Our registration trip, pt. 3: friends in Kiev

Sarah Beth and her "men"--Adam and Carson. Adam, btw, is Super boy, and Sarah Beth is now Lois Lane. Just thought you should know.
John-John and Adam were pals at FPO, when Adam's family lived in the quad next to us. Here they are in Kiev together.
The kids, minus John-John and Adam, who spent the day together in Kiev. What a great time we had!

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me. Psalm 13:5-6

We are finally to the end of our registration trip stories, and this is my favorite. There is little in the life of a missionary that is more precious than the missions family on the field. They are our lifeline, people who truly know what it is to do what we've done, and who know that we haven't completely lost our minds. There is something especially important about that group with whom we trained. They know us beyond knowing us. They love us, anyway--a miracle in itself. Our closest friendships in life are with those people we lived with for eight weeks while we all studied, wrote papers, tried to find a wireless internet signal on the playground, and just generally spent time together. So you can imagine our joy when we knew we were going to get to spend some time with one of the families from FPO.

After a great, restful night at the Christian Center, the taxi picked us up and took us to Kiev, to the home of our friends Calvin and Janet and their son, Adam. We had soup and sandwiches and lots of great conversation. We were joined by Carson and Cameron, brothers who are friends of Sarah Beth's, and Lori and Paul and their kids, who live upstairs from Calvin and Janet. Great new friends! There is something about having experienced the transition onto the field that makes people instantly friends. We spent hours telling stories, laughing at one another's fumbles with the Russian language, and just generally recouping and renewing our ties.

I can complain a lot about the sacrifices of living the life of a missionary. It's not interesting nor helpful, but I can do it if I choose. However, when I really think about this life, I am struck by the many blessings that are attached to it, not the least of which is the friendships we've made with other missions families. We are blessed beyond measure. And even though those closest to us live in different parts of the world, nothing can break those ties--not time nor distance, not different language learning or different cultures. Our hearts are knitted together by God, and no one and nothing can break those ties.

Well, I'd better run. We have an extra Sarah Beth here (the other half of SBSquared), and John-John and Hannah are at her house spending the night. After Marc's language lesson this morning, we're all piling into Jeff and Karla's van to go to a waterpark outside of Moscow. I think you can imagine how much my Florida babies are looking forward to dipping their toes in some water. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that today will be a day you take the time to thank God for the friendships He's given you, and that you remembered to pack your swimsuit in amongst your winter clothes when you left the States! Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye