More than a conqueror

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Romans 8:35, 37

I think I would add to the list above “lack of internet” and “ unhappy children”. What do you think? I’m pretty certain those things would make the list of that which cannot separate us from Christ’s love. Don’t you?

I realize I haven’t written much this week. It has been a long, hard week, though some good things have happened. We found a school for the two younger children with a director who speaks English and is very, very nice. We are hoping this will alleviate some of Hannah’s mourning for her friends. The kids will only be there part of the day, most likely, and then come home and finish school with me. Yesterday, we went to the local Christian international school for a fall festival. The kids all had a great time, and we had the chance (while they ran around like wild banshees) to sit and talk with some folks we don’t know all that well. It was great! In fact, Sarah Beth has been with the family we sat with all day long, and I don’t anticipate seeing her before 6 p.m. This is an answer to prayer—Sarah Beth is an introvert, and we worry about her being alone too much. We are thrilled that she is out and about. We also bought a big bunch of stuff yesterday and today for the cold—snow clothes and snow boots and warm gloves all around. It is swiftly becoming bitterly cold, and our family is just not used to that at all. It helps to have the right equipment for the cold. Basically, our kids have to have ski gear. And we all have fur-lined boots as of today. So, though we dropped a ton of money in the past two days, we are ready for the cold. Or at least we think we’re ready for the cold.

Our internet situation continues to be a source of struggle for us. We paid to have the only internet company that services our building run the internet into our apartment (we had to pay an extra 500 rubles for them to take it past the door), only to discover that it won’t work on Macs. Hmmm…I can only think of how excited and happy we’re going to be when we finally figure out the internet thing here. There has to be a solution, right? We cannot have been put in the only building in Moscow without access to high-speed internet, surely. At least that’s what we’re telling ourselves.

I wish so much that I could tell you that this grand adventure is great fun. I wish I could tell you that I sail through every day, humming a happy tune, praying as I vacuum my floor and conjugate my verbs. I WISH I could tell you that—but the truth is that this adventure is hard. Every single thing we do is hard. Marc left for the little store that’s down the street to pick up a few things—only to find that they were out of everything we needed, so he had to catch a bus to the supermarket—turning a 30 minute trip into an hour-long trip. While Marc and Han were shopping this morning, I plugged the Xbox into the wrong kind of converter and blew it up. We got lost on the way to the clothing store yesterday, and ended up trekking around the wrong way. But there is always some good. Marc didn’t have to wait for the bus either way to the grocery, and it only took an hour instead of an hour and a half. The Xbox can be replaced. We were able to ask for (and understand) directions to the store. There is good when we want to see it. We just have to want to see it.

Tomorrow morning we leave on a three-day retreat with our team. Pray that it will be a refreshing time of learning and singing and worshipping and fellowshipping for us. We love our fellow missionaries here, and we enjoy every second we get to spend together. Pray for our team. This is a hard place. People are not welcoming. (Or as Irina said, “Russians are not glad you’re here.”) Life here does not necessarily get easier and easier as one adjusts to the learning curve. Pray that our time together with our on-field family is productive and restful and important for all of us. Please pray, too, for my sister Kay, who is having surgery tomorrow morning. We are trusting that all will go well and she’ll be home by noon.

This next paragraph is for those of you who are members of our home church. I listened to Alan’s sermon from last week, and it was, as usual, a barn-burner. Let me encourage you to never take for granted your church or her pastor. First Baptist Church of Middleburg is our sending church, and we couldn’t love and respect a place more than we do our beloved church. We have benefited from great programs, great teaching and preaching, wonderful worship, fantastic children’s programs…and an encouragement to seek God’s will for our lives in a way that led us to answer our call to international missions. If I’ve learned nothing else through following that call, I’ve certainly learned to trust God—with our careers, our children, our marriage, and our finances. He is faithful, my friends. I promise you’re not going to give Him more than He will give back to you. I have given Him an awful lot—and it’s pretty paltry in the face of His love for me. Trust Him—even in the midst of a dark, cold winter, I can promise you that you’ll never regret the decision to trust Him. Never.

Blessings to you and yours!
His,
Kellye