You can't make this stuff up...

I spent the majority of the day *walking*. Right now my little footsies are propped up from walking almost 10000 steps today (I know that thanks to the nifty little pedometer on my new cell phone). I walked around for an hour and a half this morning looking for another junior high in town which was supposedly close to my apartment. I had even asked for directions, but unfortunately the person I asked directed me to the elementary school of the same name rather than the junior high. So after that I gave up and went into the office to ask for directions, but no one was there, so I just sat around and worked a little on my Christmas story power point. Then after lunch someone who spoke English finally came into the office and asked another of the office workers to give me a lift out there. I had been somewhat close, but not really. But I did have a small moment of victory in my lostness today. I was able to ask someone if I was in the right place! And they understood me and I understood their answer! :) Good feeling. Sentence by sentence I will conquer this language... yeah. ;) So I made it out to the right school and saw some volleyball games, then came back home.
Today as I worked on the nativity story to tell the kids, I started realizing how very crazy it all sounds. God decides to come to earth in human form, and so he chooses a young unwed mother to be born to. Can you even begin to imagine what Mary must have been thinking? I think sometimes us protestants try too hard to stay away from Mary as a precaution against being like the Catholics, but I think Mary is one of the most admirable people in the Bible. God came to her with perhaps the biggest job of all, to be an earthly mother to His Son, and she responded by acting in faith. Imagine her sacrifice... her reputation, her body, her entire life to raise this child she didn't even know. Reckless abandon, complete trust, unbelievable faith...It blows my mind.
There's a great song by Ginny Owens called "I Am." It goes through a list of different heroes of the Bible and gives the reasons why God "shouldn't" have used them... the obstacles that they and other people saw as a barrier for them to accomplish their tasks. Each verse ends with the phrase, "'That's not your problem', God replied, 'I can do anything.'" Then the chorus goes, "There's a bigger picture you can't see. You don't have to change the world, just trust in me. I am your creator, I am working out my plan, and through you I will show them I am." Maybe we should all take a little while today to think about what purpose God has in mind for us being where we are at this point in our lives. I know when I think about that it seems like an overwhelming big task, but that song reminds me to just focus on going step by step on the straight and narrow, and God will take care of the rest.
God put something on my heart yesterday as I was leaving school. Everyday as I walk home all the kids who pass me always grin and wave and yell "BYE!" and "SEE YOU!" :) It always reminds me of how much I love them already, but yesterday I was thinking about praying for them, and I realized that I might be the only person in the world praying for these kids. I know that many times people pray for the lost of the world or the lost in Japan or maybe even the lost in Hitachi, but who is praying for the children of Namekawa Junior High besides me? Please pray for my kids with me. They're so young and impressionable right now... pray that they will see something in my life that leads them to the truth of God.