A Thankful Heart

Lately, God has been challenging me to be more thankful. Have you ever been in that same place? God is so good and yet, like second nature, when I pray, I skip over my blessings and focus on what I still need from God. I make light of the many ways He has been faithful, and go right on requesting.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (New Living Translation) says: "Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 

So, after I burst through the doors Sunday night and exclaimed to Marcel, "My heart is so thankful, I feel like it might explode! Like actually ... I feel like I'm having a heart attack and I just need to dance!" I'm going to do the blogiquivocal thing and share some of the good things God has done and how He has shown His faithfulness. If you pray for us, or just enjoy being happy for us, here are some things you can join us in praising God for:

- His faithfulness in bringing in new monthly partners. This past week He provided us with four new monthly supporters--some of them a complete surprise to us! We are so thankful for dear friends and family!

- His encouragement through conversations and visits with friends and family. Also, his encouragement through epically amazing food (I am 100% certain Thai food and Tim Tams will be on the menu in heaven!)

- His provision in bringing our monthly support up to 15% and outgoing funds up to 32% ALREADY! Should we start packing? YAYYY!

- His faithfulness in lining up several upcoming events and meetings for us--dessert nights, ministerial meetings, bible studies, and coffee dates!

- His mercy in allowing us to go on a family vacation in February brought to you by the the Boers clan! So pumped to make memories with the family!

For all the things God has done, and continues to do, I have to add one little thing at the end. I am most thankful that God does so much of His work through people. We are so thankful for the people God has used to bless us in the past weeks and months, and we desire to return those blessings to those people. Thank you to all of you who follow God through big or small steps of obedience! You set an incredible example to us!

"Ice"-olation and Isolation!

Brrrr .... it's COLD here in London!!!! Marcel said the wind chill makes it feel like -40 degrees Celsius out--a figure which makes me ready to move overseas any day, please and thank you!

This cold has me reflecting on the importance of MAF and their ministry of reaching the isolated. I tried to imagine this morning what it would feel like to be isolated--something that wasn't too hard to imagine on a cold day like this, where I don't want to leave my home or start my car.

How encouraging would it be to see an MAF plane land in the isolated village where you and your family serve as missionaries, bringing encouragement from other Canadians and comforts of home? 
How exciting would it be to see family you haven't seen in years coming off of an MAF airplane? 
How relieving would it be to see food, water, and basic living supplies coming from the cargo hold when your community is in the middle of an awful famine or terrible drought? 
How thankful would you be if an MAF plane brought in supplies, food, and hope in the midst of a terrible natural disaster that has left you isolated and terrified? 
How crucial would it be to your son or daughter's health if they could get a life-saving flight to a "nearby" hospital (200 miles away) after a terrible accident?

These are just a few of the important reasons MAF exists. These are just a few of the ways MAF ministers to isolated people.

I'd like to end by re-posting a couple cool photos from the MAF-US blog that show some of the work MAF staff do every day to help the isolated. Some of these pics are pretty cool and worth a scroll!!

A medevac flight for a miner with a head injury in Mozambique. Photo by Jill Holmes.

A joyful reception of 1000 Zandi language bibles along the CAR/Congo border. Photo courtesy of John Cadd.

South Sudan flight for amputees getting prosthetic limbs. Photo courtesy of John Woodberry.

The village of Kiwi comes out to greet passengers arriving. Photo by David Holsten.

Looking back and looking to the future!

Hi Everyone!

As we start back in to the "post-vacation grind", Marcel and I want to take a few minutes to share with you some reflections on the last year and updates on our future in 2014!

2013 brought many exciting new opportunities our way. As you can recall, we started with MAF in November. For Marcel, this meant a change from working on airplanes every day to working from home. As for me, I have continued to supply teach but less frequently, and also work on MAF work from home. Our job with MAF is actually a lot of fun--we get to connect with friends and family and share about a ministry we feel very passionate about! But it also requires a lot of faith and trust, teamwork, and an extensive amount of time and energy.

2013 also brought a new house in to the picture. As we talked about in a previous blog, we wanted to buy a house (specifically a condo) that we could rent out to Western students or families in the future while we are overseas. Well, we love our new house so far, and we even had over 30 young adults crammed in to the house for New Years Eve! That's one thing we could have never done in our basement apartment!

Sold! Dec. 20, 2013.

The most exciting thing about 2013 though has been seeing how God is already working in peoples' hearts to partner with us in our MAF ministry. We already have several monthly supporters, as well as many one-time donors to our MAF ministry. Despite our trepidations that no one would want to partner with us so close to Christmas, God has been faithful at launching our ministry and showing He is in control! Thank you to everyone who has joined us already! We're excited to get more people on board in 2014.

But as exciting as 2013 has been, I have this feeling 2014 is going to be the biggest year yet. New Years Day it dawned on me ... this could be the year we move overseas! This could be the year we pack everything up and take a huge leap of faith! (Extra huge right now, since we are still waiting on God's leading for where we should go.) This could be the year that this massive MAF dream comes true--a dream that really can only happen because of God's mercy. We've still got a lot of money to raise and a lot of prayers to say, but God is doing big things through MAF and we are trusting in His faithfulness to carry this through to the end. Our goal is to have all of our support raised by August--can you help us make that a reality?

2014 could be our biggest year yet ... and it could be yours too! I want to end with a challenge. I know a lot of people aren't in to New Years resolutions and things like that. But if you've been tracking along with us, praying for us, reading our blog or Facebook pages, then I challenge you to pray about how God can use you this year. Maybe it's through MAF--maybe the Holy Spirit wants to use you to partner with us in sharing the gospel. Maybe it's through local ministries or your local church. Whatever the case, don't ignore the Holy Spirit's whispers. We're praying for you too. Please pray for us.

Happy 2014 friends, may it be totally awesome and a chance to grow closer to Christ!

Kelly and Marcel