God heard my prayer today! Thank you so much, it takes a burden off of me, Father.
This was a good day even though I had to wait for the bus for an hour and twenty minutes. It didn’t make me mad or angry. God is changing me :)
Nothing is in my hands. It is God who is in charge of me and everything around me.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24

God, change me!

Man, I am in a hole right now, it is the time of the semester where you are not motivated to do anything because everything is coming to an end, and you have only three more weeks to write two fifteen page papers. There is nothing I can do. I don’t even want to think about starting because there is so much other stuff that has to be done, like another paper, or a power point, or a project. How can I do all this? Surely not on my own because I am weak. But I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength.
God knows me and my weaknesses, so I can ask HIM for help and direction to do what I have to and should do. I want to be changed spiritually. So I asked God to change me, so I can listen to His word day and night, and follow Him where ever He goes, just accept people the way they are, and unite people and not separate them through the words I say or the things I do. All this is in God’s hands because He is my creator. He is the only one who can change me.
So I pray, “Father, give me strength. Father, change me! And give me strength to change.”

New semester!

Well, the time has come, school started again, and there is a lot of work to do. It has been a quiet and crazy summer. More quiet than crazy. Now school has taken over my life again, and I am not sure if this is a good thing. What I want to focus on this semester is mission. Last semester I was trying to adjust to a new life in America, in College, in the Sister’s House. But I know why I am here, so I have to do what God has told me to do. I wanted to start today with table ministry, but because of the rain that doesn’t want to stop (and has been going on the whole week) it was cancelled. I was very sad and disappointed. I had looked forward to this the whole week. I will try again next week, and I will go even if it rains. Today we also had our first YDJ meeting this semester. It was very good. This semester’s theme is God’s character. We talked about our key verse Exodus 3:14 where it says, “God said to Moses: I AM WHO I AM.” I have never really thought about these words before. “I AM” means a lot. It means God is the creator, He is incomprehensible, indescribable, faithful, true, everlasting, independent (from everything including us). We will learn more about God’s character over the course of the semester. I think it is going to be very interesting.

Summer

I finished my first semester at Montgomery College. It only took 16 weeks. It was a great and stressful time. I can’t wait to be done with school in about 3 and a half years. Now I have 3 and a half months of vacation. What to do?

• Find a job.
• Start working.
• Visit family.
• Go to Elisabeth’s and Paul’s wedding.
• Read.
• Do nothing.
• Study the Bible.
• Go to summer conference

Wait I thought I had nothing to do, but this sounds like a lot. I shouldn’t worry to get bored then. We’ll see.
Adriana and I are trying to find stuff we can do together. We already went jogging yesterday, and figured we should do it more often to stay in shape. We might go to DC and wander the museums. Exciting!

"Here I am" by Downhere

Link: "Here I am" by Downhere

That’s all I can say to God, here I am. Send me.

God will lead me when I give my life in his hands.

Thank you God. And here I am.

My wonderful sisters in Christ <3

To God be the glory!

Hey!

A lot has happened since I last wrote. I’ve gone through a few ups and downs.
But there is one thing I wanted to share with you, also because I promised God to glorify him through what he has done to me. OK, I will start from the beginning so you will understand what I am saying.
I had to do this powerpoint for my education class and was not very motivated. It is an online class, so the powerpoint had to be clear enough for everybody to understand without explanations. Well, I got my grade about two weeks later, it was a D it was almost an F. I was devastated. What should I do? I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Praying seemed the only right thing to do in that moment. I cried and told God that I was sorry for not trusting in him. I promised Him I would glorify Him through all that I do especially school and asked Him for an A.
My professor said we had the chance to revise the powerpoint within two weeks. Of course I took the chance and revised it hoping to get a better grade. Yesterday I looked at my grade book online and saw I got 142 out of 150 points for my powerpoint. I wanted to shout for joy. It is all God’s work. Thank you, Father!!!!

Annoying ants, ridiculous health insurance BUT great sisters

Hi!

Life in America is so much different from life in Germany. There is a lot I have to fight with.

1. Ants: They just appear in the kitchen and bathroom when it gets warmer outside and get into everything, they even eat flour and walk around on our toothbrushes. They also love the trash and dirty dishes. We can’t leave any food on the counter because the ants might attack it :P We will try to fight them by putting traps out for them.

2. Health insurance: I applied on January 9 and haven’t heard anything from them they don’t even give an update. I wanted to have it by February 1 and now it’s March 13. Hm, something’s wrong with that. The person I contacted about this earlier this week said he tried to call them but they said they were not available right now. He wanted to try to find out more but I haven’t heard from him since. What should I do? I can’t get very sick. I have been sick twice already and not been able to go to the doctor. But what do they care? I hope they will answer by the end of next week otherwise I will have to apply somewhere else.

3. Myself: I have to push myself to do the things I have to do. And last week was so stressful and tiring that my heartburn bothered  me for several days. I was covered with school work and classes that I forgot the more important thing in my life, God. I hope that I can take more time for Bible study during the coming week since I have spring break.

But God put some great and wonderful people to my side here in America. My three sisters, Anne, Adriana and Susan. They encourage, support, care and pray for me. God couldn’t have found any better sisters for me. I am so thankful for them. They might not know what a great blessing they are to me but they are.
They cheer me up when I am down and make me happy and strengthen me with encouraging words. They give me a hug when I am sad and depressed. Now I can’t imagine a life without them. I don’t know what I would do without them. I love them. Thank you God for giving me three more sisters that accepted me just how I am.
Before I came I was afraid I would be lonely like I was when I was in New Jersey. But God knew my fear and put me in a crowded place where I would never be lonely but be encouraged. Thank you, Father!  Thank you Susan, Adriana and Anne for just being there.
I also want to thank my other sisters here in America (Esther, Sarah L.P., Sarah Y., Rebekah, Sarah A., Mary, Shaina, Lata, Maria, Kisung, Hannah, Sarah B.) for your encouragement and prayer and love.
God is great and He is love!

Volunteering

What should I say. Life is hard :P And it is not a pony farm ;)
I have to do volunteer work for my English class, we also have to write a report about so don’t be wondering why in English.
I went to the YMCA, to one of their community centers for an interview and to observe. They provide after school program for children from Kindergarten to high school. The Kindergarten to 3rd grade kids even have a reading lesson with two teachers that do the work voluntarily and for free. The children mainly come to do their homework. All we have to do is help them or explain something if they don’t understand it. They seem to like it there even though it takes their only free time. Of course they also have some time to play. It was fun to be there.
I will have to go there at least three more times but I decided to go there on a regular basis. It will help the children and me.
I met a girl there, she is in 10th grade and is volunteering for the younger kids. She already has more than 300 hours I think, that is impressive. They hope that by the time she finishes high school she will have enough hours to get a scholarship. I think she should also be considered for the “Presidential Volunteer Service Award”.
This is a great opportunity to work with children that live in more unstable and poor environments. I think I will learn a lot from them.

Hello!

I’m here for more than a month now, wow. Things are going well.
I moved to the sisters house last Sunday, it’s great. We just had our Saturday morning prayer with the young women here at our house. It’s nice to have three sisters around. Of course the guys wouldn’t agree with that ;)
College is OK. Easier than I thought it would be but a lot of work. And it is definitely easier than school in Germany. They don’t have very high expectations here.
We had our first real YDJ (Young Disciples of Jesus) meeting with a presentation about Nehemiah. Our theme for this semester is “Unshakable”, we will learn about all kinds of people who had an unshakable faith. Nehemiah was unshakable in the way that he sticked to his plan and build the wall and only looked up to God even when his enemies tried to destroy his plans or attack the people while they were working. He cared for the workers with compassion. He was a great man of God. Next week we will hear about “Steven” from Steve.
Well, I guess that was it.
God bless You.

Mice 4

Hey!

Another mice story!

John caught one yesterday! Well, we thought they were only two but guess what happened. Yes, right.

I got up this morning and went into the kitchen and what was stuck in the trap? Mouse number three, she was still alive when I entered the room and started squeeking every time I moved, poor mouse. I put it on the dust pan and brought it outside and put it in the bucket to the other mouse.

Let’s hope there are no more mice in this house.

Mice 3

We caught a mouse yesterday! I put the trap right in the way, where I knew it would walk along and it worked. It was stuck on the glue. Abe just dumped it into a bucket outside. It must be dead by now, we had a lot of snow yesterday and it was freezing cold outside last night. Poor mouse.

Now there is only one more to catch.

Mice 2

Well, the mouse didn’t go into the trap. But it somehow got my chocolate. I think the chocolate was lying on my desk actually it doesn’t matter, what matters is that the mouse was in my room last night!!! It can fit underneath my door, there’s a lot of room even my foot can go there. I have to find a solution for this, I don’t want this mouse to come into my room every night. By the way, I found the chocolate not far from my room (it was just a small wrapped piece of chocolate) it probably was too heavy :D

The traps were still empty this morning, they don’t look like the ones you see in “Tom and Jerry”, it’s a plastic tray that has very strong glue in it and Abe put some peanut butter on them (he said they love it but I’m not sure about that) and later he even put some mice poison on them (do they love that stuff too?).

To be continued…

mice

I woke up in the middle of the night, not knowing it is in the middle of the night, because I thought Abraham was making noise, which is unusual. But then I looked at the clock and it was only 1am and then I heard Abe get out of his bed. Who then was walking around in the house at 1 o’clock in the morning if it wasn’t Abe? Then it came to my mind, it must have been on of the mice. I don’t know why it was so loud, it could have been caught in one of the traps and was still able to run around. Ouch!
We’ll find out later if the mouse went into the trap or what else it could have been.
Mice are a little scary, especially when you are alone at home and something makes a noise but you know just a second later it was just the mouse that is running around in the house somewhere.

College?! :O

Hey!

I made it, I was able to register for classes yesterday. I’m excited but also very nervous. It’s going to be a hard time but I know that God is with me all the time and he will guide me and lead me the right way. All I have to do is trust in Him and He will give me strength and wisdom. Like the man with leprosy that came to Jesus and said: “If you are willing, you can make me clean!”, I can say: “If you are willing, help me to succeed!” I hope the first experiences won’t be too overwhelming. Just pray for me :)
Thank you.

Hi!

I finally found the time to write something here.
Well, actually there is not much going on right now. I’m waiting to register for classes, there were some difficulties so I couldn’t register yet. Classes start next Monday, I’m a little worried. But God will take care of everything.
We had a conference last weekend, the title was “You will shepherd my people”. It was a refreshing and relaxing conference. I realized I have to study the bible every day to prepare for the hardships that will come because otherwise it will be hard to overcome those hardships.
I’m not really good at writing and right now I don’t know what I should write about.
The house is empty, five of us (10 people live in this house) went to Asia to visit family or to attend a conference. It’s pretty quiet here, no kids are running around, screaming or laughing.
I guess that was it. More posts are going to follow.

Love, Johanna