Hardships that come and go.

I know I know, it has been an extremely long time since I last wrote on here and I apologize for my laziness. Most of you received my monthly update through email so I will steer clear from writing about what you already know. I am going to be completely honest wit you and say that I have been having a hard time in this last month or so. My heart has just been overtaken by missing the comforts of home. Students are gone and have been since the end of December and my mind has been processing so many things like missing family and friends and missing the comfort of being home and my everyday life back in the states. Don't get me wrong, I know I am where I'm supposed to be and am so thankful for that and for Father. I'm not trying to complain or anything but just want to get how I really feel out. I miss seeing my friends everyday and making funny videos with them, I miss the feeling if sitting on campus on Thursdays after dinner and feeling the air around me as I sit outside as the sun is going down. I miss the sound of a lawnmower (yes a lawnmower) and the smell of fresh cut grass. I miss hanging out with my family and most of all I miss driving. That feeling of driving for 10 hours with my music blaring and my windows down. I have recently found out that these feelings I'm having are normal. For so long I didn't want to say anything because I thought I was being selfish in some way but I know that I am not. Some nights I don't sleep very well because I have been having so many horrible nightmares that I feel completely exhausted the next day and all I want to do is sleep. Father definitely has reminded me of his steadfast love and protection over me while I sleep. These thoughts will not keep me down but push me to going forward. Father has a huge task that is at work here and that is what drives me and keeps me going. Life will be better once my friends return for the 2nd term here in a few weeks. A verse that has helped me is from 2 Cor. 12:9-10 "But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Ch-ist's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak then I am strong." My heart will gladly rejoice in my Father in all of my days.