no rest

Sometimes I marvel at the Lord's patience. He reveals things to me and it takes forever for me to apply what He has revealed to me in my day to day life. This week I have yet to have any Sabbath time and my week is packed from here on out (I know anyone who knows me well is not surprised by this, I am just disappointed that the change hasn't happened yet). I was going to try Tuesday afternoon to have some rest and down time with the Lord and it did not happen. I ended up running from thing to thing to thing that afternoon. They were all good things, but not restful. Then today is our "day off" and it has been a fine day but a wearying one. I washed a ton of clothes by hand this morning because I have a heat rash all over my torso (very common here this time of year) and so I need fresh clothes to change into. Then I picked up Vina (the Zizer's 3 year old little girl) from school and took her to the National Stadium because Abubakkar had a field day today for his school and he invited me to (which he took first place in the javelin throw - woohoo!!!). The sun here is hot right now and being in it too long zaps your energy....not to mention it doesn't make the heat rash feel much better. Then at the stadium (I think) our team cell phone was stolen from my bag. Theft is a big problem here and even leaving the stadium I watched a man reach into my pocket and I just looked at him like he was nuts. I have learned not to carry stuff that is valuable where it can be readily available but I forgot to move the phone from an outside pocket in my bag to the bag itself. It was an old phone and I am not in trouble...just makes me feel TERRIBLE. I even felt like something told me this morning not to put it in that pocket. Other than that the field day event was fun. Vina is a little pistol sometimes but she was mostly good and we ate vendor food just like we would at a game at home. She took the sweet popcorn that Faye bought her and would suck off the sweet parts and spit the rest out. It was wonderful because it kept her occupied for quite awhile! :P
I hope that I am not giving the impression that I didn't enjoy my day, because that is not the case. I am just a bit weary right now. It was all worth it though to watch Abubakkar singing and dancing to the music and rallying his classmates to do the same before he knew we were there and watching him. He has such an infectious joy and a smile that feels like heaven itself is smiling at you. And when he was on the field, he looked up in the stands to make eye contact with us and gave me the thumbs up....that made it all worth it. He was looking in the stands to see someone there supporting him and believing in him and we were there! I would say today was a success, phone loss and all!!! Okay, so back to my original point of the Lord needing to beat things in my head. I posted earlier this week how much I learned about resting in the Lord and I have not prioritized that once since we got back a week ago. So, this is my accountability. I will not post again until I have had some good solid time resting before the Lord.

Alicia, I have to say that I thought of you guys a few times when we were on our retreat. We were being very outdoorsy and seeing all sorts of cool stuff that I know Nate would have loved. :P I miss you guys and I hope all is well!