The Weather Outside is Frightful...

That’s right, ladies and gents, we have experienced our first snowstorm. Evidently, the advent of the Hooks family in Moscow was also the advent of winter in Moscow. Of course, we’ve just come from church with our team, and they all assure us that this is nothing in comparison to what is coming, but it was still a bunch of snow. Put it this way: we had enough for the kids to go down after church and make a snow man and snow angels. Thank heavens we were able to buy John a coat on Friday! Now we have to add waterproof gloves and snow pants to the “to buy” list. It seems like that’s a never-ending list! Oh, and definitely snow boots for everyone in the family.

As I was making lunch this morning (it took me two hours…unbelievable to me), I was listening to Third Day, and I felt very, very strongly that God was pushing me to say something to someone who reads this. So, if this is for you, listen up. If not, just patronize me for a second. Right before we answered God’s call to international missions, we spent a very hard two years trying to figure out what God was doing in our lives. We went through a terrible, terrible time—by far the hardest in our lives—and we just didn’t see how there could be hope. But one day, out of nowhere, it was over. And here is why it was over: we decided to believe God and not place our hope in men. People are human, and they will fail us every time. But God is faithful, and He never, ever fails us. Never. When we decided (and by we, I really mean I, because Marc recovered from this time much quicker than I did) that our self-worth had nothing to do with who did and who did not like us, who did and who did not think we were “good” Christians, etc., the sun began to shine again. And it isn’t that those people suddenly loved us and treated us well, but that we just got over caring what anybody thought about us but God. So whoever you are, in spite of how the world looks to you right now, let me encourage you with this: God thinks you are magnificent and wonderful, and He loves you more than life. Whatever else is going on around you is minutia. Take it from someone who knows from experience: let go of whatever it is and get on with what God has for you. His plan is way better than holding onto whatever it is you’re carrying. I promise. I know.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, can I confess to you that I miss the sun? It’s weird to live in a place where the sun never shines. Actually, I’m told that it does shine from time to time—but we haven’t seen it since we’ve been here. Of course, ask me next summer when it shines until about midnight whether I would like it to be a little darker. The grass is always greener!

We had a wonderful time at church tonight. We went to someone’s apartment, sang songs, had Bible study, ate a pot-luck dinner (we’re still Baptist, after all!), and then sat around and talked and watched the Russian version of Dancing with the Stars, which just happens to be on ice skates. It is easily our favorite show on tv (because it’s just watching them skate and then looking at numbers, all of which we can do), and we had fun watching it with everyone else. All of the kids (10 altogether) went outside to play in the snow. When they came in, I heard John-John in the entry way crying. His hands had gotten cold inside his mittens, and he didn’t know how much that could hurt. Luckily, someone grabbed him and ran his hands under some lukewarm water and he survived. We have much to learn about living in the land of snow.

Well, I must go. Marc begins language study in the morning here at the house, so I need to get everyone to bed so they can get up at a reasonable hour. I will say this: church at 3p.m. on a Sunday afternoon is pretty nice. We slept until 9 a.m. (yes, even I slept in), and the kids only got up because they heard us say there was snow falling. We kept thinking it would stop, and it just kept on and kept on. By the time we left for church at 2, it was falling hard and piling up. Honestly, it was kind of fun. I haven’t seen snow in ten years. Hard to believe God would pick me out of sunny Florida and plop me down in snowy Moscow, but His ways are unknowable. :o) Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye