All My Weight

Tonight I spent some time reading back over the entires in my prayer journal that I wrote in the months after my move to Mexico. My how the time has flow by! One journal entry in particular stood out to me as a main theme, or truth, that God has been continually showing me in this season of my life. I would like to share the entry with you because I love the way that God uses simple moments in our lives to teach us profound truths, which is exactly what happened for me on October 11, 2009.

"... My dad is here right now and I love it! Today we did a bit of the ropes course at ERJ (one of the Casas Hogares that we work with has a ropes course that allows them to raise money and be more self-sustaining). My dad and I did a low ropes challenge where we had to totally lean on eachother and trust oneanother in order to get all the way to the end of the 'V' shaped course. He was on one log and I was on the other and as the two logs split we had to both lean on eachother or we would both fall. We did it without any problem because we both trust one another. I know that I have complete trust and faith in my Dad. This made me realize how much more faith I should be able to have in You! Lord, I need to put all my weight into you, holding nothing back so that without YOU I could not even stand because I have released all control and placed all weight on you. Please show me the areas in my life that I am holding back. Please teach me how to lean fully on you."

So that is what I wrote in October, and that is that lesson that God still has to teach me over and over as I try to figure out how to lean on him (praise the Lord for his unending patience with me!). It is a great analogy, but how do I put it into practice in my everyday life? How would my life look if I leaned with all my weight on the Lord?

As I think about the analogy more, I realize that I have great balance, and I could have probably walked the length of my log alone, like a balance beam. But then at the end of the challenge I would be alone, I would have missed out of the great joy of sharing the experience with my Dad and giving Him the glory for carrying me through! For when all my weight is on the Lord, there is no way that I can take credit for the things that he does in and through me.

Please pray for me as I continue to pray for you! I know there are many of you that I may not see for a long time, but we are bound together through prayer and the comroderie that is built through prayer is such a special and precious bond!

Here are a few specific prayer requests that I have:
-I have applied to graduate school to begin working on my masters in Global and International Education. In order to keep my teaching certificate I have to begin graduate work, so I began looking into programs at the end of last year. In my research I found an incredible online program that would allow me to study International education while continuing to teach in international schools. I truely believe that this degree will also equip me with some valuable skills in other areas of education that I feel God is leading me to in other parts of the world. Please pray that I will trust God with the finances and the application results. I will find out within the next couple of weeks if I have been accepted.

- I will be purchasing my plane ticket for Africa this weekend. Please pray that I will be able to find the best deal that I can and that my process of appling for a Nigerian visa will go smoothly.

Please email me with any specific prayer requests that you have!

A dear friend of mine always says, "His love from across the miles," and I love that! So that is how I will leave you today!

His love from across the miles,

Jessica