This weekend was fantastic; my mom visited and everything in Dhaka wrapped up (or rather everything and what I had together for SATHI's annual report). I leave in 6 hours for the partners who work in rural Bangladesh which is supposed to be beautiful, and I'm looking forward to fresh air and very few cars! I'll hopefully post more on this weekend in the coming days.
Thank you so much for all the prayers and encouragement-- it's really helped me get back on track when I start to get a little homesick or get frustrated or a little confused with life. This experience is really showing me how deep and wide and huge God's love is, big enough to fix my brokenness and imperfection and failures and love me unconditionally and I'm seeing a lot of that love through your support.
I'm working on depending more on others and not trying to charge through every problem that I come to on my own. In high school, I never really let down my guard completely-- I was afraid that if I fell, no one would be there to catch me. Instead of risking a fall and whatever terrible thing would happen is I did, I never put myself in a situation where I could fall. I've gotten better as I'm going through college, and now I know that not only will God catch me if I fall, I have wonderful family, friends and church communities that will share brokenness with me and we can put back the pieces together with Jesus-glue, and we'll be stronger for having once been broken.
I plan to share, what you wrote, about how to "just be" with my guided meditation classmates. I've never heard anyone put it that way.
ReplyDeleteNic takes photos with a tripod because his hand shakes. That probably would be difficult to pack. Your photos come thru sharp and clear on our computer. I love the photograph, you took of the little boy getting weighed.
We think about you and your Mom, everyday, and we think your blog is beyond incredible. Blessings. Linda
Dear Harts,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the thoughts and support! I'm really glad I'm able to share this experience with you! Hope all is well!
Love,
Amanda
Mandy,
ReplyDeleteEvery time we go on and read your blog, we are just so impressed and proud of you. You are so brave to travel to another country and try and make a difference. We are learning so much just from reading your blogs, I can't imagine how much you have to be taking in by being there. You have been in our prayers. We so enjoy checking your blogs. We print them out and have been putting them in a binder for Grandma to read. She, too, has really enjoyed reading them. It is a way for all of us to stay in touch with you. She really wanted to send letters or cards, but your mom said the mail service isn't very reliable.
We received a text from your mom a couple of hours ago that she was safely in Grand Rapids and going to go out for lunch.
My favorite photo so far was the boy being weighed also.
We love you. Take care.
Aunt Lorraine, Uncle Donald, Kristin, Jeff, Eric & Grandma
Dear Aunt Lorraine, Uncle Donald, Kristin, Jeff, Eric and Grandma Vi,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your support and thoughts! It means a lot to me that you take time to read about what I'm doing. I'm so glad we've got technology like this so I can share my experience as it's happening.
I miss and love you all and look forward to seeing you in August!
Love,
Amanda