Thursday, September 9, 2010

We've come full circle


I cannot believe that it has already been a year in Central Asia! This week we are doing registration for our classes and it is really starting to hit me that things are happening all over again and I am really excited about it. We have really enjoyed what our life has been like here so far and we are excited to start another year.
It is crazy to look back and think of how much we have changed in this year, how much G*d has taught us, how much grace he has given us in the hard times, how the trials revealed our weaknesses, how many seeds have been planted, how many times our f*ith has been shaken, only to reveal that we serve an extremely f*ithful G*d!
I look back on so much of that time and realize how much I was focused on the things of the world and how much grief that caused me. So many times I could go back and tell that girl not to worry, that G*d would work things out and that he would change her heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. One that burns with passion for Him and desires to do His will. Since I can’t go back, I start this year off desiring to learn from the trials that I experienced last year. I have jumped out of the boat by coming here, I know now that I must keep my eyes fixed on gsus so that I do not sink when the waves of life come towards me.
That is my passion. Along with so many other things, such as striving to be a better teacher, being more dedicated to learning language, encouraging others around me, welcoming people into our home, learning how to live a healthy lifestyle here etc. etc. But the W*rd says “Seek first the kingd*m of G*d and all these things will be added unto you.”
So instead of setting my eyes on all these other things, I will seek Him first and know that these things will come when my aim is steadily on pleasing Him.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Our new home



We have finally gotten settled into our new home! We arrived back home early Thursday morning, about 1:00 am, to find a spotless house with all our things still tucked away into one of the bedrooms. Wednesday morning we woke up and relaxed for about an hour before getting to work. We worked about 10 hours to get everything in our little apartment situated just the way we wanted it. We have accumulated a lot over the last year since every time someone leaves the country they leave stuff with us. We definitely welcome these things, but I couldn’t believe how much stuff we had when we unpacked.
Anyhow, it was a lot of work to relocate and move all our stuff into a new place and become situated all over again, but it was well worth it. There are many benefits to this place, the biggest one being that it is just so much more spacious. I really never thought that I would want to leave our last place since it was just so nice and simple, but since we have moved here I have not missed our last place one bit. I am thankful for the place that G*d has given us now and that the circumstances were perfect for us to come into this place and it was obviously the time to move on and move out of our other place.
Thank you to all of you who lifted this up. This place is really special to us and we look forward to inviting many people into our new home and sharing the good news and just blessing people through what G*d has blessed us with.

Kyrgyzstan



Our journey to Kyrgyzstan was very eventful. In fact I don’t think that I have ever travelled that much in such a short period of time, nevertheless, it was well worth it. There were many beautiful things to see, including rolling hills, an amazing lake which felt more like an ocean and the fascinating capital city, Bishkek.
We started our journey traveling by train to the capital city. There we said goodbye to our good friend Katie, who was the director of our English Center for a time and is now going back to the states to get married! We couldn’t be happier for her, but of course, we were sad to see her go.
Once we said our goodbyes, we got on a plane to Bishkek. We arrived there at 3am and made our way to a wonderful little bed and breakfast that is run by like-minded people. We stayed there for 3 days to get a feel for the capital city and to get our return visa process started.
Bishkek was a lovely city. The streets are spacious and all lined with trees. There are so many nice cafe’s and tons of beautiful souvenirs, many made of felt and a lot of fine embroidered handiwork. After indulging in coffees and cafes and the wonder of Bishkek, we made our way into the wilderness of Kyrgyzstan.
On Thursday we took the long trek down to Naryn which is a city set in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, where one of our former teachers used to work. The taxi drive was pretty crazy, but the beauty was worth it. On our drive there, we saw many traditional Yurts (as pictured above), rolling hills and lots of diverse landscape along which a flowing river streamed throughout most of the drive. We stayed in Naryn one night and then made our way over to Lake Issyk Kul.
We relaxed at Lake Issyk Kul until our visas were ready, for about four days. It was not a difficult wait. We enjoyed ourselves on the beach of this unique lake, which seemed more like an ocean. Lake Issyk Kul is special because although it is surrounded by snow-capped mountians, it never freezes; which is the reason for its name, Issyk Kul means “hot lake” in the Kyrgyz. It lived up to the name because it was a lot warmer than the Pacific Ocean, which is what we are used to swimming in, well, at least Curtis…
After our time at Issyk Kul, we made our way back up to Bishkek to retrieve our visas and then made the long trip back home in one day, arriving early on Thursday morning to our new apartment.
We arrived home to a clean apartment, thanks to the folks who stayed here before us. What a blessing it was to lay our heads down in our new homes after what seemed like a really long journey. Our trip to Kyrgyzstan was fun, but being back in our apartment makes the statement “There’s no place like home” ring more true than ever.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Perfect Peace

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the L*rd forever, for the L*rd G*d is an everlasting rock.” Isaiah 26/3-4

The world tells us that we can get peace in so many different ways and maybe some of the ways allow us to have temporary peace. But G*d offers us perfect peace. It is a peace the reaches beyond our understanding, so that no matter what happens in our live, good or bad, we can still be at peace. No matter how much chaos there is or uncertainty, we can have peace if our mind is stayed on Him. He is our rock and he never changes. He is faithful and though he brings difficult things our way, He will always bring us through if we just trust in him. It sounds easy, but it can be very difficult when we are holding onto the control of our lives. I have had to learn this here. There is always a lot of uncertainty, but I found out that I can have perfect peace if my mind is stayed on Him and if it isn’t, there is usually a lot of pain and a struggle for control.


I read a quote that said “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of G*d whatever the conflict my be.” On wikipedia it says “Peace is the result of resting in a relationship with G*d.” (taken from Naked Fruit’ by Elisa Morgan). This is the truth and I have experienced it firsthand. Have you?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Unless a grain of wheat...


It says in John 12/24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” I must constantly be reminded of this. I needed to do this to make the decision to come overseas and I continually need to do this.
In verse 25 of the message it says “Anyone who holds onto life just as it is destroys that life.” In other versions it says “Whoever loves his life loses it.” Well, I was doing just that. I loved my life too much. I had plans. I saw my life going a certain way. But G*d made me realize through a lot of pain and struggle that he wants to do something bigger with my life. He was stretching me and changing me and I thought “why am I feeling this way?” I pleaded with him to change me and he said in his still soft voice, “I am.” I finally let go and gave it to him. It was extremely painful and freeing to let go.
What was I doing? I was counting the cost. Contemplating the ways that I wanted life, the things that are better back at home, the difficulty of being away from family and friends. Paul says in Philippians that we should count our lives as nothing. I wasn’t doing that. My life was something to me. It was important, but what I didn’t understand is that it is important to G*d too, that is why he is challenging me so! Because he knows that if I hold onto the scraps of what I want out of life, I will never get the treasure that he has for me.
These are the things that I was holding back from G*d. What are you holding back? How are you counting the cost of serving him?

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Ask for the ancient paths...


“Thus says the L*rd: “Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6/16
Many times I think to myself, “How can I know what G*d wants?” This passage says that I must look and ask. Then when I find it I must walk in it and I will have rest?!? That doesn’t make sense logically, since following G*d is so difficult, it seems like we should constantly be trying if we want to “be h*ly as he is h*ly.” But this scripture tells me differently, when I find the way I must walk in it and I will have rest. I know this to be true because when I am walking in His ways I have so much more peace, my soul truly feels at rest. But, when I am doing what I want, because of the excuses that I make, such as “He hasn’t told me what to do, so I will just do my own thing and wait until I hear something loud and clear…” I feel extremely anxious and unsettled.
But when I look at the word of truth and follow it, that is when my soul is at rest, that is when I feel peaceful. I know that when I am not doing what he wants me to do, it is not because I don’t know, it is because I don’t ask him, because sometimes I think it will be too hard or I am too comfortable just doing whatever I want to do. But when I ask and walk, I am never disappointed. My soul feels at peace within me because I know that I am following the commands of the king of kings and because he has made me that way. He has created me with a deep longing for him and when I ignore that longing too much, I feel it no longer…
At the end of  this passage it also says, “But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
That is what the people of Israel said to G*d when they walked away from his commands and that is what we say when we allow our consciences to be seared. So much of the time we rebel against G*d. He said of the Israelites after they walked away from Him “They shall never enter my rest.” If we do not follow his commands, if we do not soften our hearts, we will never enter his rest. It is a fearful thing to stand before the living G*d and find out that in your life you hardened your heart to his call. It is not about a pr*yer that you pr*yed once. It is about a life serving G*d, walking in the ancient paths. Sometimes my selfish heart forgets that.
David later spoke in the Psalms about this and he said,”Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
This is my pryr for you. Do not harden your hearts. Do not be like the chch of Laodicea who was lukewarm or the chch of ephesus who abandoned their first love. Search your hearts today and look for the way, ask for the ancient paths and walk in them.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Moving!


It has been a long time since I posted anything, but I thought it would be appropriate to write something as we close the chapter on the last year and begin the new one with some positive changes.
I am feeling excited and sentimental at the same time. We are moving to a much bigger flat with a lot of great qualities that will help us to house guests and host many parties! But yet we have so many good memories here from our first year of living life overseas. I feel sad to be leaving this place that we have called home for the past year. We have gone through many ups and downs here. But after all, in our new place, we will actually have a dining room to sit in!
It feels good to be doing something new at this point because since we have been married we have lived in one bedroom apartments with no nifty additions. This apartment is much more spacious than anything we have lived in before. It is funny to note that we were really against moving at first when our school told us that they thought it would be a good idea for us to look for a new apartment. We felt so at home here and everything had a place etc etc. The place we have now really is nice. But G*d really provided a great place for us and as soon as we saw it, we knew it was the right place.
We are now in the process of moving and will have everything moved out by the end of the week! I will post some pictures as soon as we geteverything settled in our new place!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Running home in the rain



I had been feeling a bit down today, so we went out for a nice summer stroll and as we walked away from our flat we realized that there were black clouds gathering in the sky.
We decided to walk anyways because we just needed to get out. We were really close when it started sprinkling rain and as we crossed the street to get back home it started dumping rain on us. We were laughing so hard as we ran down the steps to get to our flat, the rain pouring down harder and harder. We were soaking wet, but it only made us laugh all the more.
These are moments that make me feel alive and remind me that our G*d gives good gifts exactly when we need them.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Graduation


Our Graduation ceremony  was a satisfactory culmination to an exceptional year!
It is always a risk to allow yourself to love your students, because most of the time, to them, you are just their teacher. But I think that our feelings about one special class were mutual.
Our young class will always hold a special place in our hearts. Throughout our year with them they have won this place with their bright smiles and their eagerness to learn. On Tuesdays, when I would come back from a long weekend, wanting to be anywhere else but there, they would not cease to disappoint me. Their smiling faces and their warmth would always make me feel right at home in that classroom, by the end of the class I would forget those feelings.
I took so much joy in teaching this special class. I teared up when I thought about them leaving us and just how blessed we are to have had them as one of our first classes teaching English. But I was not disappointed by them. I was blown away by the unexpected display of mutual feelings.
They honored us greatly after the graduation ceremony when they clothed us in traditional Cultural attire. One student told Curtis that the reason they did this is that in their culture, a younger person should bestow this honor on someone that they significantly respect. Those kids who brought so much joy to our lives and who we love so dearly, respected us enough to esteem us in this way. I really felt honored. (It did bring me back to an act of kindness by a dearly loved student last year.;) We loved them and worked hard to teach them this year and the rewards for that are not only et*rnal but also rewards that we can enjoy in this life.
I can say that the whole year of teaching was worth it for those little moments, the moment when the students placed the clothes on us and the moments when I embraced some of the young ladies from that class, sharing tears of happiness and sorrow with them. What a joy to know that we loved these students who truly loved and respected us back!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Reflections on a good year



Today we had our class graduation party. It was such a nice time to reflect on what a great year it has been and how special some of our classes have been for us.
It is difficult to express in words how amazing this year has been, but reminiscing with our students today was a reminder of how special all the memories are and how dear these students have become to Curtis and I.
There is a song that we are using for our graduation slide show that says “These are days you remember, never before and never since, I promise, will the whole world be one as this, and as you feel it, you’ll know it too, that you are blessed…” I feel that this is so true with the time that we have spent here. These are truly days that we will remember forever! Never before and never since. Even if we continue to teach for years, there will never again be a time like this year. Our first year teaching in Central Asia; it has been an experience unlike any other.
What a blessing this year has been! As we reflected we were able to share about some of the reasons why we came here. 
We were also able to hear some interesting things about their first impressions of us as well! We laughed with some of them about how we were not sure how much they understood at the beginning of the year, we thought their levels were lower because they were so shy at first and how most of them were pretty scared of Curtis and I at first. They were so shy then and now they are so confident in their English abilities. If nothing else, we know that their confidence has been built up and that is a big change for many of them!
Needless to say, it has been an incredible year and we are sad to see many of our students go. Our Father has blessed us so much. There have been many ups and downs, but we can already see fruit in what He is doing here through us, and that is more than we expected from this year. We are truly grateful for all that He has done ☺

Monday, January 4, 2010

Hello Sunshine



Yea, so I tend to focus on the wrong things at times. Don't we all. I am pretty sure that this is a natural thing that many people go through. But I am such a passionate person that I tend to go through extreme highs and lows. I was going through a low.

I'm gonna be honest, although the Holidays brought many blessings and I addressed these things verbally, it does not mean that I really truly understood how much G*d has blessed me. No, the truth is that I would rather sulk in the fact that I was not "home" with my family and friends than realize the blessings of the life that G*d has given me.

WOW! I was in this thick darkness of my own despair, but for what?  I knew I needed to get out, so I began prying about it. Slowly but surely I have been coming out of it. I think I am still going through the process, but as I was listening to the new Barlow Girl CD once again the inspired lyrics spoke to me! YES! I love it when that Happens! Thank you Barlow Girls! Seriously, these girls rock, if you haven't listened to their music yet, check them out.

Of course the song is called "Hello Sunshine." It is a good song and it spoke to me about exactly what I  am going through. I think so much at times about what could be or what will be that I don't actually look up and see the blessings that are staring me right in the face! I think that my favorite line in the song is "Oh who could add a day to their life by dreading every dark sky." It is based on the scr*pture that says "who of you by worrying could add an hour to his life." NO ONE!

G*d is in control and he will bring us in and out of trials. We might be doing his will, but it does not always mean that we have the right mindset. We could be wasting our days, wasting the sunshine that he has given us by focusing on all the negative things instead of the blessings. What are we doing with our lives?!?

Lrd forgive me for all the times I have focused on the ground rather than looking up and seeing the blessings all around me. Help me to remember that there is always something good to see if we just look up to see it.