I like new things – new beginnings. There’s something that is exciting about the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new month, week, or day. It’s clean and fresh no marks or stains. Like a blank page waiting to be written on. Many times at the beginning of a day, week, month, or year I wonder what this particular amount of time will hold. Here in Taiwan I often wonder what “new thing” I’ll experience next!
This past week has been spent in starting a new semester. Brainstorming for new ideas to use in the classroom, handing out the new books, making new name cards, and talking with the kids about the New Year has all helped to make this a fun week for me. (The only thing that I didn’t like was my new schedule but I’m sure I’ll get used to it fairly quickly!) I’m not going to new schools this semester which is nice, although there are a few new faces in some of my classrooms. New friends to make! As I look ahead to the next four months I’m asking the Lord to give me a new burden and zeal for sharing His love with those around me.
Today this verse stood out to me. I believe it was because I was thinking about “new” things as well as the fact that I’m living on an island and can see the ocean from my bedroom window. “Sing to the LORD a new song and His praise from the end of the earth! You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the islands and coastal regions and the inhabitants of them sing a song such as has never been heard in the heathen world.” (Isaiah 42:10).
Please join us in praying that a new song of praise would be sung to the Lord here on the island of Taiwan and that in the months ahead we would have a new song in our hearts as well.
Katrina Nisly
Hualien, Taiwan
