The Story Behind the Status

"Sometimes its hard to see why things don't work out the way you intended. Then you encounter the small details that God planned all along. You quickly realize that God's plan is far more beautiful than anything you could have imagined."

     Many of you may have seen my status last night on Facebook, and I just wanted to give you the story to the status. I've been keeping it mostly to myself, but this trip -although incredibly beautiful- has been very very hard. Most mornings I wake up thinking, well its remarkable here, but can I go home now? Most of this feeling comes from the fact that since being here, I have yet to truly get along with any of students in the program. 70 of us, and Ashton is the only one I have grown close to. Most people here prefer the cold shoulder technique. Countless attempts-with failures-have led to me feeling quite bitter. Bitterness is dangerous as you can tell...it leads to feelings like disappointment, homesickness, and so much more. Then, the other day a group of 50 students from Germany arrived at WIT. They to studying abroad for an equal amount of length. By some off means of meeting an energetic teacher from the school, she scheduled for us to meet all of them at a local pub at 9pm. We were so excited about the invite that we immediately let everyone in our program know. When 9pm came, ashton, sarah, and myself headed to meet them. The smiles and nods of others in our program promising to arrive later...never proved to be true. 
           As we sat and talked with the Germans, they welcomes us with open arms. With over 20 students there to meet us, some did not even know my name and yet they still wanted me to feel comfortable-many of them made sure to include me on inside jokes and translate things they were saying in German. I laughed, smiled, and for the first time did not want to leave where I was. Before heading out, we all shared names so we could contact each other later to meet up for lunch or dinner. Perhaps I will never see them again, or maybe I will see every one of them tomorrow; regardless, they were an unexpected blessing. I had intended on coming here and making bonds with fellow students that would last a lifetime/ one of those storybook tales of how you met a close friend in another country...I just didn't expect that story to have a plot twist, or to see something small turn out to be a beautiful plan of the Lord. So today...I awake with a thankful heart, knowing that God's plan is always bigger and worth it.  Right before heading out to meet them I read an excerpt about Joy, in Hayley Di Marco's The Fruitful Wife:  "When you look at the EKG of a healthy heart, you see highs and lows, ups and downs-this consistent sense of falling and rising is the sign of a healthy heart....joy is something like a beating heart". With this I could not agree more, if it wasn't for the low I felt in the beginning of the trip, I would have never been able to experiencing this highpoint of joy as I did when meeting these strangers full of love.