A new work - Part I

Keeping this blog updated has proven to be harder than I initially thought. I think I did okay before, in my pre-Facebook days. But now that I have terminated FB and have gotten used to not being online so often, blogging has been a bit of a challenge. No longer can I update my status with a few words! The problem isn't not having much to say, but too much. Whenever I think about updating my blog, I get a bit overwhelmed just thinking about where I should start.

Been going through a lot- both good and bad. But, everything happens under the sovereign hand of God. Everything He allows serves for the purposes of bringing Himself glory and to draw us closer to Himself. And because of everything He has allowed, I have come to know Him in a deeper way and experience Him in a new level. I'm very thankful for that. God has also been teaching me that whatever He does in our lives is never meant for us to keep for ourselves. Whenever the Lord works in us, it's always meant to be shared, that we may encourage one another in Christ and build each other up. So, I will try to share in this blog what God has been doing in me lately. I may not be able to finish writing everything in one sitting (and you may not be able to read it all if I wrote it all in one sitting either) but I will try my best to write as often as I can so I can sort of catch everyone up on my life.

Early last year, I sort of hit rock bottom. Between being a stay-at-home mom of 2 very young kids and having all the responsibilities and expectations of a pastor's wife and many other personal issues, I sank into a deep, dark place. The worst part is that being a pastor's wife, most people expect you to be an example in every area of life...as a housewife, a mother, your personal disciplines, your spiritual life, etc...and how do you keep up? And because you feel all eyes on you, you sort of end up placing all those expectations upon yourself as well. I felt like such a failure because I couldn't be good at any single area of  my life. I felt like my whole life was summed up with one word: disappointment. So I tried my best to cover up by keeping things bottled up and pretending things were fine, but I have to admit that there were days when I really contemplated taking the car keys and driving away alone to some remote place.  In my heart, a question kept burning. Is this as good as the Christian life gets and where is the abundant life God has promised me? I really felt like quitting.

I remember one day crying out to God for help. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to ask for, I just knew that I needed some divine intervention, to save me from whatever disastrous road I was heading into. And God, in His mercy, heard my cry.

Praise the Lord for His  mercy. He heard my cry. 

So, since last summer, God has been working in me. One night, after the Lord had Jason and I meet with a couple (now our mentors- that's another story in itself of God's amazing power at work!), as we were driving home, a Bible verse sprung from my heart. It was so loud I could almost hear it: "...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus," (Phil.1:6). At first, I thought it was just a coincidence (you know how sometimes you wonder whether it's God talking to you or just your imagination?). In the days, weeks, months that followed, the Lord kept speaking this promise to me through different people and things that would come up completely out of the blue. There was just no way of denying that the Lord was indeed speaking Phil. 1:6 into my heart. And that was the beginning of something new God was starting in my life.

....to be continued another day..... :) I will now try to post some recent pictures since I know everyone likes looking at pictures.