Always Good

12:20am. I'm lying in my stuffy hot house (1. I refuse to use my aircon because I want to save money for my orphanage 2. I couldn't use it anyways because it leaks if I do) on my bed talking to God before I go to sleep. The power goes out. I didn't have any windows open...I'm not quite sure why...but I don't know how much it would help since the night was warm anyways. My first thought, as I starting sweating, is GREAT. Wonderful. Just what I need right now. I'm sick, I have to get up early, it's pitch black and I have NO idea how to get the power back on, and there goes the power. Well, that thought only lasted about 5 seconds until the God I was talking to only moments before shook me and basically said, "Hello. I'm still here. I'm still good. I will still take care of you."

And I thought...what if I have my orphanage in a very poor part of China where we could only dream of aircon and where the power goes out often? How would I react then? How SHOULD I react? I have a wonderful apartment, I almost always have fans, and I'm really blessed. God is always good to me because He loves me and wants to take care of me. Sometimes He tests me to see how my faith and trust will hold up in a sticky situation (no pun intended.) I just read a blog written by a girl that has an orphanage in Africa, and her power was off for 5 days! Yeah, I can deal with one night if need be.

So, I took my i-touch (about the only source of light I had. Note to self: buy a flashlight) and went to investigate. I found the little box thingy that has those switches in it. Of course, being the skilled mechanic that I am...not. Not only do I have no idea why they have those switches, but on top of that the words are in Korean. I chuckled to myself. Then I thanked God that I had wireless internet and my i-touch was charged. I whipped out Google translator and translated those words. One was for water...nope. One for heat...definitely NOT. And the last one, which was surrounded by a red sticker and a bunch of Korean words, meant POWER. HA! I found it! Well, sort of.

Usually glaring red means STOP, DON'T TOUCH. Hmm...I translated the word on the actual button, and it meant "off." Well, I thought, if I flip the switch the other side should read "on." You have to understand that I'm always, always afraid that something in my house will start a fire. In this case it was that coupled with the fear that I would flip some Korean switch and cut off the power to the whole city of Seoul. I prayed and said, "Ok, Lord, I have no earthly idea if this is right, but here goes!" And flipped it. The power flickered and died. So I tried again. This time I heard the soft noise of the fan, and all the lights came on.

With a smile and a strengthened trust, I went back to bed. Even when a situation might not seem like it's good, God is always good. In this case I had to get past selfishly looking after my own comfort, and trust that God knew what was best. And He worked it out in the end. He's always good.

Today we start inservice. Moving heavy boxes of books, cleaning classrooms, setting up desks and bulletin boards, and sweating. :) Should be good times. School starts one week from tomorrow, and I'm excited to meet my students. Peace.