Where does time go?

So, the Christmas season is now upon us. Well, it’s been upon me for a while, but others are just now catching up with me. Today is the last day of November (I don’t know where this month went). This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. I am not sure what the churches do here to celebrate, but I am focusing on the advent season this year and anticipating Christ’s birth. With it being so warm, it doesn’t feel like Christmas is coming, so I make sure I include it in each day.
I had my first soccer practice yesterday. It went well, especially with the help of 2 senior girls coaching the kids in skills. I know I still have a lot to learn, but my camp experience is coming in handy. I need one of those books on “Coaching Soccer for Dummies”. I wonder if they make those. I am really enjoying building relationships with more students though. God knows what I need to be encouraged and to keep going. I am seeking to follow him and he is blessing me.
I feel like Christmas came early. It’s amazing the way the little things that are so easy to get in the US become such a luxury here. My roommate, Liz, got a large shipment from her church yesterday of a mixture of things, but primarily a large amount of decaf. Coffee, hot cocoa, nuts, dried fruit and Mexican spices. Now I get excited easily, but this was very exciting to smell really good coffee again and drink quality hot chocolate. Now we don’t have to drink coffee sparsely but can enjoy it when we want. Not that life is all about enjoying luxuries, but it makes it easier to face the challenges when you have something to look forward to after you make it through.
I am beginning to see life here as what it is: my life, struggles and joys included, in Africa. It is no longer some foreign world in which I live out a game of life. This is my life right now. I have challenges, joys, loneliness, fellowship, tears, laughter, sickness, health—but above it all I have my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is in control and each moment and day.
That is who I am celebrating this season. It is his coming and birth I am remembering and his final return I am anticipating. I am far from home, but not alone, I may be knocked down, but never destroyed. I am a daughter of the living God. What a privilege to serve him here in Cameroon.
Be Blessed,
Amy