Living the life of a student

Well another few days down and we have more to be thankful for (isn't that always the way?). :)

It seems that God has provided a car for us, and although we are still having trouble getting our funds over here people are being amazingly generous and helping us out in trust. So Lord willing we will have a car on Saturday! Which will be huge. :)

On Wednesday I was feeling quite unwell, so we didn't leave the house and I just took it easy. Josh did some more Greek study, he has got the alphabet down pat, and has been working on some translation and pronunciation. 

Thursday we needed to go and get some groceries, so in the morning we walked to the nearest supermarket which was just over 2km away - so not tooooo bad, but made a bit more tricky with the heat (it was 89F, so about 31 degrees celsius) and also having to carry bags. But we like a challenge, and we don't mind walking at all, so made it fine. :)

We had a lovely simple dinner in the evening and spent quite a bit of time gazing out the window at the fireflies. It was the first time that we had ever seen any in real life and it was really cool! What amazing creation right! This little bit of video was the best I managed to get of them, and I'm not sure if you can see much in this, but at the end you see one flash across the screen. :) Also there was another lightening storm that night, so you can spot a very quick flash in the sky at the start of the video. 

I have to confess, I like fashion a wee bit (possibly more than I should)(I did warn you it was a confession), so have decided to make it my personal mission to try and create a comfortable wardrobe on a teeny budget. We came over with only 3 bags, and mostly summer clothes. We didn't want to have to pack a lot of clothes because we needed space for other things. So we don't have anything for winter apart from a few hoodies and a couple of pairs of jeans each. So up the road is a Goodwill store (like a big op-shop) which I haven't been in yet, but I think that there will have to be some recycling of clothing going on and I am going to have to crack out the needle and thread and get some ideas off Pinterest! :D We'll see how we go. 

This afternoon we were able to meet up with another student who will be starting study this year and his wife. They were a lovely Dutch couple, so it was really nice to meet them and compare stories about our experiences so far in the US! 

I have been trying to do a bit of baking, so have made some cookies mostly as thank you offerings for all the people who have been so kind to us so far. When words aren't enough, say it with cookies (I think that's how the saying goes). :) However the batch of chocolate chip cookies that I made this morning were a little bit of a fail - it was so warm here that the chocolate all melted into the dough. So they are pretty much just chocolate cookies now. :P Oh well, once I bake them hopefully they will taste ok - that's the main thing!

My supposed 'chocolate-chip' cookie dough - hmm or not.

I also made some home-made lemonade (non-fizzy) with just a couple of lemons, a bit of sugar and water which has been very tasty and upped our vitamin-C intake a bit hopefully! It's great to be able to make a cool, cheap and tasty alternative to just having water. :)

So despite frustrations over not having easy access to our funds, and therefore having to be dependent on other people's kindness (testing our humility) we have a huge amount to be thankful for. A very kind lady from church on Sunday gave me a daily devotional book by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and the devotional from the 27th was talking about dealing with difficult situations (referencing Romans 8:37), and said the following:

"But true, Christ-centered, grace-motivated gratitude fits everywhere, even in life's most desperate moments and difficult situations. Even when there are no "answers", it gives hope. Gratitude is what transforms overwhelmed strugglers into triumphant conquerors, even if their circumstances remain, for the present, unchanged."

Although our situation really is not very difficult at all - there are some things that we are experiencing that we could too easily get frustrated and stressed about, and sin in doing so. So it was great to have a reminder to take stock of all we have to be thankful for! And just to prove that it is still us writing, we thought we'd throw in a selfie. :)