Thank you, thank you...did I mention, thank you?

My babies on Red Square. They have certainly grown in our two years on the field, haven't they?

Many a soul begins to come to God when he flings off being religious, because there is only one master of the human heart, and that is not religion but Jesus Christ. --Oswald Chambers

It is a cold, rainy, gray morning here in Prague, and if I'm really honest--I'm glad. It was super hot a few days this week, and it was miserable. Eighty-five may not sound that hot, but when you live on the top floor and don't have air conditioning...it's a little sweatier than I like to be! So we're enjoying the cool a bit, and we're definitely not complaining about the rain, no matter what it does to my hair. I am enjoying a cup of Starbucks and listening to the quiet. Not a bad way to spend the morning. We are keeping our friends' children--a four-year-old and three-year-old twins--so quiet has been quite the rare commodity for the last few days. We must have worn them out yesterday, though, because they are still asleep this morning.

It's been quite a week here in our new city. Hannah has had two different sleepovers--one at our house, another at a friend's--and headed to Plzen (pronounced Plizen in Czech, which is notorious for its lack of vowels) with our friends Larry and Melissa yesterday. She will be working with them at an English Camp this week along with a team from FBC Forney, TX. Sarah Beth and John have been helping me with the kids, and Sarah Beth is getting ready for (and very excited about) her five weeks in the States in August and September. We spent some time at the park near us, which is the most amazing park I've ever seen, and I met several women who spoke English and were very friendly. (Parks are great for meeting people, but I could never get much conversation going in Russia--a combination of my so-so Russian and a general distrust of strangers in that culture.) But the big event of our week was, unfortunately, Marc's accident.

Marc is working from home, and in order to do so, he needed a desk that can accommodate his equipment, so the office here gave him a large, heavy metal L-shaped desk. On Tuesday, he was in the loft putting it together (the living room has a nice-sized loft in it), and I was below him making a call to the States when I felt a vibration in my feet and heard him scream. A metal beam from the desk had fallen on his face, and a second beam had hit him across his arms and chest. Of course, this did a pretty good amount of damage. After an emergency trip to the dentist and a series of x-rays and a root canal, he has a splint on his top right teeth and a lot of pain. He fractured his front right tooth right under his nose, and the other teeth moved inward. The dentist is still not sure if the teeth will remain "viable," but we're hopeful. Above all, we are grateful to God for the little damage that was done in comparison to what could have happened. After I looked at what fell on him, I began running different scenarios--what if it had hit an inch upward, or what if he hadn't turned his head when he saw it coming--and realized that our situation is about as good as it could be given the circumstances, and it could have been a thousand times worse than it was.

So, we're grateful this morning. Grateful for a God who looks out for us in every detail of life--even the accidents that happen along the way. Grateful to work for a company that takes ridiculously good care of us. Grateful to every Southern Baptist who has ever put money in the plate for the Cooperative Program or for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Maybe until now, that was just something you did "for the missionaries"--that nameless, faceless group of people somewhere in Africa. And don't get me wrong--there is nothing wrong with that. But I hope the next time you contribute, the next time you tithe and your church gives part of that money to the CP, I hope you will remember that your offering isn't going to nameless, faceless people, but to my family in Prague, to pay for our home, our homeschool materials, our salary so we can buy food, and yes, in some cases, our emergency root canals and dental work. Your offering is going to our friends in Plzen, our friends in Brazil, our friends in very dangerous and closed parts of the world. We aren't nameless or faceless, but real people living everyday, real lives across the world, praying that God will use us to impact the darkness of a world that doesn't know Him. Sometimes, in the midst of those real lives, desk parts fall on us--and you make it possible for us to not worry about the financial aspect of the accident. You make life here, in one of the most atheistic nations on earth, possible. We could not be here without you.

So this morning, my family says thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. For every dime you've given. For every prayer you've said. For just remembering us. Thank you. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you are grateful for the people who make your life possible, and that no desk parts fall on you this week. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye