Merry Christmas everyone!!! We love you all and are so blessed to have done this year with you! Its hard to believe this year is coming to a close. God has packed it full of lovely, weighty, and challenging things. But in it all He has reveled Himself to us again and again. Our hope in this year to come, for all of us, is that He will continue to pursue us in such a manner that there is no question as to what is from Him and what is not. That we also would not just gain a deeper insight into his Love, but that we gain a fuller measure of delight in Him and His glory. We pray he breaks our hearts for His people who are lost and who are living with no hope without their Savior, that we feel His pain over this separation and it spurs us to act.
For our final post of the year we thought you might like to hear from all five of us (in our oun words), as to some of the things God has taught us in 2014.
NORI: age 7
I like reading books to Millie and Banner.
That making clay pots in the creek is a great way to make new friends!
God always loves us no matter what we do.
Sometimes its hard to play with my little sister, but God will help me be kind and gentle when I can't do it on my own.
BANNER: age 5
How to play football. You have to say "hike" to punt then you run to get touchdown, but if someone gets you with two hands you have to run the other way.
I can color in the lines and write my name.
God is always with me! He was with me in Charlotte, He is with me in Waxhaw, and He will be with me in PNG.
MILLIE: age 2.5
How to ride my strider bike!
Cook Mommy food, like jelly sandwiches and cinnamon crackers.
(all lighter than air and with no calories... she is amazing)
Jesus Loves Me!!!
JOHN
That learning a new language was a lot easier when my brain was 20 years younger.
We don't need all of the stuff that we think we need as Americans (but this is surely a universal truth!): Of all the stuff that we still have in storage that we need to go through, I think I've only missed a couple of cables that I haven't been able to find. Giving stuff away was so fun, and living here at JAARS with 10% of our stuff out has been quite refreshing.
So far, my previous experience rebuilding my old motorcycle has not given me any leg up with working on the old jeep we are shipping over. Well, the tires inflate the same way...
Sometimes God's will is clear and sometimes it is not (no matter how much you pray), but in both situations He calls us to trust Him the same. I don't think that God wants or expects us to figure His plan out, He just wants us to be willing to say "yes" to Him, even in the unknown.
Kristi
The relationships we long to have with others really starts with prayer. There is an intimacy in actively praying for another person that cannot be manufactured any other way.
God will ALWAYS call us to something greater than we can accomplish on our own, because it causes us to lean into Him. His purpose is not just what He is asking you to do, but getting a bigger piece of your heart for Himself.
I really have no idea how to hand wash dishes well!