If you've never seen jacarandas before, I highly recommend you pause your reading and google "jacarandas Oaxaca" images to get a feel for what I am talking about when I tell you about the wonderful purple trees that bloom in the spring here. We have yellow-flowered trees, trees with bright orange flowers, pink ones, and many other colors, but my favorite by far are the purple ones. To me, these trees have been such an encouragement and reminder that God's blessings are present in my life, and that His promises remain. By the time March comes around, my life tends to be a nice chaotic rush of activities. We have Missionary Kid camp, Church camp, Re-entry Retreat, and then I blink and it's May which includes AP Testing, End-of-the-year Senior trip, graduation, goodbyes, etc. And that's just the activities with my church and with the school. We also have a flurry of activities with Girasol and Amanecer. So during these months, things sometimes feel like they pile up. Sure, they're mainly super fun activities such as camp and a beach trip, but my schedule fills up and the days get longer. But it's during these months that the purple flowers bloom. There have been countless days of working at Girasol and driving home full of heartbreak for women who have shared their devastating stories- trying to muster up the energy to then take the youth kids to a baseball game. As I give myself a pep talk in the car, I can often look up and see these beautiful and bright flowers. They've come to symbolize the joy that is found in the Lord. In times of exhaustion, frustration, and sadness, I can always look up and see His love and care and beauty, and I know He put those flowers, lining the streets on my drive home, there for me to be uplifted by His hope when the going gets tough.
Normally in June, I'd find myself in Arizona, visiting a lot of you. This year, however, I will be staying in Oaxaca. My lovely partner in crime (Girasol) is in the USA dropping her daughter off at college, and I am picking up some of her responsibilities. (Side note: She has a similar story about how she has seen God's goodness on hard days, but for her, it's been hummingbirds. I love how God cares for each of us where we need it and in our own special way!) Now that the flood of school events and youth group events are over, summertime begins, and the flood of service groups from the USA, VBS and other church outreaches, and extra Girasol and Amanecer events begins. Already this week we have had a medical outreach at Girasol, and this week also marks the beginning of our second round of Programming with the new women working at Amanecer. It's all very exciting!
If you aren't already following Girasol and Amanecer on our Facebook or Instagram, I highly recommend it. We post prayer requests, updates on activities, and pictures of things that we do downtown. In addition to that, you can subscribe to our website in order to read stories and blogs from each of our volunteers and get to know our staff. I've added the links below:
Lastly, instead of making an amateur video with my pictures from this year, I am going to share a few different videos (professional ones) of activities we've done recently. I'm including Elementary and Secondary Missionary Kid Camp videos, Lluvias de Gracia Youth Camp video, and a video where you can learn more about the school I work at (Oaxaca Christian School- the video was made by one of our awesome and talented students).
*Watch my students dump water on me at the 20 second mark in this video...
*I was the camp speaker this year- the theme was: words that leave a fingerprint.
*Meet my awesome co-workers and students in this video!
I'd like to close this update with a line written by one of my brilliant students in her graduation speech. It's a line that resonated with me and was a reminder, much like the jacarandas, of God's goodness and guidance, and my need to depend on Him.
"I pray that when things around me seem to fall apart, the first thing I go to fix are my eyes onto Him who goes before me." -R.H.
Gracias,
-Ruth