 |
| Hannah with her sweet friend, Emily--deep friendships are one of the perks of our life overseas. We love these girls so much! |
 |
| Tash is kind of a basket case. Get it? BASKET case? Oh, how I love a good pun. |
 | |
| John with Uncle Don (who is showing him a cool card trick)--another bonus of our life overseas is the aunts and uncles who invest in my kids' lives. |
Well, my friends, it's a momentous day in the Hooks' house today--it's our one-year anniversary in Vienna. Our flight arrived around noon, and we were met by a contingency of people at the airport and in our flat. It was, indeed, a team effort to get us from the airport here. :) There were hugs and lots of laughing, some exhausted kids, a game of pick up basketball, I think...the day itself is a bit of a blur. I can remember my friend, Tina, and I searching our suitcases for sheets. On top of our one year anniversary in Vienna, this week marks five years since we arrived overseas, when our little troop of five arrived in Moscow, Russia. Can you believe that? Five years?!?!?! Where has the time gone?
If you know me or follow this blog, you can imagine that I spent the week thinking about who I was a year ago (and five years ago), and who I am now. I'm definitely not who I was, nor will I be the same person a year from now. The life of faith is definitely an ongoing journey, ever-changing, pushing us to grow and adapt to whatever this path has for us. Of course, I thought about all this amidst a week full of work on Engage Sochi with our partners from Sochi, so this might not be as comprehensive a list as possible, but here are some things I've learned from my time overseas.
- God is way bigger than I can think or imagine. I have had a five year front-row seat for the work of the God of everything. To say that I stand amazed in the presence is an understatement. My sense of awe at who He is and how He works has exploded. Some things, my friends, are not explainable by anything other than His hand. Some things are not logical or practical. A perfect example: Marc got out the proposal he wrote for Engage Sochi right after the Vancouver Olympic games. As he was perusing it (he hadn't looked at it in a while), almost everything in his "dream" proposal has come true, and the rest is on the way to coming true. Nothing in that proposal, which he considered at the time completely outlandish, looks undoable. Not for us, not because of us, not because of anything but the hand of Almighty God. When you are allowed the opportunity to see that kind of work firsthand, your perspective of who He is cannot remain the same.
- There is value in suffering. My friends in Eastern Europe are snickering, because suffering is definitely a theological theme there. But as I look at my life, at my own heart, at the hearts of my family...an easy life with a white picket fence did not produce empathy and compassion and kindness in us. I have watched Hannah weep at the dinner table over lost friends. The person who has that kind of heart is the person God has refined. And you know what? Refining is an ugly, painful, terrible process. But nothing produces godly character like refining. Suffering over time has made us dependent on God, on what He can do that we cannot. It has allowed us to say perhaps the most important thing we've ever said to our children: I do not know if it will be ok. I cannot promise that. But I know for sure and for certain that God knows, that He cares, that He is in charge, and that we are not alone. If my children learn nothing else from their time overseas (and the things they have learned certainly could fill a few blogs), if they get nothing out of this experience except that God loves them and cares about their lives and is in control...then our time here will have been well-spent. And nothing in our lives has produced that knowledge like suffering.
- Real friendships and relationships are gifts from God. Our time overseas has produced the closest friendships we have ever known. Not do-you-want-to-go-to-Roadhouse-for-lunch friendships (although there is nothing wrong with those at all!), but deep, cry-out-to-God-on-behalf-of friendships. Love-each-other's-children-like-your-own friendships. (I'll stop with the dashes. Sorry.) We have deep, deep friendships with some of our colleagues, and they are treasures. To be called Uncle Marc and Aunt Kellye is high on my list of things I love about my life overseas. To have people I love and admire be uncle and aunt to my children--incredible blessings. Half of my time at AGM in Greece this summer was spent catching people up on Sarah Beth (we decided we needed t-shirts that read, "Yes, we like him a lot. Yes, we think he's the one." on them, just because so many people asked about her boyfriend) and catching up on all of our kids across the world. Amazing, amazing, amazing to be allowed to love people like that.
- This life takes an entire family. I have heard so many tales of people overseas whose parents and family are not supportive. Or maybe they just don't get it. Marc and I have not experienced even a second of that. Our families have been incredibly supportive, have sent packages, gifts, money, and cards, have called, have emailed, and most of all, have prayed. What a legacy of faith for my kids. This little venture, this business of a life somewhere that is not my own, has been made immeasurably better and more doable by the support of my family and Marc's. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: when we leave, they stand at the airport and wave goodbye. Neither side of that is easy. But to see the faithfulness of our families to send us off, even when it hurts and they miss us...amazing. A gift we could not have experienced in any other life.
- I don't know it all, nor am I the smartest person in the room. And it doesn't matter which room it is, my friends. I am not the smartest person there. After years of being an expert in my field, I held a pretty high opinion of my own intellect. Then I went to Russia and had to learn Russian. Then I went to Czech Republic and couldn't even begin to learn Czech. Then I went to Austria and had to learn German. If that won't humble a person, I'm not sure what will. And I think it's interesting that God chose my own personal pride point--my ability with words--as the place to humble me most. OUCH. It hurt. It really did. I hated speaking Russian like a five-year-old. I hate making language mistakes. But now, I have the ability to laugh at myself, to giggle with the lady at the grocery store when I say something silly, to not get my hackles up when the pastor at church corrects my grammar (wo SIND die Kinder, not wo IST die Kinder)...to know that I am responsible for doing the best I can do in any given situation, whether it's language learning or handling a difficult relationship or figuring out how to stretch our money as far as it will go, but the rest is up to God.
- I don't have to be happy to be content and joyful. I was unhappy in Moscow for quite a while. Vienna hasn't been a piece of cake, either. But to allow circumstances to rob me of contentment in what God is doing is a sin. It's one I really struggle with, friends. This is an area where God is still really knocking me around and chiseling some yucky stuff away. He's doing it now, even while I write this. He'll probably still be doing it when I take my last breath. To throw away bitterness, to be less critical of people...it's the cry of my heart, because it's something I struggle with on a daily basis. Given half a chance, my heart clings to every bad thing anyone (ever, in the history of mankind) has done, said, or thought in my direction. It is a fault of mine, maybe my biggest. To let things go does not come naturally to me. But every single day, God is faithful to answer my prayer for help and guidance in letting things go. And you know what? I'm really content with my life right now. I'm getting to see Him really do some stuff in our lives, in this amazing city, in our relationships--because He is faithful to answer that prayer for contentment no matter what, for joy no matter what. If we spend the rest of our career in Vienna, I'm okay with that. If He does something else with us, I'm okay with that. (It'd be nice if German was the last language we learn. I'm just putting it out there.) But only God can make it possible for me to say that, because on my own...well, it's not pretty what I'd be like on my own. Think a combination of Medusa and that old lady from the Hallmark cards, the one who walks around in her robe and is super cranky. Yep. That's pretty much who I am on my own.
- It's all about Him. Oh, friends. I'll sing it with my dying breath. He is faithful and righteous and holy, and His goodness and lovingkindness overwhelm my life. I am never alone. No night is so dark that He is not there. No day is so bright that He cannot be seen. He loves me, He loves you, He loves this amazing city in which I live, He loves Moscow, He loves the world...more than I am capable of understanding. His love reaches to the heavens and His faithfulness stretches to the skies. There is no pit He cannot drag me out of, and there is no height I can reach that would make Him love me more. In all my yucky, weird, quirky wonder--He loves me. He pursues me. He gave me Marc, Sarah Beth, Hannah and John; He gave me Kay and Cathy, Momma and Daddy...all those people on the fields of the world who love me and are loved by me...all gifts from the Giver of all good things. I am daily overwhelmed and awestruck and humbled by who He is. He has invited me on this adventure with Him not because I am particularly worthy, but because in the least worthy person His glory is best displayed. I am a broken jar of clay loved and adored by the Creator of the Universe. I will never, never, never get over it.
His,
Kellye
No comments:
Post a Comment