Hello Friends!
I'm not even sure if I have some correct email addresses, but I thought I would give this a try, since it's been so long since I wrote an update or heard from many of you! I'm sitting in the purgatory of jury duty, where you have to wait but you don't know if you're on a jury yet, giving me plenty of time to sit down and write this.
I hope December finds you well. I can't believe we are already at the end of another year. And I can't believe that I've been in New Orleans for almost 3 years.
I've noticed that my life moves in sets of three years. Every three years, I undergo some unbelievable change in life that sets me on a new road for life. In 2002, I graduated from High School and started my years at UW. In 2006, I had a major awakening to the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. And in 2009, I started my adventure in New Orleans. The year 2012 is the next in the series of three, and I am nervous and excited for the possibility of continued change.
Michael and I are doing well. Some of you may or may not have heard about our fall out with the church we were attending. It's a long story, but we are still recovering and healing from that experience. Needless to say, we are a little down on church right now, but excited about finding a community in the Church. We are finding more and more people who are fed up with the leadership of many of the churches in this area and in need of going back to basics. We are not sure what that is going to bring, but we are sure that God has something that He is brewing up. Please continue to pray for healing for us, though, that we might forgive the community that hurt us. It has been a struggle, and I find myself, in particular, much more bitter about it than Michael does.
Michael is doing well. He stays very busy with his constant changes in positions at work. He is incredibly adaptable and so the bank that he is working for now (and for the past year and a half) moves him around. They are a small, local bank, growing themselves into a larger bank with more modern approaches. It's a pretty cool position for him, as he is so gifted in so many areas and he gets to utilize all of those talents that God has given to him. Other than that, he does a lot of projects around our house, attempting to merge our styles into one home. He loves very modern, and I'm much more quaint and whimsical...making our house a conundrum to figure out. We are still living in Central City, attempting to love on our neighbors. It's slow going, but we are seeing some pretty awesome changes in the neighborhood, for the better. It's even been a couple of months since I heard gunshots! One of our neighbors, who had some bad experiences in the church, is even reading one of our books about serving the poor well, by a man called Bob Lupton. He is one of our models for what we are trying to do in the neighborhood and his books are fully of awesome stories about how he messed up neighbordhoods and succeeded in helping to bring love and redemption to other neighborhoods. They're great, shorter books, and if you are interested in what we are trying to do, you should give them a read. One thing that we do know is that we are going to be here for a while.
That is one thing that I have been struggling with since we moved down here. I long for winters and changes in seasons. I long for mountains and woods and places to play outside. I worry about our future children not having green space to run around in. I worry about the friends they will make and if they will be safe. My selfishness is battling with my heart and the knowledge that serving God is not easy. It's not comfortable. And I need to learn to be ok with that. I think far too often we forget that truly following Christ should hurt us. It should diminish who we are and what we think we want for our lives until there is nothing left but Christ's love and plan for redemption. And we we open our lives up to that possibility, we can see so many awesome things. We are welcomed into a part of His plan for the redemption of the world.
What a beautiful thing to be a part of...It is not just about me and spending eternity with Him, but rather that the whole world could spend eternity with Him, if we just gave up our selfish endeavors for the sake of Him.
I struggle with it every day. It hurts. I cry often about it. But I know in the end, this will all be worth it because I will be able to stand with my neighbors rejoicing in and saying "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!"
Anyway, little tangent there...
School is going well. Turns out, I'm actually pretty decent at this whole teaching thing. :) God has blessed me with talent in this area. I have no claim over my abilities because there are far more people who should be better than me. I have adapted well to the tasks at hand and managed to not freak out under the pressure too much. My kids are doing well and growing and truly have opportunities now that they would never have had if they would have remained in the schools they were attending. We see miraculous changes in some of these kids that is nothing short of the hand of God.
I hope you all are well and enjoying this holiday season! I would love to hear from any and all of you!
Love you all,
Rae
