100 posts...from Middleburg to Moscow

But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before God; who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. Job 5:8-9

This is my 100th post on this blog, and I took some time last night to reread some things I had written in the past 8 months since I began blogging. Through leaving my job, my home, my parents, my church, my FPO family in Richmond, and finally, my country, this blog has been a way for me to work out how I feel and how I handle the things that go on around me. Sometimes, it's a way for me to vent. But more often than not, it's a reason for me to look for the good in what is going on around us.

Our lives here are difficult. It is not easy to be an international missionary. Eventually, it will be easier, but I know from talking to my friends here that it will never be easy. Life in the states was very comfortable for us. We had a church we loved, jobs that were fulfilling, family nearby. Who could ask for anything more? But when God sought us for this job, He really placed in us a hunger for something else. Yes, we still loved Middleburg and all the things that went with Middleburg, but there was a hunger for a different life, a different place. I described it once as being homesick for a place I'd never been. And now, here we are. God has given us the desires of our heart. And though I sometimes wonder if I couldn't have desired something easier than this in my heart, I am thankful for the chance to be here.

There are things about here that are great. One of those things is the relationships we are making on the field and have made with other missionaries around the world. If you look at the bottom of this post, you will see a cluster map that shows where people are reading my blog around the world. We have friends on just about every continent. Many of our "mission friends" are like our family to us. We talk to them often, and we hold each other up in prayer. John and Hannah have a prayer wall next to their bunk beds, and they choose which family they're going to pray over that night. We don't just say, "Lord, bless the missionaries." My children have learned the importance of praying specific things for specific people in specific places. I think that's a pretty wonderful thing that's come of our missions experiences.

It's also a great thing to be able to see God at work. I sent a prayer letter to our partner churches yesterday that was, frankly, the cry of my desperate heart for encouragement. It turned out that the Sunday School lesson in one class was on exactly what my prayer letter was talking about. If that's not a God thing...I guess I don't know what is. We are able to see what God is doing firsthand in a really big way here. God was at work in our lives in Middleburg, but we didn't have to rely on Him there like we rely on Him here. I'm grateful for the chance to do that.

Well, I must run and make breakfast before Irina arrives. I'm attaching two videos. One is of the downpour of snow we had on Saturday, and the other is of John and Tiffany doing happy feet. We had three of our journeymen over Saturday night for fajitas, and we just had a wonderful, fabulous time. How grateful I am for young men and women who are obedient to God and give up part of their lives to serve Him in a foreign land. I'm even more grateful that my children have these Godly role models to love. I love this video so much--especially because Marc and Joy, Tiffany's best friend and roommate, just continue talking and barely notice the dancing going on in front of them. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of dancing in Tiffany's life, so it's no new thing to Joy. I hope wherever you are in the world, you have a chance to think back over your last few months, too, and praise the God of everything for the way He's working in your life. And I hope you have happy feet in your house, too! Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye

I don't know why the video of John and Tiff is sideways. I'll try to fix that at some point!