Many Thanks on this day of Thanksgiving

“First of all, I ask you to pray for everyone. Ask God to help and bless them all, and tell God how thankful you are for each of them.” 1 Timothy 2:1

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. While we are living in a temporary apartment here in our city until our new flat is finished, there are some thanks I would like to share during this time of Thanksgiving.

We are thankful for God’s provision while we are here to have found an apartment so quickly, and a new one at that! Even though we are waiting for it to be complete, it is a blessing, and we are thankful.

We are thankful for our health while here. The “crud” has gone once through the family, but it seems to have gone away and it was nothing major. Nothing a little antibiotics couldn’t cure.

We are thankful for our team members here in our city, the newest members of our family, who we are able to spend time getting to know and who we will be spending much time together for the next few years. They have been a huge help and blessing to us as we have been getting set up here and we look forward to the growing relationship and fellowship our families will have in the future working together for the One True God.

We are thankful for our family members who have sacrificed a normal relationship with us and our children to encourage us to follow God’s purpose in our lives, and seek Him.

We are thankful for our friends and our church family back home, who have also sacrificed close relationships with us to encourage us to do God’s work on the other side of the world. Your support and prayers are much appreciated.

We are thankful for our prayer partners back home as well as overseas, who lift us up to the Father often. Even through the busy-ness of life, I know that they have committed to partnering with us in prayer while we are here. Not only lifting us up, but also the people we are engaging here in South Asia to come to know Jesus as we do.

We are thankful for the IMB who has allowed us the privilege to be vessels to be used by God.

Most of all, we are thankful for a Heavenly Father whose love for His children is larger than we can even imagine. He took the time to create us, put us together as a family, and ready us for service in a far away place. He has brought us out of many pits, some so deep that we could have easily given up. But through faith in Him we persevered, and became stronger from those times. The times may not be easy here, but we know that God will provide for our every little need. We will cling to Him and rely on Him for everything. We will consider it joy to do what we must to make His name famous in this place.

Culture Shock or, Culture Integration?

Alright, call me a sports nut. I love football, basketball, baseball, hockey, any kind of sport I can watch. And, I can understand all these sports. These are the things I grew up watching and cheering. And now what sport is popular in South Asia? Cricket. It might as well be chess for all I understand it!

We have been at another IMB couple's house in another city in South Asia for a language workshop, and of course, the huge match between India and Pakistan is taking precedence over many other things. So, with a day to do nothing but relax after our train trip, myself and another co-worker sat and watched, for about 5 hours the first in a series of matches between the rival India and Pakistan. And, amazingly, I found myself beginning to understand the scoring, and the whole game! It was pretty exciting, actually. I have a desire to watch another game and even seek out the highlights. So, I'm either really hurting for some of my beloved sports back home, or maybe, just maybe I am beginning to integrate this culture into some of my own. Don't worry, there is still room for following some football on ESPN, only Monday night football comes on during the morning. Hey, maybe that means I'll be able to watch a full game and not fall asleep!

Anyways, we are all fine and will begin language learning with a helper as soon as we return to our city. In about a week or two, our apartment will be ready to move into, and then starts the task of filling it with furniture and making it a home away from home. Then we will be settled and concentrate more on our tasks.