Update it!!

Well, hello again friends!! :)
I hope you enjoyed my pictures of Russia... what an incredible place. But coming back to Klaipeda was actually quite refreshing.. I was surprised when I walked in the door and said, "Home sweet home". I am feeling more and more at home here as I fall more deeply in love with the people and the culture.. Anyhow, classes are the same here as in the states: work, long, and not my favorite activity in the day or my favorite topic for conversation...

So, I will just tell you about my new adventures instead.. :) Last weekend (March 21st), I spent the entire weekend at my friend Ona's apartment with her family. It was so relaxing. We watched movies and cooked and talked.. great girly weekend! :) Anyways, I don't know if you remember when I wrote about meeting a Canadian lady on the street who works for Salvation Army. But she asked me to give my testimony to the youth and so last saturday I did that.

Not only did she want me to give my testimony, but she also wanted me to lead the entire time they were meeting. So for 3 hours the youth that showed up had to do whatever I told them to.. :) For the first hour and a half, I taught them a few games that we play at Taylor and that are crazy, but super fun. They think Americans are pretty silly and ridiculous now... which is pretty accurate of Taylor students, so that's ok! After games, we had banana bread (made by the Canadian lady, Bridgette) and a little fellowship with tea. Then, it was time for my testimony... I was pretty nervous and I actually have a strange philosophy about such things. Because instead of preparing like most people do, I usually just have a two sentence outline of my life in front of me and then I pray. I pray that God will give me the words to say and that they aren't my words..

I told God that these are his children and that if he wants to speak to them to please use me and my life. "Say what you want them to hear, not what I want to say." So, I started speaking and it didn't come out as smoothly as I would have liked. I stammered through my own life story actually. (Oh, did I mention the fact that Ona was translating for me the whole time... sentence by sentence) Anyhow, I finished my life story in about 25 minutes. (Even after translated!!) It was so much faster than it should've been.. They asked me to speak for an hour.. In my head I was thinking oh no! I just ruined it.. I stammered and didn't speak long enough... I just ruined my opportunity to speak truth to these youth..

But then, they started asking me questions about my life. They asked me how I saw God (because I talked about that several times). And they asked me about how I talked about wrestling with God throughout my life. And another leader was actually touched by my story and so she added a little bit to encourage what I said. Evaldas, one of the boys, isn't a Christian and he was struggling with the idea of seeing and experiencing God. So he kept asking me about that and was really cynical. But the way that he is struggling is exactly how I struggled, so I just told him to keep asking God to show himself so that he can see for himself. It actually encouraged me to see him genuinely seeking truth! Awesome!!

Then another boy, who hadn't said a word the whole time, spoke up and told about a dream he just had. He said that in his dream he saw Jesus and Jesus said, "Come, I want to be close to you." It still makes me tear up thinking about it... and at the time, it definitely gave me shivers up my spine. He said that he completely forgot about the dream until he had listened to my testimony, so he thanked me.

Anyhow, I'm not saying these things to brag about my story or how eloquent of a speaker I am. I am sharing this to show you that God is at work in this place and he's letting me see it and be a part of it! I am so lucky to be a part of it! My life story actually means something to someone. I never thought that would be the case. My years of fighting and wrestling with God is actually an encouragement for others. Thank you, God. :)