Nostalgia: 2010

I'm easily sentimental, and after watching Toy Story 3 last night, I'm in a very reflective mood. The verse in my devotions this morning was from Psalm 118:24. "This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." The highlights were also in the book like that. So I thought: What better day to look back on my last year than this day? And to rejoice!

God chose to lavish another 365 days on me in 2010, and it has been good.

The month of February was dark at BFA as we underwent an emotional time and had to deal with several wounded students on campus. But God brought healing, and in May we saw 17 students baptized. Victory!

In June, he blessed the Custer family with the birth of Olivia Marie, the happiest little niece on the block, and we found out that another niece was due to arrive in January (any day now). It's such a strange and wonderful feeling to see your family grow and multiply.

This summer saw me back in the states trying to raise the necessary support in order to be back at BFA by the Fall. It held moments of rest, complete panic, worry and fret, joys, humbling conversations, scary presentations, encouragement, frustrations, and in the end, the overwhelming truth that God provides and works all things out in his own timing! What a privilege it is to be on this journey with him.

August found me in the classroom. In some ways, 10 years of study and trying out all kinds of jobs and positions seemed to culminate as I "arrived." Now I can laugh at that and say "hardly!", but it still is a blessing to be teaching full time in my very own classroom.

This last week has to go into the Highlight List as well. I'm actually writing this from a hotel in Turkey where I'm at a conference with many other veterans of the faith from all over Europe. It's the physical rest and the spiritual feeding that I've been craving for the last couple of months all in a very historical setting that of course invigorates me like nothing else. :-)

Over all, the one thing that really stands out to me this year has been the RELATIONSHIPS: new people, old people, founding relationships, restoring relationships, deepening relationships. It's been at the center, and I've been so blessed by the people God has placed around me - on multiple continents. I rejoice!

Hope

Hearing the prodigal’s flailing roam

piecing by footstep the fragile path home

Opening weary arms with tender long

pierced to wash away yesterday’s wrong

Proving forgiveness is etched with pain

inviting the scar with promise for gain

Embracing security, enough to suffice

eternity safe through love’s sacrifice

(It's more of an Easter poem than a Christmas one, but the two do go together, don't they?)

Thoughts during Finals

This is cool. I'm sitting in Finals and blogging. It probably helps that I don't have to take them. (Only grade them all afterwards. ... Think I'd rather take them.)

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to blog about. As I'm sitting at the back of the classroom looking out over 15 heads, my heart is squeezed, and I'm surprised at how much I've come to love them. SB when she runs up to me every day with a "Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi" until I answer; even now, she's bouncing in her seat as she writes the final essay. DP's quiet intelligence as she shyly sits at the back of the room - until a little game of Jeopardy brings out quite the personality! BR, a Swiss boy scout and all around outdoorsman, who wishes all of class was spent on World War II. KB whose favorite activity is Journal writing and who can wax eloquently with the best of them. LA's enthusiasm for learning; sometimes when she's waving her hand in the air, I think her eyeballs are going to pop out because she's willing me so badly to call on her. LS, the class clown, who now also has crutches to add to his daily tricks and who seems to be best friends with all the girls a grade above him. HK, my beautiful 7th grade Korean, who is going to grow up to be the world's best brain surgeon, though she doesn't know it yet. And that's not even half the kids I love so much!