Encouragement is the theme of the day

The beautiful view from our terrace in Greece...imagine birds chirping to get the full impact.

The Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, Greece

John in front of the Temple of Poseidon--his favorite mythological figure!

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:21-23

Well, my friends, I had to get up at 4am to see Marc off to London, so I have a few minutes to spare this morning, and I thought I'd fill you in on our trip to Greece. We went for our Annual General Meeting, where all the people who work for our company in Europe or with European peoples elsewhere come together. Now, we have AGMs that are smaller--one cluster, two, or even three might meet together, but the big meetings, where it's everybody, don't happen very often. So we were really looking forward to it. We were looking forward to time with friends, to great preaching, to time with friends...you get the idea. And it was just as great as we'd hoped it would be. We left feeling encouraged in our devotion to Christ and to our city. We were renewed as we head into our second year in Vienna. We were also able to spend some time making contacts for Engage Sochi, the initiative that we co-direct with our partners in Sochi. In fact, Marc is going to do some work while he's in London on a piece that points the way toward Sochi in 2014. More on that as we get closer. Suffice to say, we are so excited to part of something that combines our love for the nations with a passion for Sochi. Super, super exciting stuff.

One of my favorite aspects of AGM is the stuff our kids get to do. Hannah had time with her friends from all over Europe, and it was HUGE for her. If you watch her facebook, you'll have a front-row seat for the love these kids have for one another. It is a big encouragement to this Momma's heart to watch her friends love her and lift her up. The move to Vienna has been a tremendously difficult one for Han. She has held up beautifully, but she's only 15. It's a really gorgeous thing to watch her beloved friends (and overseas 'aunts' and 'uncles') hold up her arms when she is tired. She came back to Vienna with a renewed sense of being where God has her for this season. John, too, had a wonderful time with his friends. In fact, even though he stayed in our room, we basically did not see him. He and his friends ran in a pack together, swam together, ate meals together and attended classes together. He loved the freedom of being one of the 'big kids.' (Volunteers from the States come and put on VBS for our kids, so John had the same VBS experience your kids did if you are in a SBC church in the States.) There was a lot of pushing each other in the pool, sunburn, signing each other's shirts, and just general goofiness. He came back encouraged and ready for a new school year.

Of course, you always want to walk away from this kind of big event with a theme or a lesson learned or just something you can hang your hat on and point to as the thing to come out of the time and money spent to put on the event in the first place. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would definitely be encouragement. And not just hey-you're-great-and-things-are-wonderful encouragement. Encouragement to be humble in the face of God's grace. Encouragement to run the race set out before us, even when (or maybe especially when) it is a difficult season. Encouragement to really love people. Encouragement to dig into language and culture and relationships. Encouragement to forgive. And maybe most importantly, encouragement that God is at work. Here in Vienna. Around Europe. All over the world. Europe can be a really discouraging place to work and invest. It's beautiful, the people are lovely, there is a lot of cool stuff to do and see. But Europe is less than 1% evangelized. And unlike places on earth where the Gospel hasn't gotten to, yet, Europe has had the Gospel for a long time and has by-and-large rejected it. The work is slow. The work is often very hard. Sometimes, it's easy to throw up our hands in disgust and just want to give up. But what if this moment, this season of real difficulty in our lives--what if this is the tipping point, the moment just before God is going to do something big? What if a season of unhappiness is going to be followed by something beautiful that God is honing in our lives? Oh, my friends, I don't want to miss that, do you? That's the sweet spot, the good stuff that those who persevere and endure and just refuse to give up get to experience. I definitely don't want to miss that.

Did AGM solve every problem we have? Nope. Of course it didn't. But it did remind us of the great relationships we have with colleagues, of the love we have experienced as part of this organization, and the common thread that weaves it all together--Jesus. His love for us, for our colleagues, and for the nations. What a privilege it is to work in a hard place. What a joy to know Him, to call Him friend, to love others out of the overflow of His amazing grace and love and mercy and compassion. As always, I stand amazed in the presence of the One who knows me so well and loves me, anyway. Wherever you are in the world, I pray that your season of adversity reminds you of His great love for you, and that you are enjoying the Olympics, too. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye