Singing to the nations

I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, and Your truth reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth. Psalm 108:3-5

I have always loved this passage of scripture, but it has come to mean more to me since we accepted the call to international missions. The glory of God will reach the nations--He has promised it--what a joy and privilege to be part of that. Speaking of singing His glory to the nations, we begin our cross-cultural worship tomorrow night, and I believe we'll be worshipping in Hindi. How cool is that? I don't know about you, but I've never worshipped in Hindi.

Things here have kind of settled in, at least for now. We had a wonderful three days with Dr. Rankin. I had very positive feelings about Dr. Rankin before coming, and those feelings were only multiplied. He's an amazing man, with a wonderful sense of humor and a boldness that is refreshing. Sometimes people get into positions of power and are afraid to speak the truth in a bold way for fear of losing that power. My impression is that Dr. Rankin never sought any kind of power, and so losing it isn't a big threat for him. He's a missionary's missionary...he served in Indonesia and Thailand...so he knows what kinds of things we are experiencing now and will experience. What a wonderful time we had with him.

There are so many stories here, such a sense of being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. I can only tell you our story, because it's the one we own and because there are immense security issues surrounding many of our friends who are headed out to the hardest parts of the world. Even taking pictures is very tricky. Suffice to say that those who surround us are not only wonderful people, but they are people with a heart for God and for the nations. It's amazing to see.

Last night we had two families over and ordered pizza and played cards and just sat and talked. We laughed and laughed and laughed, and we REALLY enjoyed the pizza! (It was beef stroganoff night in the cafeteria, and there's only so much food experimentation my family is willing to do.) As the night wore on, more and more people would just drop in and sit and laugh with us for a while. By about nine o'clock, our great room was full of adults and kids, some of whom we knew and had invited, and some of whom we didn't know and had just decided to drop by because they could see the people inside. What a great time we had! I'm pretty sure these are the "times of refreshing" the Bible speaks about--talking and laughing with other believers, some of whom you know, some of whom you don't, but just having a great time listening to each other's stories.

One requirement our field has (we are in the Russia field of Central and Eastern Europe, one of the 11 regions the IMB has divided the world into) is that we must walk from our quad to the road outside the farm several times a week. This is about three miles, and the whole family has to do it. The farm is enclosed by fences and a "welcome house" with a gate that you have to go through to get on campus. (If you thought guard house instead of welcome house, you'd be correct.) So far, we've been amazed at our children's ability to do this. What an answer to prayer! Remember that we will have to walk everywhere we go, so it's a big deal to practice long distances.

Well, I'm headed off to walk. It's absolutely beautiful here, and walking is really a pleasure. We had a terrible storm Thursday night. My friend and I went to a class on cutting hair that was all the way across the campus, and we suddenly realized we needed to head home because it was so dark and there was lots of lightning. By the time we made it back to the CEE section of campus (they group us all together, or at least try to), there were twigs in our hair from all the wind. We watched it from our great room with the kids, and John-John turned to the older gentleman who lives next to us in the quad and said, "Uncle Darrell, did you know Jesus could stop this storm if He wanted to? He could." It made my heart so glad for two reasons. First, my kids have settled into the knowledge that their "family" on the field is not just us. MKs create their family on the field. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for all the aunts and uncles my children are gaining--people who care about them and pray for them and help them grow and develop into people whose hearts are God's. But I was also moved because it was just one more display of the way God is working in John-John's heart. He has come to a place where he is really starting to understand relying on God for everything. What a blessing that is. And how tremendous it is to watch it happen.

Wherever you are, I pray that you have a remarkable family, too--not only the family God gave you when you were born, but a family of believers who love you and care for you. If you don't...find one! Blessings!

His,
Kellye