Hiya everyone:) Hope your week has gone well! I feel like most of my blogs are telling about my schedules or what I have been up to. So I decided to make this blog about what God has been teaching me and allowing me to see. Numero Uno- We serve a sovereign God. On Tuesday I went to one of the many beautiful parks here in Cardiff. It was an absolutely gorgeous day which was a blessing in itself here haha, but I was sitting on a bench reading a book and just praising the Lord. As I gathered my belongings to head home before it got dark, I realize that the gate door is shut. I thought surely they wouldn’t lock people in this park, but sure enough the door was bolted shut every way possible and there was no getting out that way. Also the park is surrounded by a very tall cement wall that was too high for me to climb over, but I thought to myself surely it has a gap somewhere for me to get out……it did not. By this time my legs are getting quite tired, and I am thinking to myself “God I was just being still before you and praising you and now you allow me to get trapped in this park”. But God had a purpose in this, and He was just about to lead me to this purpose when I walked across a bridge and found a gate that my short self could actually climb over. After I throw my bag onto the other side and am mid climb over this gate, a girl asks if there is another way to get out. I pointed to the way I was going and we walked for quite some time together until we came to our bus stops. The girl’s name was Lydia, and she was new to the Cardiff area because she was just starting university here. We had a great encouraging talk and I invited her to my supervisor Marc’s house on Monday nights where we have a get together for university students. I never said that I was a Christian or that the get together is a Bible study, but she somehow figured out those things in my talking and stated that while she wasn’t particularly religious herself she enjoyed talking about religious subjects. As I jumped on my bus, and she jumped on hers I thanked God for His sovereignty. If he wants to allow me to get locked in parks and climb over gates in order to bring me to the people He has for me to talk to so be it. I really pray that I have the chance to see Lydia again and so much of me wishes I had gotten her number or set up a time for us to go grab coffee together but none of that came to my mind at the time. So we’ll see what God has in store, and whatever that is will be great:) Numero Dos- We serve a God that faithfully provides what we need when we need it. Culture shock was really getting to me about two weeks ago and while I was doing my best to hold it all back it was bound to come out sometime. Well I was walking by myself to the church one day listening to my I pod and enjoying the scenery when all of the sudden it hit me that I had not gotten a hug since the one my mom gave me in the Atlanta airport over a month ago. It only took that one thought for all the culture shock I’d been holding back to flood in over me. But seeing as I was on my way to one of my ministries at the church I just had to put on a big smile and act like nothing was going on. I continued to hold it back that whole week which does no good until that weekend I gave it over to God. The very same day I prayed about and gave it over to the Lord I got a hug from one of the ladies in the church that had us over. She had no clue that that hug was what I needed more than anything at that moment, but God faithfully provides whether in big ways like opportunities to spend a semester in Wales or small ways like a sincere hug. God is teaching me so much here, but those are two snapshots of how He has revealed Himself to me in the last couple of weeks:) The British word of the day is Posh which is a word you would use to describe something quite fancy or really cool it would be posh! Please pray that God would allow to really invest in those around me while I’m here and also please pray for Lydia. I would love to be able to see her again but if I’m not able to I pray that she is able to see the truth found in the Lord during her time here at university. Have an awesome week everyone:)