“No hot water again?!” 

I hissed out the sad truth to no one in my cold, fully-tiled Central Asian bathroom. I hurriedly washed myself with the offending freezing water and pulled on three layers of warm clothing to stop my shivering. Dry shampoo and make-up helped me hope I could bring a presentable appearance to my leader role at my job. 

The inside thoughts were not so easily repaired.

My first six months overseas were incredibly rough to focus more on my calling–my purpose. The surrounding culture and living conditions crashed into my fully-formed Western convenience-oriented and female-liberated prior life experiences. Add to that, separation from my semi-launched young adult children and lifetime friends, a brand-new career role, and closed compound living with my team, and well, my attitude was often sour, if not critical.

If I was going to make it long term in my global assignment, I had to get my thoughts under God’s control. As a trained educator and counselor and a generally realistic and positive person, I pushed myself to find evidence of God’s care and provision every day, as often as I could.

 Philippians 4:8 (AMP) tells us how to turn our complaints and even anxieties to peace: 

“Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart]”

It was work, somedays easier than others, but my relationship with Jesus grew as I hunted to find true ways to thank and praise Him, even in a dusty, desolate place. This purposeful thinking helped me thrive for seven years, not regret my decision to serve the Kingdom in a spiritually and physically hard environment, and see my dependence rest more and more on Christ alone.