Change

This semester has been a semester of change for me. My life has never been constant, but this semester, everything has changed. I've gone from living in the middle of one the world's largest cities to living in a town where everything except Wal-Mart is closed by 9 or 10. I'm used to hugging everyone I meet, but now hugs are only received from best friends or family. I'm still discovering things in America that aren't normal for me. Once I think I've gotten over cultural differences, something surprises me. Monday night our school cafeteria, the Rot, had a big Thanksgiving dinner. I was in line to get some great food and at the end there was a big silver bowl with small yellow balls in it. It looked kind of like pão de queijo. I knew it wasn't, but I expected some type of bread so I got the little tong things and tried to get a couple, but ended up messing up all the butter balls in the bowl. Small things like that happen every single week.

This change has really been difficult. Some days are good, but some days all I want to do is go back to Brasil. However, I've learned so much by going through all of this. One day I was sitting on a hill overlooking all of Lynchburg and I was just praying and thinking about life. The trees has begun to change into beautiful colors and it truly took my breath away. And it was there that I kind of realized that life is never going to stop changing. Life is never going to be constant. But change brings beautiful things. Change makes things different and helps things grow. If the trees don't lose these leaves, they won't be able to grow new ones.

Change is a great thing... and though it's hard, it's worth it. God is always going to be the only constant thing in my life. Nothing else has the promise of staying the same, but God uses this constant change to turn us into who He wants us to become. This is something that God has been teaching me all year, but I think I've only really realized it this past month.