How can I be most pleasing to Your Heart, Jesus?

Peace of Christ in abundance. I do hope that this Easter season has been most blessed for each you, as we are reminded of just how much Jesus loves us.

I write to you from dear Minnesota, where the loveliness of springtime is chasing away the snow and cold. It has been an immense few weeks. I arrived in St. Paul on March 13th, started my MCAT class on March 15th, and life has continued at an intense pace. Getting myself on the plane and back to the States was the most difficult thing I have done in my young life, I do believe. Going down the walkway between the terminal and the plane, I stopped in my tracks with tears pouring down my cheeks and asked myself if I could really do this. Can I really leave this place I love so dearly? Well, by the grace of God and His conviction upon my heart, a few painful hours later, I was greeting my father in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

And now? I am a student again. Physics, chemistry, biology, everything. Wow. Enlightening and exciting at times, laughably painful at others. But my objective is clear, and I am pursuing it with all my being. I am in the midst of understanding and managing the details of this pursuit, figuring out just what to anticipate and to prepare for in these months to come.

I am a crazy person, I have decided, with all these moment-to-moment changes. But our Jesus has been reminding me at each step that I belong only to Him. I have stopped asking, "Lord, show me Your Will" and instead I petition, "Let me please Your Heart, Jesus. What can I do to be most pleasing to You? How can I love You better?" And in this way, He will guide me through these days to come. If He says, "Bring your books and go study in Ecuador for the next few months," great! If He asks me to stay where I am, here I will be.

Thank you all for your love and support. Back at the mission base, they are gearing up for the new school year. The USA missionaries who are still down there are in the midst of a few new projects to help the situation of the foundation. To read more and support their important work, please refer to www.missionsantamaria.com and to the latest entry in Maribeth's blog (www.missionarymb.blogspot.com).

Peace and blessings,

m