Au Revoir!

At last this middle section of the year is coming to a close, and with it the monotony of life in Saline! In retrospect, perhaps it was not nearly as monotonous as I made it out to be whilst living through it, but I am thankful to be taking off once again, this time to St. Louis to participate in the Urbana Student Missions Conference!

These past few months certainly have had many things for which to be thankful for...

My very first time ever voting...

A trip to Chicago avec mon frère.

Many many walks through the deadened Michigan woods

Time with this lovely lady and many other wonderful friends

A birthday...

A disguised Kathryn in the mall

Wednesday afternoons (and more time than that too!) spent with my best friend!

A great many excellent trips to the movie theatre (a rare happening in my life) to view the Hobbit, Lincoln, and Les Mis. All highly recommended and most fantastically done.

Visits from a number of super duper awesome friends

A trip to Grand Rapids

But these were the people who I spent the most time with these past few weeks...lots and lots of time. Top secret sibling meetings, sibling squabbles, sibling pranks, sibling pow-wows, etc.

And they are probably the people who I will miss the most upon departure.

Throughout it all, though, eight little beings who are very dear to me were constantly in my mind and on my heart. They were always there. Always. They will come with me to Urbana, and to France, and beyond.

The next time I write, it will likely be from across the seas in the Alps of France. And so for now, au revoir!

Gearing up to GO!

Lord...we pray that Urbana 12 would be a vessel for your glory. We pray that hundreds of thousands will enter your kingdom in the next 50 years because of what you accomplish at Urbana 12. As you invite us to give our whole lives to your global mission, we pray that you would show us how our gifts and talents collide with your kingdom purposes. Wherever you lead us Lord, we will follow.
A prayer for the Urbana Student Missions Conference 2012.

Well, folks, much has happened since we last conversed. I apologize for my recent lack of communication via this blog. I continue to miss my children, and all the children of GLA, deeply. As the distance in time increases, my longing to see them and hold them and play with them also increases... This week, news of a death of a sweet boy at GLA increased the weightiness of this Christmas Season.

In less than one week, I'll be off again! This time, to St. Louis to participate in The Urbana Student Missions Conference, then (very) shortly thereafter, France is up next on the agenda! My passport with a nice, official French student visa stamped inside of it has been returned to me, I've been reviewing French verb conjugations, the plane tickets have been purchased (with a week-long detour on the way home to Scotland to visit cousins!) and the packing has begun!

But before France comes Urbana...There are many wonderful aspects of this conference. I get to travel and room with my two lifelong friends, Abby Paternoster and Grace Chen. There's a huge bookstore with a plethora of books all about this world that we are living in and how to change it. There will be thousands and thousands of people with a passion for spreading the Kingdom of God all gathered in the same place. I am fully expecting awesomeness.

Evil is infuriating. It permeates and penetrates this beautiful world in so many ways each and every day. I am thankful for all the people who have been working countless hours to make Urbana a place where students, organizations, speakers, and missionaries can unite and gird their belts to go out and fight that evil in the name of Jesus.

Wadagans - the little boy at GLA who went home on Tuesday.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. Luke 9:23-24