How Quick the Pace!

So, is Barry Childers going to try and join a choir or something? Maybe a club? SINFONIA!!!!! (sorry, that just sort of slipped... :-)

This weekend was a blast. I asked Carolyn Vieth, the Missionary Assistant that's been here for two years already (she's slightly older than you, Mom) to take me to El Centro (the town square) and show me around some more. We had a lot of fun walking around and seeing the different things that there was to see. We actually got stuck in a staircase; it was hilarious! We went in this hotel to see if we could go to the top and look out. Well, first we tried the elevator, but apparently it only worked one floor at a time; how odd. But once we got to the 6th floor (out of 10), it wouldn't take us any higher. We think it was broke or something. Anyway, we got out and looked around at some beautiful carved doors, but there wasn't any windows in the hallway. So instead, we tried one of the staircases. Well, apparently we picked the wrong one! This one only had doornobs going in to the staircase. You couldn't leave it without walking all the way to the bottom! Ha, we laughed about that for a good while.

Carolyn (by the way, you've ruined me mom; it's so hard for me to respect my elders by calling them what they asked to be called instead of inserting an "insulting" Ms. or Mrs. in front of their name. Oh well.)... so Carolyn is such a wonderful lady, and so wize. She reminds me a little of Cmd. Gebhart though; she sure likes to talk, and though both her and Cmd. Gebhart have a thousand extremely exciting and interesting stories their audiences haven't heard, they often don't mind telling the same ones over again if you don't remind them you've "already heard that one." ;-) I love it.

Well, last night, when we got home, she told me a lot about how she got on the mission field and how God has and is using her. She's really becoming quite an inspiration to me.

God may not have me here for a long time, but I know that there are many things that He wants to teach me here. I also know that I am to do my best to learn Spanish (and why not, with all the beautiful young female teachers out there ready to help me? ;-).

Competition
Competition really gets the best of me sometimes; even if it's only imagined competition. I get easily intimidated and quickly want to give up. And at the moment, God has surrounded me with both real life examples and plenty of "friends of a friend" who are quicker and better at picking up and learning the Spanish language and at picking up and understanding musical things as well. And the odd part about it is that these are people who are much more gifted at music than me, but yet God has them doing something else with their life; and these are people apparently much more gifted with Spanish than me, but who may not be using it once they leave at the end of this year. But God has reminded me that it doesn't really matter how much he gifts another person or whether they are going to use those gifts or not; He hasn't left that for me to wonder or exclaim about. He has only shown me what He want's me to do and some of the ways he wants me to use the gifts He has given me.

So much to learn! And how quick He has set the pace! But with His help, I know I can keep up!