Nothing without Jesus.

Thank you for all of those who have been praying for me and following my blog along the way! Yesterday was rather overwhelming, but equally as refreshing to have such a peace of knowing I am right where I am supposed to be! In the last 36 hours, I have probably heard two times more Spanish than I have heard English. This makes me more excited and more urgent to learn the language. Today, I spent the day in my new Dominican apartment unpacking my stuff and trying to settle in (with the few things I have). I am so blessed to have a bed, queen size!, two couches, a kitchen table and some random dishes! Yesterday, I was able to get a shower curtain and other random toiletries so I could use my own bathroom! After waking up this morning, I quickly realized that we did not have running water. It wasn’t until later in the day that I realized we didn’t have power which is why we didn’t have water. The school provides an inverter that runs the fans, praise the Lord, and several lights; however, we have been without water, no toilets, most of the day!

On a funny note, the internet man FINALLY came today while I was home. This was great since we have not had internet yet (its funny how we rely on it so much!). The great part of this story is the man who came to install it did NOT speak English. (Side Note: Dominican’s speak very fast Spanish.) I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know and how much confidence I lacked until this very moment. Needless to say, we ended up laughing at the dilemma and trying to make it work. He saw my Bible on the table and began to ask me about church and God’s Word (which surprisingly I could understand most of what he was saying). Praise the Lord for the few Scriptures I had learned in Spanish and was able to share with him. I was reminded of my desperate need to learn the language fast if I want to reach these people for His Kingdom. After spending all day with this man trying to get our internet fixed, it finally works. and then.... this great monsoon (normal dominican rain...) comes and breaks the connection. Oh, well.

I wanted to share a verse with you today that the Lord reminded me of this morning. John 15:5 says, “Apart from Me you can do NOTHING” (emphasis mine). How quickly I forget that I can do nothing without Jesus. Even something as simple as getting internet installed. You would think that leaving my own country and making my home on a foreign island would nail this truth into my head, but as humans we think we can do most things on our own and when we get into a bind we dial J-E-S-U-S to come rescue us. In reality, we need to be rescued by Jesus every moment of every hour. There is a sweet hymn that I have always loved called “I need the every hour”. How true the words to this song are in our daily lives. So, my prayer for today is that I would learn to let Jesus rescue me in everything; that I would learn never to try to do things on my own even the small things. Jesus is enough. May God teach you this too.

Thank you for your prayers. I will be trying to post my address soon!

In Christ,

Madison