Hello friends!! Finally, I have a few minutes to update you on our journey!!! I have not blogged in a while. Mostly because we have been so busy!!!!Our days are filled with ministry and homeschooling and new friends dropping in! Also…..blogging is hard!!! It is hard to know what to share and not to share especially when I know that the Lord wants me to be open and share this walk with others…this means the good and the bad! Honestly, I have to say the past few months here have been difficult. I have found my heart broken and I truly have experienced a type of sadness that I have only felt a few times in my entire life. I must warn you that when I knew that God wanted me to blog I just did not fully comprehend that he wanted me to share things that are a little uncomfortable to share.. an honest journey of a new missionary family. In that journey, I would not be telling the entire story if I did not share a little about the difficulty too. So here goes……
I was not prepared for the sadness that I would feel here!!!
I was not prepared to deal with broken adults that have walked difficult paths. Lifetimes of abuse and neglect or addiction are prevalent around here.
I was not prepared to come to terms with the fact that not everyone will have the same heart for the people here. This has been the hardest truth to swallow. I have personally witnessed even the children having to deal with this in ways that I do not care to repeat or explain.
I was not prepared for the time when our neighbors would choose sin and choose not to follow God. It is so hard to watch people that you have literally given your life for choose to walk another path. Especially when you KNOW that they could just be healed!!It is so hard to watch them cling to the only way that they know and refuse to turn over their lives to a God that loves them so much. I’m sure that we will face this many times but each time it is painful and sad.
The good news is still THE GOOD NEWS!!
God has a purpose for us coming to Countryside! His ways are so much bigger than my ways and this journey has only led to a deeper trust and understanding of this! In the midst of all this brokenness of this sin filled world, there is so much joy.
There is JOY that our neighbor has accepted Christ and is awaiting baptism. There is joy in the fact that we are making new relationships especially with the teenagers around here! I was sick this week and two of my neighbors (shoutout to Yuli and Stacy) just came to my house to make sure I am feeling better…. how awesome to be loved and cared for!!! I was invited to be the Women’s Day speaker at Pineview Baptist Church and they loved on our family so well!!! My children told me as I put them to bed a few weeks ago how much they loved living here and how this really feels like home!! I am having to learn to deal with all of the sadness here but it helps to have little spots of light in the darkness! So for now, I will rejoice in those! I will choose to be joyful in hope for my neighbors and this community. I know that God has a great plan for their hearts and their lives. If only they will seek him. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers as we encourage them to do just that!!
Love,
Nancy
Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
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