“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
Helen Keller
I look back at this past week and how it feels like I’ve been here for 3 weeks already but it hasn’t even been 2 weeks yet. The days have been long and filled with many things. From volunteering at a place called Noor Women’s Empowerment Group. Where refugee woman work with children who have disabilities. To volunteering at another place called, The Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS), and working outside to help in their gardens. As well as spending time with my host family, taking Arabic lessons, listening to lectures, eating lots of new delicious foods and going to church services where I am given a ear piece that translates Arabic to English to help better understand the service.
There were many, many, hard moments this week where I didn’t think I could do it anymore. Times I was volunteering, times I was alone, times when I cried and times I whispered under my breath, “I can’t do this God.” And yet, He relentlessly pursued me and embraced me with His grace. The grace of encouragement, the grace of the simple act of someone just saying my name, the grace of my team members checking up on me and the grace given to me every time I needed time away to recharge. God’s grace reminds me that He doesn’t want me to go through this alone, rather, He wants to go through it with me.
I don’t know what this new week ahead will hold. I don’t know in what ways my faith might be tested. I don’t know if I can handle any more obstacles or challenges. But, I know He provides the grace that I need. I continue to ask God that the desires of my heart would become the desires of His heart. Even if my challenges go away, I know there will always be new challenges that replace them. Like I said in my last post, I don’t want to look at my momentary troubles as if it’s the only thing I can see, but to look forward to what I cannot see. The things we see are temporary but the things we cannot see are eternal. I will continue to seek God because He is eternal.
Thank you also to the many people this past week that I reached out to when I needed some prayers. You guys are the best!
Caili
Withhold Nothing 