Life at the Willemsstraat House

So what is it like to live with 40 Christians from all over the world. . .encouraging and challenging at the same time! In many ways life here reminds me of freshman year in college, there is always someone to talk to or something to do at any hour of the day or night. In other ways it is definitely not like freshman year in college. For example, we do not have a conveyor belt that wisks the dirty dishes out of sight. The kitchen here is most often quite a mess, with piles of dirty dishes on the counter - even though we have two dishwashers! One aspect to life here is that weekly we are each assigned a chore to do. It seems that most often I have had bathroom duty, not the most fun but the feeling of a clean bathroom makes it worth it! Another house "rule" is that the TV can only be used during the weekend, and only to watch movies. Not being a huge fan of the TV as it is this hasn't been a problem for me - often TV detracts from fellowship so it is nice not to have that distraction here. Although, I must be honest and say that when I get home I will look forward to watching a home decorating or cooking show - it's been a while! Painted on one of our walls in the hallway is a portion of the verse Micah 6:8. The verse begins by acknowledging God's goodness and then asking what the Lord requires of us. The rest of the verse can be seen in this picture:

The challenge to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with God can only be met when we are focused on the Lord - only by His strength is it even possible to try to achieve such a high calling. When I think of Micah 6:8 it takes me straight back to a room full of young girls reciting this in a sing-song voice at my church's girls group called GEMS (girls everywhere meeting the Savior). How many times I've said this verse growing up and how it is coming to mean so much more today and how it will continue to challenging me in the future is cool. Underneath the verse hangs little flags representing the staff members that have come from all over the world throughout the years. What an amazing testimony that is to the Lord's faithfulness and His ability to unify people from all the corners of the earth - the good news of Jesus Christ's redemptive work on the cross truly is powerful and forever will be!