Hey Everyone!
I’ve officially been here one month! Sorry for no updates before, it has been a crazy month trying to adjust to a new culture, being “a real adult”, and finding a place to live! I’ve been thinking over the past few days what exactly to say in these updates, so if I didn’t cover something you want to hear or you just want to say hi please don't hesitate to contact me (see my contact info on the side)! I would really love to hear from all of you and to know what’s going on in your life as well!
This past month has been really surreal. I can’t believe I’m finally here in this city, and such a beautiful city it is! Everything has gone relatively smoothly! My roommate and I were able to find a nice mold free apartment within our budget and just this past week finished getting water, gas, internet, and electricity turned on. Now I’m in full time language learning. I’m meeting with women for one on one studying, studying on my own, and hopefully taking a class that’s supposed to start this week! It’s crazy how much I’ve already picked up, and I’m praying God will continue to bless me with the ability to pick it up! Haha. Fitting into the culture is definitely harder than I expected. Right now I’m still loving it here, but I really do stick out like a sore thumb, physically, spiritually, and culturally.
One thing I’ve been trying to figure out lately is what exactly these next few years are going to look like, especially in this language learning phase of my time here. How can I be faithful to God and what He has called me to do while I’m studying the language? When asking God about this, one of the ways He answered me was by reminding me to go deep. Many times we try to spread our love, talents, and skills to as many people as possible as fast as possible to be efficient and productive (guess that’s the American in me), but in the end it winds up stretching to a lot of people, but in very shallow ways. Instead, I want to invest my time here deeply. Dive into the culture, the language, my relationship with God, and relationships with others; going deep for the most impact and not for the most numbers. I want to whole heartedly invest in what God is doing here and be faithful in learning and growing.