that they couldn’t operate on him. This complicated things more-so and brought even more emotions into our already emotion-filled week (Please pray for the health of Heidi’s dad). All of this happened in a matter of two days. I began to pray desperately to God, admitting how out my league I was and how He was the only way I could ever successfully get through the year here. The next day, a large portion of stress was lifted because our kick-off event was completed successfully. That same day I received encouragement from people who were previously somewhat unhappy with me. Not only that, in the past few days, I have connected with a number of students here and have been very encouraged in that regard. Although I still feel very far from home, I am now living with a very kind family who cares about me, and who is sensitive as to how I am doing each day. So, although I feel like earlier this week I tripped and fell face-first into the mud, I feel that God has pulled me out of the mud, wiped me off, and is now walking alongside me, steadying me as I falter.

This weekend at church, the salvation message was delivered to the congregation. I helped out in the sermon by providing a visual representation of what God does to sinners that call on His name. First, I walked onto the stage wearing white coveralls that were covered with black Velcro blemishes. Then the pastor pulled off each blemish (sin) from me and proceeded to nail them to the cross. Following this, he pulled a purple cloth down from the cross, and clothed me with the robe of righteousness. This happened three times over the weekend (once for each service), and I think that it was the perfect end to my week. Although my sense of helplessness is not entirely gone, my sense of hopelessness has begun to deteriorate. I think that my year here will end with Christ carrying me out on His shoulders… not because I deserve it, but because it is the only way that I will successfully get through the year.