Find rest, O my soul, in God alone

The other day I was at the Tree of Life school (Faith Christian Academy), visiting the teachers and checking on uniforms for the children.  I was walking around as I normally do, while hearing, "There's auntie Megan" from the children in their classrooms.  I passed each classroom in both blocks of the school.  As I turned the corner, I saw my sponsored boy, Joseph, down at the end of the walkway.  It's just another normal day so I didn't expect much from him after seeing me.  But I got a beautiful image that surprised, humbled, and comforted me. Since, I moved here in 2010, Joseph has gone through a long range of emotions.  He has gone from excited to shy to embarrassed to entitled to humbled and back to joyful again.  I have seen him shy away from me in front of his friends, and I'm not going to lie, the rejection hurt a bit.  I've seen him feel like he deserves more because his sponsor lives and works here.  I've seen him sit humbled at c...

My sweet LORD, Oh how I long to be in your presence, to sit before your feet.  To truly rest without the sin of this world in and around me.  Father, I wait for you.  I wait anxiously for you to come--I know it's soon.  As hard as it is to be away from home, I trust one thing: You are faithful.  You know more than I know.  You see more than I see.  Your ways are so much higher than mine.  I belong to you.  I desire for you to use my life to glorify you alone.  Lord, forgive me for my selfishness, forgive me for my anger, forgive me for living half in the world and half out. Forgive me for my doubt, my guilt, my complaints, my shame, my filth.  Jesus, on my knees I pray that you would make me a reflection of you.  Move me.  Guide me.  Use me. Break me. I see your love for these kids, I feel it.  Holy Spirit, consume the homes of these sweet children.  Prepare their hearts even now to be radically changed ...

When we started all of our schools, we began interviewing people for teaching positions.  I'll be honest and say that it's really difficult to find the right teacher for this job.  With orphaned and vulnerable children in your classrooms, it's quite hard to find those who truly love the orphan.  We battle the mindset of those who only want a promotion, a contract, more money, or a job for the now. Our schools are on the private sector of education, so we also battle the government wages and benefits.  But, we've decided that we will not just take any person who will work for a private school--we want to find the right person for the job.  However, searching for the right person is literally like searching for a needle in a haystack. Last year, we would sit in interviews all day and find ONE person.  This passed December, Kathryn set in days and days of interviews to find 4 or so.  It's not easy.  But it's really neat because the one's we do find...