On the lookout for God

This week I have been on the look out for God's hand working in my life. I've seen some pretty neat things that God has done for me.

On Monday I practiced with a local club volleyball team that another teacher at the school plays on. I cannot play with them because it is only for mothers (or something like that) which is fine with me. Its fun to practice with them anyway. Most of the women that come and play are at least 10 years older than me and some are definitely at least twice my age, but I am constantly amazed at how well they move on the court. There is this one lady in particular: She has got to be about 60, she wears a back brace, is pretty energetic and a fantastic passer. I don't know how she gets some of those hits up, but she almost always makes a good pass and she isn't afraid to dive on the floor, even with her brace. She inspires me!

It is fun to practice with these women because I can see how much they enjoy playing. I don't know if any of them are Christians, but they make me think of Christ in how much they enjoy playing together. The other thing that constantly amazes me is how much they say thank you; at the end of every practice they thank the coach and at the end of almost every drill they thank the coach and/or their teammates. It makes me aware of how ungrateful I can be. Practicing with them also makes me aware of how bad my Japanese is. (Its sad to say that after spending most of my life here I am still not even close to fluent in Japanese, I only know enough to get by). The women on this team don't speak any English, so most of the time I don't understand what is going on and just try to follow what everyone else is doing! It is giving me a better understanding of how some of our ESL students must feel.

On Wednesday I got to spend the evening with some new friends of mine, the Richters (I love the people God is putting in my life here). Joel and Megan are here for just a year with their two little ones Levi and Eva. Levi is 2 and a 1/2 and loves trains, guitars and running around. Eva is one and is very much a momma's girl, so she and I are working on a friendship :). So, I went over to dinner at their house and we played Uno (with all the cards face up so Levi could play) and Yahtzee. Then Eva and I chased Levi around the apartment amid fits of giggles from both of them! I loved it! Then Levi got out his mini guitar and showed me how he could play while his dad sang to us, it was adorable. To end the night we went over to Joel's classroom for some cookies. The kids sat in the high schooler's chairs and pretended to be students. Here are a couple pictures of them!

Their family has been such a blessing to me! I love being around kids and I miss being a part of a family. I have loved getting to know them and spend time with them. I felt so touched this past week when they said they want to spend more time with me and basically extended an open invitation to come over for dinner anytime. I am not sure they know what they are getting themselves into by saying that, 'cause I will probably be over there at least once a week then, as the Mastromarinos well know :) I am excited to see where this friendship will go and what God has in store for us. Right now I am just so thankful that he saw fit to bring us both here to this place at this time.

On Thursday it rained! After my last rainy day experience I wasn't really looking forward to school. But, God stepped up to the challenge :) Thankfully my bike rode like a dream all the way to school, no one took my umbrella and it wasn't picture day. I was actually amazed at how well the school day went. This might have even been one of our smoothest days this week. The kids played well together inside the classroom and even played relatively quietly. Thankfully it wasn't raining when we went to lunch, so that was easier, but it seemed like every time I got on my bike it was pouring. Well, I'd rather get soaked than have to deal with 19 wet first graders!

On Friday we had middle school volleyball practice and we did some hitting at the end of it and one girl finally got it. It made me so proud. The first time we did hitting in practice she was always jumping off of one foot (you are supposed to jump off two feet) and no matter how much we reminded her she couldn't seem to get it. Before the next practice she worked on it with her sister (made me so happy she was working on it outside of practice!). In the next practice her footwork was so much better, but since she was so focused on that, everything else was off. We didn't do hitting for a while in practice, but then we did it on Friday and everything came together for her! I was so proud of her and so happy to see how much she had improved and that her hard work was paying off, it was amazing!

Thankfully we didn't have a middle school volleyball game this weekend, so I got to relax! I have had a great weekend not doing much and just relaxing. This week wasn't perfect, it had its ups and downs, but I was able to see God's hand in a lot of it. For the past week or two my theme song has been a song called Desert Song. We used to sing it in chapel at Westmont and I really like it, I think it has a great message. The part that has really stuck out to me recently is the part that says "All of my life, In every season, You are still God, I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship." That is something that I need to work on remembering in this season of my life.

By the way, the future is pretty good. In case you were curious.
When I was skyping with a friend of mine this weekend she asked me how the future was. It took me a minute, then I realized that technically I guess I am in her future since I am a day ahead of her. I thought it was ingenious and very funny!