Manos y Pies (Hands & Feet)

About a year ago I started going once a week to Farmerville Elementary to tutor Spanish-speaking students in the ESL program there. I've been going with a couple of other volunteers through this organization called Manna Project International. Manna isn't faith-based, but that in no way has stopped this huge conviction of mine that through it I've been able to be a small part of the hands and feet of Christ. The need is enormous, the physical need I mean, but more than that our group has unexpectedly become default role-models for the chicos. As we've done this we've also become better friends, and I can't explain how great this one-a-week adventure has become to me. It's a passion, it's grassroots, and I can't help but think that if Christ were with us that he would love teaching Kindergarten kids their ABC's. I could go on and on, one story after another from this experience. Hands and feet, now I'm just praying for more workers to enter the field...

Cosas Nuevas

Lately I've realized the value of "quality time." Last night I sat with a friend for a long time just talking about life. We talked about all of the hard things and how in some ways we feel drained. We talked about God, about what kind of legacies we leave behind to everyone around us. Somewhere in the middle of that discussion I became thankful. It was the kind of feeling that in spite of all of the troubles I have so much to be thankful for. I'm looking at this year and I'm looking forward to it. I'm older, and Ruston sure has changed since I first arrived, but something is beginning to seem fresh again. I'm a graduate student in history and I also work as a departmental TA. In that I feel like there is great potential to love and serve people. In that I feel like I'm coming to understand it as my ministry. I have to. It's what's sitting in front of me. So with that in mind I want these tanks re-filled, and I want a heart of flesh for my heart of stone. I love you guys.