Six Months

It's kind of crazy to think that I have been living in the North End for 6 months already. It certainly doesn't feel like it has been that long. I have also been washing windows for 5 months and that doesn't feel right either.

Looking back, for the first couple months of city life, everything was new, I felt like a kid on an adventure and everything was fun and exciting, like my first time on a city bus, I got off at the wrong stop, and then had to go on foot for half an hour cause I was partially lost and not sure where to go, but I loved it! And going shopping on my own, for my own food, that I was going to make for myself, in my own place, that I was paying for. It still feels weird... I am so thankful for friends and family who have helped me along, like letting me borrow a bike after mine was stolen (I thought it would be stolen much sooner than it was :). There have been many ups and downs, joys and stresses, adversity and prosperity.

The most wonderful things though are what I have been able to learn.
- I have learned a trade (window cleaning)
- I have learned how to prepare food (Today for lunch I had blueberries, strawberries and banana in a tortilla with yogurt and peanut butter. It was delicious and healthy, try it some time).

Of the things I have learned, the most awesomely wonderful are what God has been teaching me. He has been teaching me about His love, He has been teaching me about myself, He has been teaching me how to be more disciplined. He is teaching me to have faith, to believe what He tells me. I am much more comfortable around people that I used to be really uncomfortable around. He has been teaching me to praise Him all the time, in plenty and in need, through trials and through joys. That joy is not dependent upon any external thing. He has been teaching me many things about the words that come out of my mouth, some of it is difficult to learn. I think perhaps one of the best things God has been teaching me is to live with an eager hope and expectation of things to come.

Perhaps you are wondering what I am doing now that is different. Well I am not working with youth and I was before I moved. I have played more badminton since I've been in Winnipeg because there is easier access to it. I hang out with friends as much as I used to, only different friends now (most of whom I knew before I moved). I have a real job. I make my own food. I pay my own bills (it feels so weird...thanks Mom and Dad! for the nearly 23 years of looking after me, not that you don't/can't anymore, but it's different).