Swirling vertex of death !!

Last night was fun, hanging out with the all the Connect students. The car lift home was a little to much fun (hence the blog title today). No we didn't wreck or anything like that, it was just fun.

I'm doing a lot better than last week. Last week was not fun by any means, but yesterday I talked with Kellie and things are going good now. It such a blessing to have someone my age here that I can talk to. This place has been hard to get a handle on, because it's so different than where I've been. Coming here after being in East Asia for a month threw me for a loop. I went from one extreme to the other. I went from being in a place that nobody spoke my language, so I was forced to totally rely on God and nothing else. It was just me and God. It was great. Life is so easy and fulfilling when you spend a lot of quality alone time with Him. And yes I meant to say easy, because when it's just you and God it doesn't matter what the devil and his minions are throwing at you. It doesn't affect you the same way that it does when you have a casual relationship with God.

Thus my troubles here. Everyone here speaks my language (even though it sounds a little funny at times and they use words in different ways so that I don't always know what in the world they are talking about) here. I have a mentor (which because I'm a huge slacker I haven't met with yet. Hey, I'm working on it!), I have an LTG group (that right now is just me and Kellie), I have all the teachers at connect ready, willing, and offering support, I have Robert, I have Troy and Cheryl ready to help me, and I've got almost the whole Grangetown Baptist Church available to help me if I need it. With all this support who needs God?

Who needs God?.....um.... that'd be ME!!!!! Since I've been here I've left Him out of the equation. Not all the way, but from talking and studying with Him almost 24/7 while I was in East Asia it feels like He's not here. I know that He's here I just haven't paid Him much attention. And as a direct consequence I got extremely stressed out and confused and was to the point of packing it all up and coming home (like letting Satan win was the right answer to my problems!). And I was so far gone that I couldn't even see that the problem was that I had cut off my life support, God. And I want the people who are praying for me to know something, "It was ONLY thru YOUR PRAYERS that God was able to open my eyes to what I had been doing!" God used Rob (Connect director) to encourage me to take the stress, I had put on myself about class and the youth group, off. God used Troy to comfort Robert with his letter, and when Robert posted it I read it and God spoke to me. And then as the finale (sp by Joshua) God used Kellie as a means for me to talk the whole situation out and really bond with Kellie. Kellie's struggles her first year here in Wales were the same as mine were last week.

I want to ask that all of you pray that I will start turning to God more. And spending time with Him more. Pray for Robert as he is continually being attacked. Satan is using Robert's family against him in many different ways. Pray for Hannah (one of the computer club kids) she reappeared at computer club last Tuesday and being gone for a while. Pray that she would keep asking questions and getting to know me. We're building a relationship right now. Pray that she'll get involved with a youth group. As much as I'd like her to be a part of this one I don't feel it's that important where so much as it's important for her to be involved in a church and learning that Christ loves her for who she is. I love you all so much! And thank you for your prayers, please don't stop!

~Stella