Esther Study

This year the women on our team have been studying the book of Esther together. I've really enjoyed both the study and the time together with the other women. Yesterday we finished our study by watching the movie "One Night With The King" and eating yummy food that everyone prepared. It really is amazing a how a book with no mention of God has God written all over it.... and is so applicable to our lives today!

I started feeling overwhelmed this week after writing out a to-do list. Not only do we have the normal daily/weekly things but Leif has been preparing a lot for the conference that'll be next week- finding people to be on a panel, a translator, finding people to make lunch and to bring in morning and afternoon snacks, inviting people from all of the different churches, etc, etc. Plus filling out a bunch of forms that we need to for home service, making doctors appointments, getting documents notarized in case people need to do things in our names while we're gone, paying bills, running errands for people who want us to bring back items for them, etc, etc... plus thinking about packing up all of our stuff so that there is room in our apartment for our friends to live here (collecting boxes and bags, making lists, clearing out drawers). Anyways, I'm skimming the surface here and I can't even explain all of it. It also has felt that everything we've done lately has taken WAY longer than it should- multiple trips, long lines, etc.

I've woken up early this morning and it was nice to be in a quiet apartment and to have time to pray and read my Bible and just listen to God. I was reminded of how He's always given us just what we need in the past, just when we need it. And He will give us our "daily bread"... including time, energy, and strength. And today I really did have more strength. And I got so much done! And so did Leif! We made a little dent in the list. =) I can tell people are praying for us.

Today when Lena got here, Anneka asked her if she'd like tea or coffee (in Russian) all on her own! She's getting a little braver in speaking Russian. It's fun to see. Lena and I made two meals to freeze for next week for when we have guests (for the conference). Little things like that help me mentally.