"take, take what you need, not what you want, but all in between
live, live like the sea, you can be you, and i will be me
for all this time, but still my mind is on...

love."

Noah Gunderson- The First Song

           The lyrics to this song have been on my mind a lot lately, and it has just got me thinking about what we need in life, and what we want. What rights do we really have and what have we allowed our selfish society to influence into believing is our right. I live in a room with 7 other people, sharing one space, one bathroom, one fridge. My own desires or "rights" are faced head on when I have to wait an hour to have a shower, or my food gets moved around and is no longer in the exact order I like it. But isn't it my right to my stuff the way I want it. Isn't it my right to shower when I need as long as I need, and isn't it my right to be totally alone with no one talking to me when I've had a bad day? Suffice it to say I have had to die to a lot of rights lately. But probably one of the largest rights I have had to die to didn't come up in the room. We were challenged about a month ago to ask the Lord what rights He needed us to die to in order to better work as a team with my fellow classmates, soon to be interns. What the Lord revealed to me what a shock and a challenge for me, that has certainly been playing out in my life in more ways than I realize. The right that I had allowed myself to believe was mine, was my right to my opinion. Now you may be thinking, of course you can have an opinion everyone has them. Which in theory is true. But I'm talking more so about my opinion being heard, making a difference or really even mattering at all. You see, I have always wanted to be heard, and I have always wanted to state my case, or my opinion on different matters. I believe that I am a fairly intelligent person with adequate reasoning skills and ideas and that people should listen to me. It's not even that I have to be right with what I'm saying, but I simply need to get it out there. Well the Lord challenged me with that. Sometimes there wont be a place for me to state my opinion, as valid as it is. Even further, sometimes I may know better in situations, or I may be affected by a situation that I have absolutely no say in, and that is how it has to be. Surrendering the right to be heard, and to express myself has been a great challenge for me, but I do believe it is something that is really good for me to learn. 

        As far as an update on me, I am doing really well. This quarter is coming to an end quickly and on Wednesday I will officially be finished all of my hours learning solely in the classroom. I get a 9 day break, in which my mom will be joining me for 7 of those days, and then I will be an intern in the preschool! I'm so excited to finally be getting in the class, hands on teaching and learning. I will be in the kindergarten class, interning under one of the most incredible teachers I have ever had the privilege of meeting. She is an incredible woman of God, who is a prayer warrior, highly prophetic, and just so loving. I'm eagerly anticipating being poured into and being able to soak up just a fraction of her amazing wisdom. 

I have been living in Hawaii for almost 6 months now, and I have 9 more months of this program. Please pray for continued perseverance on those long days of lesson planning, and temper mental children.  The I would have more of the Lords eyes for these kids, and I would continue to grow and learn all the time.

Please also pray for my finances, life in Hawaii is expensive and I'm praying for more monthly supporters to come along side of me and help me out. If you feel lead to give, any amount would be greatly appreciated. 

I'll leave you with a photo my friend took one night as we sat on the beach and talked about God's goodness.

God bless.