This past weekend there was a women’s retreat for all of the missionary women in the DR, and it was so awesome! When we got there, we got assigned to random small groups, and my small group leader happened to be a pastor from a church in Michigan! It was so fun to have a Michigander around. The theme of the retreat was finding our identity completely in Christ. The weekend basically about evaluating how you identify in Christ and what your identity in Christ should mean in your life. SO COOL!

One passage we had to read/evaluate was Isaiah 49:13-16 “Shout for joy, O Heavens, rejoice O Earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones. But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; you are ever before me!” The idea was to put yourself in the verse as Zion. We talked about how God doesn’t just tell us He loves us, He gives us incredibly crazy examples of just how much He loves us! I laugh thinking about it, because I totally pictured God saying “Girl, you think I could forget about you? No way, I didn’t just write your name on my hand, I ENGRAVED it! Do you think a mother could ever forget her child? You can’t even begin to fathom how much I love you!”

Tuesday was Wyld Life! Fun as always--the theme this week was animal club, so we played all animal games. At club, one of my students said to me: “Miss. Stanley, I know you are my teacher, but I hope you are my friend too!” It made me so happy! Those are the little moments I definitely need to keep me going when my kids are driving me crazy! I feel like I am already out of patience…..and it is only February 3! AH!




WYLD LIFE CAMP next weekend!! I am so excited! We did our scholarship workdays and some other kids are doing some random work to help earn money for camp, so hopefully lots will be able to come! Definitely keep praying for kids to come, and if you want to help support any kids in going to camp, let me know! Thanks for all your prayers and support!