A rough beginning.

"The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken." (Psalm 16:5-8 ESV)


This week was hard, I'm not going to lie. A lot of things happened that were out of my control, and they all added to up to a really challenging week. For starters, Monday sucked. There really isn't another way to say it. I was horribly home sick, missing my parents, wishing I could sit with them on the couch and laugh at the TV. Or eat a family dinner, homemade straight from the box. I was getting pretty down on myself, which isn't something I normally do.

Generally I'm pretty upbeat, happy to be alive and to get to serve Jesus with each day that I have. But for some reason Monday was different. I don't know if it just hit me that I won't be home for over 11 more months, or if it just got a little overwhelming being here. I went to sleep Monday night with a very heavy heart. And woke up Tuesday morning with a completely different problem...

I was sick to my stomach. Not the "homesick" kind of sick to my stomach. But the "my stomach might make an appearance via my mouth" kind of sick to my stomach. I woke up at 3 am, and proceeded to throw up at least twice an hour...for eleven hours...talk about miserable. My roommate was awesome, she stayed up with me, emptied my bucket (quite a glamorous job), and stayed home from work to take care of me. And then, after 11 hours, we made the judgment call to go to the hospital. This was my first hospital visit EVER, and it was in a third world country. I was more than a little nervous.

We arrived, I got checked in, and they stuck an IV in my arm. I was pumped up with 4 milliliters of anti-nausea medication and 1000 milliliters of saline. It took three hours, but I was finally able to keep down some juice and water. Praise God! We went home, and I promptly fell asleep for 12 hours. The rest of the week I rested.

Saturday I was finally able to go to the campus and see the women and kids. And, to be honest, I didn't want to. My heart was still heavy. I was wrestling between wanting to go home, wanting to stay, and wanting to just mope in my living room a little longer. But I decided I needed to leave the house, so I biked down to the campus. Best. Decision. Ever.

As soon as I entered the gate there were greetings of "Megan Auntie!" and "Hello, Sister!" and "We missed you this week!" And my heart was full. I can't believe it, but as I'm sitting here typing this, I'm crying. For those of you who know me, I'm not much of a crier. But I can't believe how blessed I am to be here. At the end of a really hard week where I just wanted to take a shower without having to hold the shower head in my hand, or feel clean for more than 5 minutes, or not have the power go out two times a day for a total of 8 hours, God showed me his faithfulness. Again. Like He always does. Another confirmation that I'm where I'm supposed to be. It's pretty overwhelming.

Now that I'm getting in to the swing of things, please continue praying for me! I really want to find a place that I fit in here. I'm the one single girl amongst four married couples that I'm working with, and I really want to find a good spot for me to fit in the team. Please pray that I would have patience in doing that! Hopefully I will be getting some responsibilities this week, and begin language learning soon. I'm so excited for things to really begin picking up.

A quick side note, PLEASE KNOW THAT GOD IS ANSWERING YOUR PRAYERS. Every time I have written a prayer request, it has been undeniably answered by God. The older girls at the campus are more comfortable around me now, I'm meeting many new people, and God has given me peace amidst the hard times already. THANK YOU for praying. It means the world to me.