Mellow Yellow

I continue with colors.  Here's yellow.

This is my very favorite yellow flower in the Jardín Botanico.

Pretty pretty flowers.

Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.   -- Henry Ward Beecher

Even the trees grow pretty flowers.

I think sometimes that our Creator points to the most beautiful things ever made with a giant flashlight that we refer to as the sun.

Color is the ultimate in art. It is still and will always remain a mystery to us, we can only apprehend it intuitively in flowers.   -- Philipp Otto Runge

My pictures don't do this flower justice, but as I took these pictures I thought about how great the gift of sight is.  God's creation takes my breath away.

Even the leaves like to show off their beauty.

This is a painting that can be found on the wall of the public school in my neighborhood.  The whole wall is a mural dedicated to HIV awareness.  What we're seeing here is a colorful condom with part of the phrase "It's our right to use a condom"  scrolled above.  Three cheers for HIV awareness!!

While walking through the Jardín Botanico (as I was taking these pictures) I was hit with the realization that creation was meant to be adored.  God so very obviously is manifested through nature.  We should look around and be in awe of the miracle that is the beauty that surrounds us.  We should worship the Divine by appreciating the way that God's face shines through creation.

Take a moment.  Look around.  Be amazed.

Love,
Sarah

Terribly Overdue Update

I’m really disappointed in myself and the lack of responsibility I’ve shown in not keeping my blog up to date.  I hope all of you are willing to forgive me.

Life continues to move forward, here in Paraguay, as I’m sure it has for all of you at home.  I’m still working at La Amistad, although I’ve not been helping to teach English in the last few months, but rather have become the cook’s assistant.  I spend all morning in the kitchen with my very favorite Paraguayan cook, Vidalina, and we cook and laugh and wash dishes together.  Summer break has ended and school has started again, which means that there’s much more work and many more kids.  

I’m continuing to attend La Amistad church, and have felt more and more part of the community here as the year goes on.  I was even thrown into a pool by some of the members of the young adult group and I’m fairly sure that that solidifies me as part of the group.  Every Sunday evening I join the young adults for volleyball games at the school, which continues to be a highlight of the week for me.  

I’m feeling ever more comfortable in Spanish.  Although I’m not nearly done learning, I’m able to communicate well, and it gets better all the time.  I’m fluent enough to be able to have phone conversations without thinking about it too hard, which is really exciting.  However, with fluency in the language or without, communication is different in this culture.  People are gracefully candid and sometimes confusingly unclear for a girl who grew up in central Kansas.

It’s cooled down significantly since my last update.  I almost forget the feeling of falling asleep in a pool of sweat.  Daytime temperatures have been around 90˚ which is really quite comfortable.  

I’ve had two visitors since I last blogged about my life.  The first was Radical Journey’s director, Darrell.  It was really great to have him around.  He challenged and encouraged me in all of the right ways.  We also did some cooking and exploring together which was a lot of fun.   The second visitor was my best friend, Erin, who just left this past week.  She was able to come down for her spring break.  We had a lot of fun until I got sick on the third day of her visit.  I wasn’t able to leave the house very much or do very much exploring, which was not optimal for having a visitor.  (I got better the day after she left.) 

I can’t believe how time has flown.  It’s already Easter and I’ll only be here for 3 and a half more months.  Feliz Pascua (Happy Easter) one and all!  Christ is alive!

Love,

Sarah