Thanksgiving

Over a week ago was American Thanksgiving. This has not been my first Thanksgiving away from home, but it has been one of the harder ones. I think that many things made it a little hard for me this year: 1) I knew that I wouldn't be coming home in a few months for Christmas, like I have every other time I am away for Thanksgiving, 2) The people here don't celebrate it, there is no feeling of Thanksgiving at all because they have already moved on to Christmas, and 3) I have no family here or traditions here.

From that depressing list, you might think that I had an awful Thanksgiving, but I didn't! My good friend Jacquelyn suggested that we have our own American Thanksgiving together with our friends here, since we are both American. So we did! The week was full of buying groceries ahead of time, and prepping food the day before. I even had the important job of stuffing and cooking the turkey! (It is actually a very easy thing to do!) Thursday itself was a long day of waiting for me, because I waited in my apartment all day until guests came for dinner around 6pm. I put in the pies, the yams, and the turkey all before my friend arrived to help finish with everything else. But while I was waiting, I was able to call my family back home and talk with them about anything while they were waiting for their food to be ready.

After I had finished that call, it was time to get the food and table ready. Jacquelyn and her husband and two kids came, and another couple from our church came with their baby. It was a full table and we all had a good time. We had so much food leftover! (Isn't that a must with Thanksgiving though?!) Everyone took home several containers home. Later that evening after I had cleaned everything up, I was able to relax with another phone call to my family and eat my dessert at the same time. (I had to let Grandma know how the turkey turned out, that everyone loved it.) It was a good day.

I have had my moments since then when I get sad knowing that I am not there to spend time with my family, or that I won't be home for Christmas. But the Lord keeps reminding me of the many blessings He has given me here in Quebec City. I have been blessed to call these people my friends and also my family. Even if I am not home in California, God has given me a home here in Quebec for the time being. And I am very thankful for that.

Jacquelyn and Jennifer

With A Smile

I want to dedicate this poem to the many hard working wives and mothers that I know, especially the missionary wives that have made an impact on my life. I have learned a lot over the last few months of what it means to be working behind the scenes, and I want to thank them for the examples they have been to me.

With A Smile 

by Jennifer Nelson

A servant I am,

And a servant's heart I hope to have.

I struggle and toil all the day long.

Be it dishes, organizing, running errands, or dishes galore,

I do it with a smile. 

I support the man I work for,

I follow his will and call.

"Somebody has to do it."

Why not let that "somebody" be me.

So I do it with a smile. 

Some people say I work too hard,

"What would we do without you?" they say. 

Others hardly see my work at all.

But I do it nonetheless,

And I do it with a smile.

I may not be praised

Or remembered for what I have done,

But I hope my work brings Him glory and praise.

Perhaps, one day, when I see His face,

He will greet me with a smile. 

Anxiety and Rest

Over the last two weeks the words "stress, anxiety, worry, busyness, and need a break" have been surrounding me. It has been coming not only from my life, but from other lives around me.

A friend of mine here has been dealing with stress and anxiety attacks. She does not know when they will happen, but she is always living in fear that they will come back soon. Her situation in general seems to be improving, but her "bad days" are coming closer and closer together. Thankfully she has called out for help and many of us here are trying to help, but it is difficult for us when we don't know exactly how to help.

I had a large week last week. The church I am working for hosted a NAPARC conference. I don't remember what the letters stand for, but I know that it was a conference where 13 presbyterian or reformed churches from North America were represented. They meet every year and this year they met in Quebec City. I was doing  a lot of work a head of time organizing the men and trying to get their meetings scheduled. The week of the conference itself went well, I was just running around doing errands, giving tours, cleaning and setting up the church. So it was very busy and a bit stressful for me. I also had another Kids Day event two days after the conference ended. The whole week was successful and went smoothly, maybe not for me but at least for everyone else.

With my work and busy schedules keeping me occupied, and with this situation with my friend, the idea of stress and anxiety has really been on my mind recently. But it has also made me think of the words "rest" and "trust." When we are anxious or worry about something, we are not trusting God. A lot of us say we "know" what the Bible says. But do we really? We read the Bible, and  we say we trust God, but do we really? Has not God kept his promises? After the flood, He promised to never flood the entire earth again (Gen. 9:8-17), He promised to make Abraham a great nation (Gen. 12:1-3; 15:5, 13-16), and He has kept those promises. God said to Abraham, "Fear not, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." (Gen 15:1) If God is for us who can be against us? God  still keeps these promises with us, why do we have such trouble seeing it?

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gently and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34

"He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord." Psalm 112:7

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones." Proverbs 3:5-8

I have been slowly learning what is it to find rest and refreshment in the Lord. I know I do not seek Him and his word as often as I should, but when I do, it is a great relief. Let us look to the Lord in our struggles, when we worry and are anxious, for He will be our deliverer.

I have been reminded of how important water is so that we can survive (I watched a movie set in the desert) and I have also been reminded in a book that the word of God is(or should be) water to our souls (When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin). I was reminded of how Jesus presented his words to the Samaritan woman as water, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13-14) We need that water. We need the promises of God. We need His gospel and His word to live. If we really study God's word diligently, we will find the rest and peace that he promises to those who come to him.

This is my prayer: that we will truly put our trust in the Lord and not be anxious about anything and that we will find refreshment in Him and in his word.

Fall Colors

My week has been extremely busy with organizing lots of things that are coming up and also trying to keep myself  sane and healthy by trying to go out and socialize and take breaks from working on a computer for hours on end. This week has also been pretty grey and rainy all week, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the fall colors. So I thought I would share with you a few photos of the fall colors here. A couple weeks ago a friend and I drove out of the city to just enjoy the fall colors for a day. I hope you enjoy them as well.

My Friend Ashley

For the beauty of the earth,

 

For the glory of the skies,

 

For the love which from our birth, over and around us lies.

Lord of all to thee we raise, 

This our hymn of grateful praise.

One year, already!

Exactly one year ago today, I arrived in Québec City for the first time. October 16, 2014 was the day I flew into Québec. So much has happened since then. I remember being so overwhelmed with everything, the city, the language, the people, the work, the weather already turning into winter, living with complete strangers. It was all so new, so foreign and so intimidating at the same time. I remember thinking that I could never be really close with some of the people here because I was struggling so much with the language barrier that connections were difficult to make. But praise be to God that I can now say that some of those same people are my closest friends here! The couple that I was living with have become family in so many ways and I am still being invited into other people's homes. The Lord has blessed me with so many new friendships here that continue to grow. And I am so thankful that I am at such a higher level of French than I ever thought possible. (And hopefully that will grow to be better as well!)

The Lord has indeed been good to me this past year. It can be easy to forget the small blessings He gives us, but I am thankful that He has brought me to a place where I am almost daily reminded of them. This year has been full of high points and low points, struggles and advances, losses and achievements, twists and turns and it has all been a humbling, rewarding, and difficult experience all together. I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for me here in Québec this next year.

(Me in Québec a year ago)

Trust in the Lord

Dear friends,
I am sorry I have not written recently. My life has been very over the last two months, but that does not mean I couldn't have spent an hour to write. For that I am sorry and apologize. I hope this post will make up for the weeks of silence.
Back in August, I went home to California for four weeks to visit my family and friends. It was very busy and filled with many things for me to do. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it very much. I love running from one coffee date to the next, being busy with a social life is something I love. But this trip was not just for visiting people for the sake of visiting, it was also to try and raise more support for my mission work. As I am already back in Quebec, I am hoping to stay for another year until August 2016. So I had to take the time to visit a few churches and give presentations and write letters praying that this will help fund my next year here in Quebec City.
So my time then, and my time since then, has been very trying. I don't know if what I have done will be enough for the next year, I don't know what I will do after this year is over, and I don't know how effective my work here is going to be this year. I am in the process of learning a serious lesson of trust.
Even before my trip home, I was frantically putting my trust and faith in God. As some of you already know, my youngest brother Scott became sick with Malaria during the first week of August. He had spent the last month in Uganda for a missions trip and became sick within two weeks of returning home. He had a very bad case of malaria and was in the ICU for three days and in the hospital for eight days total. I was still here in Quebec and wasn't supposed to come home until the following week. There was nothing I could really do. Except worry.
I tend to worry and get stressed over little things. So when a very large thing happened to my brother, I was kind of a mess. I learned I needed to give my stresses to God. It took a while to completely release my worries, stress and prayers to God, but when I did, a small burden was lifted. I was still very concerned for my brothers health, but I knew that it was in His hands.
Thankfully my brother is better and has fully recovered from the disease. We are so thankful to God for that.
Yet even after that, I still have troubles completely trusting God, or at least letting go of my worries and giving them to God. But I am so thankful for the lessons I have been learning recently about trusting God. I just finished reading the book "Passion and Purity" by Elizabeth Elliot. The book is mostly aimed towards relationships, and those wanting a relationship. That is something I have struggled with, but I took many lessons away from the book. But one main lesson that kept reoccurring in the book was the lesson of trust. Trusting God through everything and especially giving our worries and fears to God, "casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7) The book was filled with encouraging lessons on trusting and waiting on the Lord. I highly recommend it for anyone going through those life lessons.
Even the message of a sermon that I did not hear has been gnawing at my heart. I went to a retreat this weekend with the church that I am working for here in Quebec. It was a family retreat for all the churches of this small denomination. I was helping with the kids during the first talk, so I did not hear the message. But people have told me about it since because they all greatly appreciated it. The message was about Jonah, trusting and believing God, and God's grace toward us. The pastor talked about how we can say we trust or believe God, but deep down we really don't, or our actions say otherwise. Jonah said he believed God, but he went West instead of going East to Ninevah like God had told him to. We do the same thing in our lives. We say we trust God to do something for us, but then we worry or try to do it all ourselves to make it go our way and get upset when it doesn't go the way we want it to. Instead of really trusting God, we worry and fret about the details. And then, it is by God's grace that He brings us back to His plan. The storm and the whale represent God's grace to us. It is by God's grace that he brings a large event or something into our lives to bring us back to Him and to truly trusting in Him.
That struck me, and it makes me thankful for the trials God has put in my life. Albeit, it is a little disappointing that this is a repetitive lesson for me. It is an "easier said than done" sort of lesson, but I am still grateful for it.
So as I am already plunging forward into busy days and busy schedules of organizing different events, my prayer is that I will be continually reminded of this lesson and that I will not lose sight of the grace of God toward me. I pray that we will all bring our cares and worries to God.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, 

and he will make straight your paths.

Be not wise in your own eyes;

fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your flesh

and refreshment to your bones."

Proverbs 3:5-8

English for Teens- Seeing God in Creation

Last week I went camping with 16 teenagers. We had an entire week with these kids, teaching them English and going through the camping experience with them. A lot of them are city kids who have barely had camping experience, so that was fun to deal with. I had to come up with English lessons for that week as well. The only thing I had to go off of was our theme of "A picture is worth 1000 words." I did come up with some basic plans and activities for the kids. They seemed to like it enough. They did mention that it was very similar to what they did in school. Oh well, I tried to not make it too much like school. I can only hope they enjoyed it.

We did a lot of different things with the kids. We went to a copper museum the first day where we all made our own small copper art works, we hiked to an observatory tower, got a private tour at a local church, fished, swam, got ice cream, and played games. We had fairly good weather during the week. It rained the last two days, but it wasn't too much for us, at least not for the team leaders. We were able to pack our tents before it got too wet on Friday. Other than losing one dish-drying rack on the drive home, the traveling back to the church went smoothly.

After a week at camp with these kids, I can say I appreciate the fact that my parents took my brothers and I out camping a lot when we were young. I don't scream every time I see a bug or spider, and I can eat off of utensils that have been dropped on the ground. I don't need my phone or video game with me all the time to keep me entertained, and if I get wet in the rain, it won't hurt. I watched these teenagers fuss and complain about tiny things that seemed like life and death problems for them. I hope I wasn't like that, though I probably was. I am sure all of us have gone through that stage at one point in life. Even if I did complain when we went camping, I am glad my parents made me do it. Because they took us out into nature a lot, I can fully enjoy God's creation in different ways than if I had been raised in the house all of my life. When they saw a cloud that threatened rain, they started hurrying for shelter and ran once it started to rain. I personally like rain clouds and noticing the deep and contrasting colors in clouds. I took my time in the rain, enjoying the sights of the water and the people running, and smelling the wet earth.

My friend pointed out to me that I marvel at the small things in life. It's true, and I think that is why I like photography so much. I love looking at smalls details and marveling at the creation around me. The following Sunday, after the camp, the pastor brought this up in his sermon. He made a point that we can see God and learn about God by looking at his creation and the things He has left for us on the earth. "For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made." Romans 1:20. We can see God's power and love in the nature that He has created around us. That is something we easily forget, especially if we see it everyday. But even if we live in the city, we don't have to go out to the woods or the mountains to see His glory in the world. Look up and watch the clouds and the birds. Look down and watch the insects and the grass and flowers. Or look around you and admire what God has allowed man to make with our imaginations. The beauty and the love of God is always around us. We just forget to look for it.

With this week of camping and looking at pictures of people and nature, I hope that those 16 teenagers learned something new. If not something new about God, then I hope it was something new about His creation, or a new way to look at the world around us. I know I learned a few things and I hope that I never forget them.