These are a few of my favorite things!!

Most of my past week has been wonderful for a few significant reasons...

-Wednesday night, me and 3 other teachers from my school took 15 students to the Holocaust conference at NWCTA. It was awesome. It was so fun being around the students outside of school as well as listening to the survivor speak. The survivor that we got to listen to was 85 and had been placed in 7 different camps. His family had been killed in gas chambers in various other camps and he had quite the story. He came to the U.S. at then end of the 1940's. One of the most amazing things he said was similar to as follows. 'The most horrifying part of the Holocaust was that people, who shouldn't have been able to decide, decided who should stay and who should go. They decided to kill some and save some. What if one of the people that was killed was supposed to make a significant change in the world? It is never for us to decide.' Amazing...

-This weekend at church we had various people from different parts of the world... including my favorite... Africa. Coen Scholtz whom I worked with the previous 2 summers in Zambia and South Africa shared some of his heart yesterday morning and tonight in a meeting for the upcoming trip. It is always emotional and fantastic at the same time to hear his stories and his heart. He is absolutely incredible and I could not ask for a better person to serve with in another place. He understands the Kingdom and the reason for God's Kingdom in a way that I am not sure that I will ever understand.

-Also, this weekend a man named Brian, who works for a non-profit out of Hope, shared and he said one of the most significant things I've heard over the past year. (Many of us who work secular jobs get grief sometimes because it is not "ministry." If you believe this, you are very, very wrong my friend and I'm not sorry that I had to be the one to tell you.) He said that God's Kingdom Activity is everywhere. He said that it is even where people are just motivated to do good... even when they are not believers... they are still part of God at work in His Kingdom. That means my kids who just care about people genuinely, whether they know it or not, are all part of God's activity. How thrilled I am that I see God's activity where I sometimes think he is missing.... He is not... He is sovereign, in control, on the throne, and walking wherever He pleases... in my classroom, around my school, and up the street with my kids.



God is at work among us and how dare we miss it even when we think it is not possible for him to be there! Have a great week and open your eyes to Him!

-Melis