2011 in Review

Together we (the ADE staff) put together a list month by month of the amazing things God did this past year. If you want to be encouraged, check it out here:  2011. The year God did nothing...

Blessings of Friends Here

My prayer for a long time here has been to have some friends. I always felt a little pathetic asking people to pray that I find a friend, but God has been answering that prayer especially in the last few months. Praise God!

I have had my students and my teammates, who are all my friends, but I was really praying for another lady around my age and maybe a similar place in life that I could relate to on a different level than my students and teammates. So I now actually have 3 that I would call my friends here :)

Joselyn when we were ziplining with the students

Joselyn has been one of the teachers at the school with us this year. She's a little younger than me (19), but she's my neighbor! We get along really well. She's learning English, so I help her with that and she helps me with my Spanish. Her family also reminds me a lot of my family. Their house is always open and it feel comfortable to just stop by. There's always people over and are so generous. They have the kitchen and living room open and connected and often have the TV on. They also have a fireplace which I like to sit close to on these cold wet days. I actually took my parents over to see them while they were here and we stayed there talking with their family for a few hours. I love going over to their house. My neighbors have been a huge huge blessing to me!

Yuliana and her son

Yuliana has also been a good friend. I first met her a long time ago when I was teaching English classes to kids in San Rafael and she brought her 3 year old son and would hang out during class. Just over the last year I've gotten to know her better. She lives in a temporary housing shelter that her sister-in-law lived in before. She's 25 and is "married" with 2 kids now (a 5 year old and a baby). We're definitely in very different places in life, but we really enjoy spending time together. I don't see her all the time, but when we do I really enjoy it. A few weeks ago she sent (through her niece) a bag of clothes for me. It was so sweet and generous and humbling and really made me feel loved and thought of by her.

Kathya's beauty salon where I got my hair cut

Kathya is my friend that I've gotten to know the most recently. She's been one of my English students over the past few months in night classes. She's been so sweet to invite me to things and reach out to me. She's 30ish, lives in the town over, is a hair dresser, and as she's no longer married, she likes to go out and do things (which is not always the case here). We've made plans to do a lot of different things and though all of them haven't panned out, just her excitement and energy about it makes me really happy. Also a few weeks ago she cut my hair and she said because I'm her friend, it was free.


I really do praise God for these friendships that are building and am so grateful for them.
Psalm 147:1