New Year's Resolutions

This year I wrote down some specific New Year’s Resolutions because I know that it is good to make goals, for me especially at this time of year. For some reason I am super motivated about the idea of a New Year beginning. It feels like a clean slate. I can wipe away everything that happened last year and start over new.

But this year I was thinking, what do I really want to change. Something that I have never tried before. Something that I can set aside from all the other common New Year’s resolutions that I know I will make this year, including blogging more frequently.

I took some time this morning to meditate on G*d and ask Him what he wants me to focus on this year and well, he wants me to focus on his LOVE. I think that he really wants me to step back and allow him to work through his LOVE for me and through me. That is all he requires of me, to LOVE people, because G*d is LOVE. He is not a LOVE that lies or fluffs the truth though. I will be honest, but I will also attempt to let Him do the talking and working through me in so many more ways.

I am nervous about it because there is a fine line between stepping back and letting him work and just getting lazy. I don’t want to get lazy. I want to work much harder to LOVE people and do it intentionally.

This is the verse that he gave me to set aside this year as my ultimate New Year’s Resolution. To inspire me and keep me going strong throughout the year, as I get weary and feel tired of people and as I yearn for conversations with people who are hungry for him.

1 John chapter 4 verse 16 “So we have come to know and to believe the LOVE that G*d has for us. G*d is LOVE, and whoever abides in LOVE abides in G*d, and G*d abides in him.”

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.

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.

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?