Sigh

Well, here I am. I was kind of waiting to update my blog until I had something exciting to share, but... well, it doesn't seem like things are happening very quickly here, so I am going to write anyway!

It has not been an easy couple of weeks. I am surrounded by amazing people, which is huge, though. Terry and Kay are very wise and fun to be around; Carrie is great; last night I got to hang out with some girls I became friends with when the team was here, and I was so blessed by them. I look forward to spending more time with them.

Ministry-wise, things are a bit murky. Sorting everything out with the building that we had been using hasn't been as straight forward as we wished, and getting things started around here just takes a lot of work, really. We started up a discipleship group for new/young believers last week, to give some really solid, foundational teaching... a bunch of people said they would come, but most didn't. Those who did were 45 minutes late. Guam time! It felt like pulling teeth in a lot of ways, so I'm hoping that once some momentum gets going, it will get better.

We've been praying a lot about what to do and when and how... there are actually a lot of opportunities. The thing for me that is frustrating is that a lot of those opportunities feel like things that I actually should not do. There are churches that want ministries started, etc., but nobody in the church wants to run them, so they are looking for outside help. But I feel like, as a short-term resident of this place, there needs to be someone else to carry these things after I go. A five month program would work for five months, but then what? There has to be someone willing to learn to do it and take over after the five months. But nobody seems to want to. Even when I thought the DTS was going to happen, there were people to train up to carry on and to lead the next one, which was part of my purpose in leading it. So... we'll see. I'm praying for opportunities to work with and train others to do really strategic, meaningful ministry that is actually bearing fruit, not just creating activities. Oh, the possibilities!

Anyway, that's me for now.