Lesson #2

I know, I know; I should have posted this several days ago...I wish I wasn't so bad about posting on my blog. I just need to try to make a habit of it. Anyway, here's the 2nd thing God told me while I was in Africa: When He tells me to give my burdens to Him and allow Him complete control of every aspect of my life, He will always pull through with something far better than what I thought was best for me. In Proverbs 19:21, it says, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." It is funny how I can think back on so many circumstances throughout my life where God's plans have been completely different than mine and I fought and fought against Him because I thought my plans were best for me. However, His plans prevailed, and thank goodness they always do because only He knows what is best for me. For example, in my previous blog post, I mentioned how I thought it would be best for me to take the job in KC, but obviously, God had a better plan for me. Now that I have been in Charlotte coaching at MAC for 3 days now, He has done nothing but confirm my obedience to His call for me to come here. I absolutely love my job! This first week was definitely overwhelming because I flew into Charlotte early Wed. morning and I hit the ground running with my first practice on Wed afternoon. Despite being really scattered and a little stressed (OK maybe more than just a little stressed) with my first few days of practices, I immediately fell in love with my kids! I coach 2 different groups of kids, and between the groups, I have close to 100 kids (ages 7-12). I am living with a family who also swims for MAC, and I don't think God could have put me with a more amazing family! They are awesome Christians; they live right on the lake; they have 4 wonderful kids (1 is away at college); the mom and I have so much in common and she's just as active as I am; they are really involved in their church and missions. The father travels to India several times a year because he is actually training a an Indian pastor in hopes that he will be able to start a church where he lives. I could go on and on about what a blessing it has been to have them in my life. They have welcomed me in from day 1 as part of the family! God has also blessed me with a solid group of Christian co-workers, and a lot of the parents of my swimmers are as well. Each blessing is a constant reminder that God's plans are always far better than the plans of my heart.

"2 things only seen or done in Ghana:"
1) Open breast feeding...with no shame - women would just feed their babies with no covering anytime, anywhere, even on the front row at church. This was really hard for the guys on our team to get used to. Especially, when it happened during church services, right in the middle of their message.
2) Roosters crowing...constantly - each morning, I woke up at 5:30 to the sounds of multiple roosters crowing outside my window. But, they didn't just crow as the sun was coming up, they would crow without ceasing at all hours of the day. Maybe that's how often we should be praying...