sacrifice

What is the Isaac in your life?
What is it that God is calling you to sacrifice?

"But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!'

'Here I am,' he replied.
'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.' "

~Genesis 22:11-12

name confusion

So it all started last week when I called someone to confirm what time we would be leaving the following day. A few weeks before we had planned a meeting to visit another city and follow-up on some new work there. When I called this person, she told me she could not go to this city because she had to work and then she was going to visit her family, but she would call me on Monday. I was thoroughly confused. This wasn't typical of this person, she was acting very strange. Anyways I was thankful for the free day this gave me and enjoyed the opportunity to relax a bit.

Then on Monday morning I received a phone call from this same person and we planned to meet for coffee after she was done with work that day. Then I received a phone call setting up a meeting the next day, with the person I thought I had already talked to that morning and was planning to meet that night. Do I know two different people by this same name? Maybe it was all the same person and she called me back to reschedule tonight's meeting and change it to tomorrow...but she didn't mention talking to me earlier or rescheduling. The confusion set in....and horror....did I call the wrong person to check about our meeting last Friday???

So the time was approaching to meet the unknown person for coffee...maybe she would not show up. That would mean it was the same person I talked to the second time. I started to think very hard if I knew anyone else by this name. The number was programmed into my phone, I must have met this person before, but who could it be? I waited anxiously. My phone rang, it was her, I went outside...and a random person greeted me. Oh no...who is this...think Lynn, quick. As we walked to our seats I remembered possibly how I knew this person, but I was not sure. For the next hour I struggled to keep a conversation going and pull out as much information as I could about how I knew this person.

As it turned out, my first guess was correct. She is a friend of a friend's and I had coffee with her once last summer. Just one time! She was surprised that I remembered her and called her...I never told her it was an accident. I take it all as part of God's plan to get in touch with her again. We plan to see each other more often now. I now know that I know two people by this same name...and have them identified better in my phone.

New roommate

On Saturday my new roommate and colleague arrived. She has come from the states to help me for three months. I am very grateful to have someone helping with the work here, and to share my apartment with. Maybe I won't talk to myself as much now...but maybe not. So far I have been busy showing her around the city and meeting some of my friends. The hard part is trying to speak English all the time.

Oh I have stories to tell...but no time. Maybe I will have time to write more up tomorrow. Its now 1:30am and I would like to go to sleep. Be on the lookout for a story about a name confusion which led to an unknown coffee guest.

Students

On Wednesday and Thursday I finished my classes for this semester. I took my students out for coffee after giving them their certificates. The first picture is from my advanced class...I remembered to take that one in the classroom. The second picture was at the coffee bar with the second class. There are many more students, but these were the ones who stayed around until the end. They were very talkative. I am hoping for some more girls in my class next semester...but I doubt it. We'll see.

water

Which is better...no water inside and outside...or water both in my apartment (in the right places - coming out of the faucets) and outside. The rains have come. This morning was interesting as my old roommate and I ran through a puddle filled airport parking lot back to our vehicle, in the pouring rain. We were both wearing our glasses and that meant we both couldn't see in the rain with our fogged-up glasses. I don't think it mattered that we couldn't see the puddles we were stepping in. I believe they were impossible to avoid.

Later in the day (after properly getting ready at a decent hour and putting my contacts in) I headed out in the city again. This time I was able to see...but it didn't help. My street is normally a river when its sunny outside (I don't understand where the water comes from, but its always there.) So today it was an overflowing river. There wasn't a part of the street I could walk on that wasn't covered in a stream of running water. I actually found this interesting and laughed at the comfort that this rain meant I would have water in my apartment also. So far this has been true...I had water all day today - which is a first in a week or so. Yes it will go off tonight, but thats normal and manageable. Its the being off for most of the day that I can't handle.

So for today, although the cloudy, rainy, gloomy weather makes me tired and want to stay home and watch movie...I am happy with it. Now if it continues all week like the forecast says...then maybe I will start complaining.

life

Why is it that I am so tired after getting 7 or so hours of sleep? I really think something is wrong with me today, I am so tired. And tomorrow I will wake up shume heret (translation: very early - it is funny that some words come out in Albanian...even when I am speaking/writing in English) to go to the airport. So I think I will be tired all week.

This is my final week of class this semester, so I am busy giving final exams and compiling grades. I should be grading right now....but I am online. I need to limit my online time...but it never seems to work. I am sad I will not see my students for the next month. We will take a break and start class again next semester. I am much happier here when I am regularly interacting with my students. Hopefully I will organize some game nights or other study breaks for them. They have lots of exams for their university this month, and they are always busy studying.

Okay, finally the weather here is cloudy. I am happy for this and hoping for rain or snow....we need some form of precipitation. I have no water in my flat....only a few hours a day...and its really annoying!

My brother

How fun...the day after his birthday he made the front page. Read his story in my hometown local paper which wrote an article about some soldiers now that they are home from Iraq.

Happy Birthday to my brother!

(Its still his birthday in the US...even though the day is over here.)

a great day

Today was completely unplanned but was very enjoyable and much needed. Last night a friend came over to watch a movie. Unintentionally I choose a long movie and when it ended at 2am I decided it was best that my friend sleep over. After being able to leisurely stay in bed as long as I wanted I got up at 11am and made blueberry muffins (lovely pre-ready packages from the states.) Then a colleague came and picked up something I had to give him (the only thing I had scheduled for the day.) When I went outside I realized how beautiful a day it was. The day before was nice enough that I never had to start my stove (i.e. no heat) and today seemed like it would continue. I convinced my friend that we should go for a walk in the park.

The weather was amazing today, on the 19th of January. I can't believe how warm it was. Yes, it was a bit windy and that made me need to wear my jacket, but otherwise it would have been perfect. My friend and I walked in the woods and played catch with a hacky-sack for awhile. I realized how long it had been since I have done anything active. My arm hurts really bad right now! I am afraid that all my muscles will ache tomorrow when I wake up. But it was all worth it and very enjoyable. I love being active and outdoors.

Although I miss seeing snow, I am very happy with the wonderful warm sunny weather here. The problem is that its hard for me to get anything done when the sun is shining outside. I just want to be outside. Thankfully I work better at night. I was hoping it would rain tomorrow (as it is right now) so that I would have more of an incentive to stay home and get work done, but the weather forecast calls for sun again. We'll see what happens.

Now I am going to make some dinner and see about getting some work done tonight.

Travel

(create your own visited country map)

So I have visited 24 countries...10% of the countries in the world (according to this map (sorry it doesn't really fit), and who knows how many new countries there are since its been updated. I know of one in my region.) I love to travel. Only 10% of the world, thats so little. There is so much more of the world out there that I have not experienced. I am ready to hit some countries in Asia and Africa. I think I need to marry a really rich man who likes to travel - ya, that would be a dream come true. I know I will never have a salary that will allow me to travel as much as I would like - but I am so thankful for the opportunity to see the many places I have been to so far. I will pray that my travel luck continues. Hopefully before I leave Eastern Europe I will hit a few more countries in this area. I don't understand how some people do not enjoy traveling and experiencing new places and cultures. Yes, I admit I am tired of living in different places, but I can't imagine ever getting tired of seeing new places.

Okay...back to the couch for me. I feel sick today. Its days like this that I am thankful for my cable and the mindless TV it provides. Soon I need to at least think about my lesson for tomorrow...but it might just be better if I leave it for tomorrow.

One week

As of today I have been back in country for one week...and I think I am finally starting to adjust back to this life. I am starting to sleep better (although not until 3am) and am happy to be back. Teaching has gone well (and the power schedule has event been on my side when I left my lesson plans at home. Too dark to continue - great, no one needs to know that I couldn't remember the rest of the lesson.)

During the past two days I have had some great meetings about future plans in an area started working in just recently. Although I enjoy living in a big city now, it is much more gratifying to work in a small area. Today I went back to the town where we painted a mural in September. In meeting with different officials there and discussing our many future plans they all were very happy. They only had positive words to say about us and our work there. I am excited to start up more work in this area.

Okay well after starting this post but before finishing it, I wrote up the project plans for a summer project in this area. Now its late and I am tired. I originally wanted to say more on here, but this is enough for now.

Again I am going to bed at 3am...

"I wait in hope for the Lord;
he is my help and my shield.
In him my heart rejoices,
for I trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love rest upon me, o Lord,
even as i put my hope in you."
-Psalm 33:20-22

God's word

"'Come!' And let him who hears say 'Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." Revelation 22:17

Today I finished reading through the Bible in a year. I think I started around January 8th last year, so I ended up possibly finishing in exactly a year. Now some days I was better than others in my daily readings, but overall I was able to keep up and was amazed at what I read. Now I can say I had probably read the whole bible before, some sections many more times than others, but never straight through it. Some parts that I thought were boring before, when read in order, made so much more sense. Other parts spoke to me exactly how I needed for that day. Again and again what I read in the morning (or previous evening) would relate to the day I was having. Often I was able to share what I had just read with others, specifically pertaining to their situation on that day. I am encouraged to see that God's word is alive and moving even today!

I can't wait to start another reading plan. This time I will see if my Bible study girls here will join me. Maybe we will read chronologically this time, or maybe just the New Testament straight through.

found bag

I got my bag today. I went to the airport this morning and looked around the room of lost bags. I kept looking as I couldn't see anything slightly resembling my bag. The worker showed me the row where the most recent bags had come in....including only about 5 bags. I looked and looked...and then spotted one of my shirts sticking out of a plastic wrapped black duffel bag. There was my bag. It had exploded. The seam of the bag come completely undone on one end and part of the bottom. After bringing the bag home and unpacking it I tried to think if I was missing anything. So far I have come up with three books and fondue lighter gel (which maybe wasn't allowed in the first place) that are missing. I will call the airport tomorrow and see if they can do anything about it. I am sad the books were some fun English activity books I had found to include in my classes.

Today I started class again, went for coffee with some friends, and chatted online with some other friends. I am starting to get happy about being here again. Now if I can just figure out how to hook up my Vonage phone with my new Internet I will really be happy.

For now I should unpack and plan my lesson for tomorrow.

my bag

Yea, they found my bag. I won't get it until tomorrow, but at least it was found.

I packed three bags. Two of them were filled mostly with stuff for other people and one was filled with all my clothes, the fondue pot my brother gave me, and some random other stuff. Of course, its the bag with all my stuff that got lost. After waiting an hour at the airport yesterday I finally decided my bag didn't make it. I filled a report and was told to call back for more information. At that moment they did not have my bag in the system. For all I knew my bag could have gotten lost in NYC.

Just now I called the airport. The Prague airport found my bag (I flew from NYC to Prague) and is flying it to my city tomorrow, after flying it to Vienna. My bag is going to be well traveled. Now if I could have stayed in Prague for a night like I wanted everything would have been okay. At least my bag is flying into the city closer to me (whereas I flew into a city 2 hours away - would have been a pain to have to go down and get the bag.) I am just happy my bag was found.

lonliness

Just when I was getting used to living alone I went home and spent 24 hours a day with other people. Now I am lonely. Its just not fair. So I think I will go have a nice long chat with God and then try to sleep.

Naten e mire

Home

The days have come and gone…and very quickly. I am now in the Prague airport (but I can’t find wireless so this will be sent later), returning from my trip to the states. I am not sure what to think. I am happy to return to my city and the work and routine I have there. But at the same time I am sad to be leaving the states. Its not the American comforts that I miss or the ease of life there, but the quality of my friendships there. Throughout my 8 ½ hour flight from NYC to Prague I tried to process my emotions (while fading in and out of sleep). Why was I feeling this way?

I don’t think I came to any solid conclusions, but realized I am getting older and am ready to have a bit of stability in my life - whether that be in the states or overseas I don’t know. I am ready to be married and have kids. I am ready to stick with one career that doesn’t change every few years. I am ready to stay in one place and develop deep friendships…and for those friends to stay where I am.

But for some reason God keeps telling me, “I am all you need.” Again and again I try to find my stability, my comfort, my strength, my happiness in myself and in others. Its not there. Even if I was married, even if I lived in the states, even if I had the same job for 10 years, I would not be happy. Only by His strength will I be happy, will I be content, will I be strong.

Every time I find myself depending on people to satisfy me I am not happy.
Yes, it is true that my friendships in the states are much deeper and stronger and mature than my friendships in the Balkans (especially since my closest friend from here is now in America.) That is what I am dwelling on today. But this does not matter because my friendship with my Lord Jesus Christ is stronger than any other, and that is all I need. Its only common sense that my friendships in my new city are not as strong as those I have had for many years.