This weekend we had the chance to go to a Church that we had visited once before. We were there for Saturday and Sunday, doing a seminar type thing with our host about being Christlike. It was pretty challenging, as this was a pretty new thing for our team, but God provided for all our needs. They were long days, but totally worth it! Most of us were able to share our testimonies, and how God has grown us and taught us. We met a lot of wonderful people who love God and love others. We felt very welcome and fairly comfortable there. We also celebrated Alena's 19th birthday on Saturday. We had cake and played birthday games like musical chairs and pin the sombraro on E.T.
Yesturday and today have been filled with working on things so we can start performing new programs. It's been a lot of researching and thinking of new ideas, and practicing drama and music. It has been wonderful to have a couple of days to be able to focus on getting more programs up and running.
Lately God has been teaching me about love and passion. I realized that I didn't really feel a passion to serve and love people, but that's what I wanted, so I studied it. I learned that I first need to love God and have a passion for Him. Okay, so what is love? I read 1 Corinthians 13 about all the attributes of love: what love is and what it's not. I've started breaking it down and looking at each attribute separately. I planned to study each attribute 1 week each, but it's been two weeks and I'm still working and looking at patience. When I saw patience, I thought, "God please give me opportunities to practice my patience." He definitely did, but not in the way I'd expect. I've learned that I'm not patient with myself at all. I expect myself to fit in culturally, to not make mistakes, so when I do, I get down on myself. But how can I be patient with others if I don't work on it myself. Through this, God is totally growing me, and slowly, I'm finding that I love it here more and more. I'm getting super excited about how God is working and will continue to work here. When we love God with all that we are, that love will overflow to those around us. That is what I want while we're here, and my whole life: to have such a passion and love for God that I can't help but love those I come in contact with.
~Kimmie