John and Laini's latest fort. It was, in reality, pretty impressive. It had a sleeping room, a game room, and a room for Playmobil. C'mon--that's not bad for an 8 and 7 year old.
I just thought this was cute. Hannah-Banana is definitely not the little girl she was when we left the States.
Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6:9
Wow! It's been nearly two months since you heard from me--definitely the longest since we left the States in 2007. Most of you know that it has been an eventful time for us--John became very ill, and we had to leave the apartment where we were living in Prague. We spent two weeks being homeless, then found a new home in Plzen, near the Czech/German border. We now live in a sweet neighborhood, with kind, wonderful neighbors, not to mention close friends who are now also close by. Much of the last month has been taken up with me moving us into our home here while Marc has been in Vancouver at the Olympics. He also spent a week in Florida, speaking to different groups about the work in this part of the world (and being completely spoiled by my parents). He has had an amazing, if exhausting, month, and he comes home to us tomorrow. We are a pretty excited group of people! To make it even better, my friend, Melissa, who has been in the hospital seemingly forever with an ear infection that turned pretty bizarre, is also coming home tomorrow. I feel like Friday just might be a pretty amazing day.
Sometimes, I don't write anything here because nothing interesting is going on in my life. Sometimes, interesting stuff is happening, but I just don't have time to sit down and get this done. Sometimes--and this is one of those times--I don't write because I find myself in the midst of something overwhelming, and I don't know how to put it into words that would even make sense to someone else. My friend, Frances, jokes that we will some day be Member Care--the counseling wing of the IMB--because every weird thing that could happen has happened to us on the field. John's illness--caused by something in the water that got into his system through cracked and bleeding skin on his hands--is just the latest in a really strange set of circumstances that has been our path for the last three years. However, I have to say that though we have clearly had some bizarre stuff happen, I think we've had an amazing experience on the field, one I will always be thankful for--if for no other reason than that God has proven Himself so faithful in every way through every circumstance we have faced. Here are just a few examples:
- The entire team we served with when we came to Moscow--a team full of people we dearly loved--resigned and returned to the States. Each person/family were following where God was leading them, and these were certainly not decisions they made lightly. But you can imagine, I think, that as they one-by-one left (starting, quite literally, with our first week there, when a journeyman left to get married), we started to feel like maybe we were a little toxic. As we continued, more close friends from outside of our team resigned or left Moscow, making us feel as though we had some kind of aura about us that made people feel instantly that God wanted them to leave. This wasn't true, and we certainly knew it, but it was difficult not to feel somehow responsible for the number of people close to us who were leaving. So what did we learn? Through this experience we learned to be grateful for the people God places in our lives, but not to be dependent on them for our security. No matter what God is telling other people to do, He has a special plan just for us, and it's our responsibility to follow it...no matter what it entails. The flip side of that is that other people have to follow God's plan for them, no matter how much we will miss them.
- The loss of our beloved friend, Teri. Please don't get me wrong--her unexpected death is not my family's story, it's her family's story, and because I love them so much, I would never want anyone to think that I think her death was all about what it did to our family. But the family had become such an important part of our lives, and I had come to rely so much on Teri for love and support and encouragement that her sudden death was a shock to us, just like it was to all who knew her. In many ways, her death shaped our time on the field more than any other single event. She was that important to us. So what did I learn through this death of a precious friend? Treasure the time, make it count, love people...all things, by the way, that I learned from Teri's life. Together with my friend, Frances, no one has shaped who I am on the field more than Teri. And so, once again, I am thankful and grateful for my time with her, knowing that God has a purpose in her death just like He had a purpose in her life. I don't know what purpose her death served, and I likely will never know this side of Heaven, but I have seen the God of all comfort in action, and I know He knows. And for me, right now, that is enough.
- Moving to Prague. Hmmm...ever done something that you knew, absolutely, 100% was God's will and then been kind of unhappy? Not discontent (well, at least not most of the time), but unhappy. Some unhappiness was caused by illness, because we all felt sick in the apartment we lived in, with Sarah Beth suffering the longest (she literally broke out into hives the first night we were there and never got better) and John becoming really ill at the end of our time there. Ever been happy in ministry, in schooling, in work, in closeness to friends...but still had a vague sense of unease? That was us in Prague. And we felt guilty about it (still do, I suppose in some ways)--life in Prague was easier than in Moscow, better weather, a huge, beautiful place to live, a gorgeous city to explore, ministry to do with Russian-speakers--feeling as though we were ungrateful for all the good stuff in our lives. And the Czech people! Don't get me started on the kindness of Czechs. They are an amazingly hospitable people in my experience--so kind as I butcher their language on a daily basis, or break into Russian, a language they cannot love, since it's pretty much the language of oppression to them. And yet, they smile and listen, answering me in Czech, allowing me to answer them in Russian. So kind. Ever been there, where you should be ecstatic, should be thinking you were in paradise--and yet that's not at all how you felt? I don't have the answer to this one, friends. I have some ideas, but most of them are just forming about this sense of unease, and I'm not quite ready to share them. However, I can say, without a doubt, that God intends us to serve Him wherever He plants us, no matter whether we're happy or not. Daily, God puts people in front of us to serve, people who need to know His love. If you think that's not true, then you're not paying attention. I don't care who you are, I don't care where you are--if you're a believer, God is putting people in front of you who need to know about His love. And you know what? He doesn't care if you're happy. That is not an acceptable excuse for not loving people. Our lesson: Do what He has for us right now, no matter what. The whys will take care of themselves in time.
Well, my children are moving around, wanting to be fed and start school so they can get done. It's a pretty morning here in Plzen, and the temperatures are starting to warm up. I can't wait to get outside and breathe in some fresh air! Wherever you are in the world, I pray that you are grateful for the many ways God shows His faithfulness to you, and that you are only 31 hours away from seeing your beloved, too. Blessings to you and yours!
His,
Kellye
