CAO - Day Five/Six

Sorry this is late.  Friday, instead of blogging, I got to spend a lovely time talking and praying with my roomie-for-the-week and Saturday was travel day.  I didn't get home until midnight and I just needed to go to bed.


Friday was (surprise, surprise) a wonderful day! We again opened in devotional time which I loved more and more each day.  Loved the way we appointees and staff got together and spent time in the Word and in prayer focusing ourselves on God and reminding ourselves exactly who is the source and reason for all that we were doing.


The day was mostly spent working on our presentation.  Again, I'll spare you most of the details.  But it took the whole day.  It was actually really cool to sit down and think about my story and to really look at how God orchestrated events in my life to get me to this point.  Also, once again I was shown the genuine care and love of the staff as they helped us develop our stories and steer us in the right direction.  Always gentle and always helpful and always genuine.


Friday night was fun because we had dinner at another staffer's house and we had a surprise guest!  The president of UWM (who'd been at a conference all week) and his family came to dinner and so we all got to meet with him and know him a little bit better.

This is a picture by a Hungarian artist - it's of a man kneeling down  but it's all done with one line!

Her backyard - I loved that you look out over the balcony and there's all these lovely trees

In case you can't tell, I really loved all of the trees in NC

Then, like I said, we got back to the hotel and I got to spend some really great time talking with my roomie.  We talked a lot about what we'd learned and also just how we can prepare so much but what it comes down to is God moving in people's hearts and providing and we just have to trust that He will.  Then we prayed together.  It was great being able to sit with her and pray for our futures and then just to hear her heart as she prayed for me and for all of the other candidates.  I was truly blessed by my week with her.  


Saturday was our last day together which made me very sad.  I was ready to see my family and friends for sure, but I was sad to say goodbye to these people who I'd laughed with, talked with, been encouraged by and prayed with pretty constantly over the past six days.

We spent time talking about communication and the various online resources that missionaries have in the field.  Very good stuff - not good blog material. :)

This was our work space.  We spent a lot of time in that room.  Also, I had to steal this from someone's facebook because the pictures I took of the office just came across as stalkery.

Saying goodbye was rough.  It was hard saying farewell to someone you've created a bond with not knowing when you might be able to see them again.  Thank goodness for skype and facebook!

I was blessed on the flight home to get to sit next to a really strong Christian woman and we talked about everything from missions to her family to ways that God's shown His grace to marriage.  The perfect ending to an incredible week!  I'm so excited to move forward from this point.  God is so, so good and if nothing else, I've experienced God deeply this week and that's the most important thing of all.

Walking up to the office.  I like that you could see the UWM through the door as you walked up

Better view