Season's greeting to all of you! We pray you all had a wonderful time giving thanks last weekend. I think that probably my most special moment, besides being with family, was when McKenzie brought home her Thanksgiving book she had made at school. It was filled with 5 pages of things she was thankful for. On the first page she wrote, " I am thankful to be a christian because God is on my side!"... along with a picture of her and God. I stopped as I read the first page and thought, WOW Lord how many hands helped her with this book and got to hear a tiny bit about Your goodness and a little girls heart! My prayer for all of us as we enter this time of year where Christ should be the most awaited event is that we would give someone a little glimpse of Christ goodness this Christmas!
Thank you to those of you who prayed for me as I finished my training in October. It truly has been an incredible journey from it's beginning 2 1/2 years ago. The path God lead me on has been life changing. A few of the nuggets I've learned are: Always be open handed with the Lord as he is redirecting your life and taking your faith to greater levels through it. Secondly He also calls us to put on our armor everyday whether that means putting down our fears or stepping out in faith. The Lord also reminded me that life will go by in a blink of an eye so take every opportunity to share my faith, stop and take time for a cuddle with one of my precious babies and to minister out of the gifts God has given me despite my weaknesses. A key verse I have taken on these past few years is 2 Corinthians 12:9...But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
When we first arrived in Portland we told God that we would take all the opportunities that He opened to us. It has been amazing to see all of the teaching, training and discipling that Tim has literally had opened to him here with the Berean Way. In the midst of all this, an opportunity opened for Tim to do some training in Glasgow! We were so blessed to be able to meet in Scotland at the end of my trip. Tim did leadership training with the Re-Hope team (and other friends) and then we just met with everyone under the sun, err, I mean rain!
Our time in Scotland was wonderful!!! The first few days were a bit surreal, but once I could get my feet under me I was pleasantly surprised at how good it felt to be back. We were able to visit with all our friends and team mates. I was able to go to the kids school and see all the mum's I knew, I even helped in one of my kids old classes (with our favorite teacher). I saw all my kids' old friends and could not believe how many of them remembered and loved them still. We were blessed to see Re Hope in their new building, visit our closest friends homes, have coffee with people we had discipled and see those who we had ministered to. It was so important that Tim and I were able to meet and experience it together though we really missed the kids not being there. I think the best part was being there and it feeling good NOT sad... it was a true blessing to visit a huge piece of our lives and to see just how much ministry is still happening even from a far.
It has been a very busy fall between settling into a new role, Tim starting school part-time, Sam and Suzannah visiting, kids getting set up in another new school and our trips overseas. BUT even in all the craziness of planting roots God continues to confirm this has been His plan along. Thank you for walking our journey with us as we seek to be all He asks of us... truly our motto as a family is to simply share the love of Jesus through our lives, all 6 of us! From the village pastors in India to praying for my kids with Mom's In Touch to my kids sharing about Jesus in their school... may He continue to use us were we are.
Merry Christmas to you and your families!
Much love,
Britany
