Hi all! How good it is to communicate with you in this way! We may not be face-to-face but I feel like we are able to connect as we continue to navigate life together and share through social media. 🙂 Not too long ago, cross-cultural workers needed to rely on snail mail in order to share and keep in touch. As much as I love snail mail-the ease and speed of blogging is incredible in comparison.

It has been a few weeks since I have had the opportunity to sit and share so I will just begin with telling you about our day. It has been another intense day full of love, laughter, community…difficult challenges. Nate and I knew coming into training that we would go through hard days and tough training. Learning to navigate such a transition has been full of ups and downs. It is not just Nate and I-3 of our children are here and their well-being, their feelings, their own transitions are important to us. Taking that into consideration, it has not been an easy road! Has it been worth it so far? A huge resounding YES!

Back to the day.

We began our day with prayer together as a community at 8:30. It was a beautiful time of reading scriptures together, sharing what was on our hearts, and ending with the Lords Prayer. We dropped the girls to their class and were in our seats around 9am. There we first learned of our..(doom music playing)…challenge for the week. Ill explain later. One of our staff members, sweet Serenity, shared her words of wisdom with us and we broke for lunch at 12. We once again met for midday community prayer and gobbled down lunch. Normally, this is prepared by my amazing and kind husband, as I am getting the kids from class, etc. He is so generous and an incredibly inventive and creative cook.

With such a strenuous schedule, leadership here at Beautiful Feet stresses the importance of rest and I am so thankful they do. After lunch, we tried to catch up on that rest as much as possible!

Back to class for our kids and ourselves at 2. This afternoon we discussed communication and resolving conflict. So important to everyone, but as workers overseas on a team, this knowledge is critical. At 5, class was over for another day.

Nate cooked a great meal for dinner and then…the night of cold bucket baths began. Yes, our challenge for the week-no more running water. If you are interested to learn more of our previous challenge, let me know. 🙂 At least 3 hours tonight were spent on dinner and bath time. I have a newfound huge respect for everyone across the globe who manages just fine without turning on a faucet and receiving the instant gratification of running water. Each of our girls took their turn in the bath, a little water in the tub and pouring water over their heads with a bucket. I really wish I would have gotten a picture for you! Heres the really fun part. My bath in their left over bath water, ha! Keeping it real, folks.  We haul all of our water in 5 gallon buckets from a spigot to our room. We use this water for flushing of toilets, bath, teeth brushing, you name it. Now, for my almost 13 year old daughter, who thinks she needs 2 showers a day, minimum-this has been an extremely difficult challenge!

It is really very rewarding for us all to get to take on these challenges. Not only is it preparing us for work in developing nations, it is developing our character. Showing us what we are made of. Building strength, persistence, and endurance for longevity on the field. In the midst of feeling like we are overwhelmed and don’t know how to handle any more transition, we are doing all we can to embrace what God has for us right now, right here. The kingdom of God is at hand. We get to be a part of His work, Is it not exciting, friends, that the King of Kings has invited us into His work among His people? To take part in fulfilling His work? To see His Kingdom come? His will be done? If you are just drifting through life right now, feeling like you have no purpose, that is a lie from the enemy, friends. We all have purpose, we all have meaning. We are His kids. His beloved.

Thanks for reading this very long post! Tomorrow is another very full day of classes, teaching ESL to Burmese refugee families, cultivating relationships with our community, our family, our friends. How dearly we love and miss each one of you. Your love and support mean more to us every day.

Look for my next post soon…will try to have a video update for you if all goes well!

Please continue to pray for us!

1. Smooth transitions for each of us as we continue on this journey.
2. Strengthening of our marriage and relationships as a family.
3. Strength, wisdom, and energy as we continue through training.
4. Nates eczema-it has been the worst ever!

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