Another answer

For those of you who struggle with praying, I just want to say I get it. I get how hard it can be to remember that God is with you at all times. Usually it takes a time of desperation to truly rely on the power of God to get you through each day. If you're going through something like that right now, I'm partly sorry, but I'm partly grateful. God is equally desperate to have you realize He's there, watching and loving you.

I call myself a trampa, or cheater, when it comes to prayer. Not only have I had some solid examples of prayer warriors in my life, but I've also been in a business that sort of requires a dependency on it. All businesses technically require this dependency, but ministry within the church sort of desires it on your resumé.

So I write this very simply, He listens. It was a just a short moment we took, Sarah and I, before entering the girls' institute. While I prayed in English, I couldn't think of the English word, so I definitely used "conocer"-ing at one point. Therefore, be encouraged that you don't even have to make grammatical sense when you talk with God.

Now normally, only one girl is present at a time. We had planned to maybe take this girl out to get some french fries from a nearby McDonald's or something and play Uno. When we arrived we were told that there are now 4 girls. Ohhhhkay. Calling an audible, we switched to just playing Uno at the institute. Sarah and I both gave each other a look. We talked after and realized we were thinking the same thing--'What if one of those girls is the one that gave us the most trouble last year?!'

We ended up with zero troubles. Even the directors played cards with us. We laughed, we "conocer"-ed (got to know the girls a little more), we were so very thankful for how well things went.

At the same time, I don't remember exactly what I prayed. However, as I watched everything fall into place, I could not help but think that God was the master designer of it all. It was His pleasure to help us through a time that is often difficult for us.

There are prayer requests though. Looks like two of the girls are pregnant again (a 16 year old and 17 year old. Note: again). One of the girls is slower mentally, and we want to continue to lift up her daughter in prayer in terms of her health as well. One of the children shares my birthday, so pray we can do something special for her!

Thanks, and chau!