Friday, July 20, 2012

week 3

These first few weeks have been a whirlwind! I will try to give the update on our family... Brendan is having a blast. While we've been here, he has gone canoeing and sailing on the lake, played on the rope swing in the creek, hiked, built forts, tent camped with the Milton boys, gone shooting, worked at the Potter's Field Lodge (where the horses are kept), designed and built working lego guns, etc. There is a family of 7 here who will be moving to Uganda later this year. Mackenzie has become friends with them and spends a lot of her time playing with them. She really misses her friends back home. The Lord knew she needed someone here, and we are so thankful He provided some special people just for us. And Kylie, well, she is just the same here as she is at home! Our sassy little girl has no problem bossing everyone around. And she has surprised us with her ping pong skills this week:) Donathan has jumped right in. He teaches a School of Worship class twice a week and leads worship for various classes and Bible studies. A good portion of the interns are musically inclined and interested in leading worship, so hopefully there will be time to work with them towards that direction. As an added bonus, he has been on two floats (river rafting), jumped off a cliff and gone shooting a couple of times :) We miss our family and friends and our church family immensely, but we are so thankful that the Lord has brought us here. We are enjoying getting to know all the staff and interns, and thankful to glean from all the pastors and teachers that come here. As a sidenote... I know for myself, that having all the familiarity and normality stripped away enables the Lord to expose and reveal things in my heart that He wants to deal with. Such a good thing, although painful at times. I love what Kay Smith said in her book "The Privelege": Brokenness is necessary to the Christian life. It sounds scary and unpleasant but if we're to be useful to God, it's essential. We want to be useful to Him, don't we? So we need to understand brokenness and we need to accept it. The simplest definition I can give you is this: Brokenness is living in the bright light of truth about myself as I am before God. True brokenness brings us to the feet of Jesus and we are changed. When the light exposes our sin, selfishness and shame, we give it up and lay it down. We don't justify it, we don't ignore it, we don't insist on "our rights." That is my challenge and your challenge as well. More of You and less of me...

2 comments:

kimberly said...

I LOVE MY WIFE SO MUCH!!!!! SHE ENCOURAGES ME WITH HER THOUGHTS.

Deb said...

I love how much fun you guys are having!!!