Catchup (of Facebook and Instagram)

Two days ago marked seven months to the day that I arrived. I still remember that first day, those first months... a lot has happened and I've grown so much. God surely knew what He was doing when He put me here.

A good friend once told me that if you find yourself busy in one place, you can expect to be busy wherever you go. There's no escaping it. I think that's pretty accurate! I can't help but get involved in many things, and as a result I've had plenty to do. So much, in fact, that my inbox and blog have gone rather neglected. I feel bad, but at the same time, I recognize that life (and especially life in God's service) is about more than the digital world. Unfortunately, people who are busy can't always keep everyone adequately up to date. But I also know that it is important for those at home to know I'm alive, well, and still doing what I said I'd be doing. :) Therefore, this post. Though other ports of access have not generated many responses, I've kept fairly recent on Facebook and Instagram. They only require short blips to let people know what I'm up to! But for those who haven't seen some or any of those updates, I decided I'd make a post just for you. Following is an abbreviated chronicle of my life from October 2013 through March 2014. :)

October

My crazy but absolutely lovable kids.

November

(It arrived safely!)

One of my faithful in-classroom translators, Nak.
We have a great time figuring stuff out!

To this day, it's been my only time driving a motorbike.
I plan to change that during Khmer New Year
when I have time to practice!!

December

Christmas program, Karen style. :)

Having fun with these little guys on holiday!

January

We visited a nearby mountain with old temple ruins on top.

My violin enthusiast, Sann.
(someone recently donated a half-size violin and he loves it!!)

If you'd like to watch this, you can here.

February

They definitely figured out how to put a smile on my face. :)

A very awesome collage a fellow volunteer made for me on my birthday!

I adore these grade-6-ers...

March

Practicing my Khmer... although I forgot a character. :P
Someday I'll get this language learned. :) (It's supposed to say
knoum sraulein neak - I love you)

Two sweet boys on top of "Mount Everest"
which is actually a termite mound.

I very much enjoyed spending time with some
real genuine American kids!

(I'm also having a terrible time with the month subheaders so please forgive me for just sticking this up even though they're not perfect!)

Distracted...

If you look at the last date I posted, you'll notice that it's been two months since I last wrote. Other than busy-ness, there's not really a whole lot of reason for that.

Except that I've been distracted.

A few days ago, I came here and wondered where the time had gone. After all, so much has happened between now and then! And then I realized what happened... A few weeks after I wrote, I re-joined the world of facebook, thus sending me into a new sphere of activity. It was fun for awhile, and actually still is! But I've decided that there are better things in life. For example...

- Time with friends is so much more valuable when you find out information from them first-hand.
- There really are other things on the internet besides facebook. Places where I can actually learn something.
- I get a lot more done. Even though I don't have internet at home, I get status updates on my phone and can connect with the cyber world that way.
- Instead of checking my phone first thing in the morning, I can take time with my Creator.
- Happy-birthday wishes? In my opinion, they're much more special when your friends actually remember your day and shoot you an e-mail, instead of being informed by an automatically generated calendar.
- It's so freeing to be away from it....... those of you who have done the same thing as me know what I mean. :-)

I wrote those off the top of my head, but if I stopped to think more, I could come up with several reasons.

In short, it was a distraction.

I'm glad to be undistracted by it now! I plan to use the time to spend with my heavenly Prince, and grow closer to Him and His ideal for me. And... while I'm off facebook, I think you'll probably hear more from me, here. ;-)