My Strength Comes from the Lord

Many people come to the library every week: library patrons, church bodies, and Bible study goers all visit the library each and every day to learn more about God. With God's help, I will add two programs to that list to bring in more visitors, help Christians grow, and, most importantly, help non-believers learn about the Gospel. (I had originally wanted to do three programs, but due to a few factors, that will probably change to two programs.) My children's story time program, geared toward kids ages 5-10, will begin mid-October. My Bible study program for high schoolers should begin in October as well.

Children's fiction books that needed
to be organized and shelved.

In the meantime, I have gone into the library several times to aid in finishing the children's room and organizing the library. Due to the fact that the library's storage room has been turned into a children's room, there is substantially less storage space available at the library now. Therefore, I worked for several hours this week organizing and cleaning the storage space that is still available. I also worked on organizing children's books and pricing/organizing used books that will be sold in a book sale sometime this fall.

This is the Children and Young Adult
non-fiction section that desperately
 needed organization. It's in order
now but will still need to be
rearranged to fit new books before
the children's room officially opens.

At the Ridgeway home, I have had the privilege of cooking three meals for the family this week. Due to my lack of experience in the kitchen, I brought mixes as well as simple recipes from America to aid my dinner-making ventures. Meals can be much harder to cook here as there are limited mixes, stove-top meals, frozen foods, etc. to choose from (not to mention the pre-made food available in Hungary is often tasteless). Thankfully, all three meals I cooked this week were yummy and aided in reliving stress and freeing time for Beth and Rusty.

God is definitely a constant source of strength for me in all my tasks this week (organizing the library, planning programs, cooking meals...). I admit that when I arrived in Hungary I wanted to hit the ground running and do a million things rather than spend time recovering from travel, jet lag, and a cold. By Saturday, I was so exhausted that I had to spend quite a bit of time resting on Sunday and Monday. As my second week here is almost over, I am thankful that God has renewed my energy, stamina, and strength so that I can effectively serve Him here.

I would greatly appreciate prayer for my up-coming programs (that kids and teens will come and be blessed by them). Please also pray for the finishing of the children's room. There are still several things that need to be done and the Ridgeways would like to finish the room as soon as possible.

Mary Kate

"The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving."
-Psalm 28:7