For The Joy of All Nations

It's June 10th. When I glanced at my phone this morning and saw June 10, it hit me how crazy it is that we are sitting in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, today. On June 10th of last year Patrick and Samuel and I were on a plane headed to Bratislava, Slovakia. We were calling our move "long-term." We wanted to raise our family there.

So much has changed since last June 10th. It's been a hard year. A really hard year. But with some really great moments that we are very thankful for- like the birth of sweet Silas, just to mention one. We are thankful for him! But we never expected to be here in America today. In fact, by December we were back on a plane to America.

It's a long story that brought us back here- one that I'm happy to share with anyone who is interested in hearing it. Patrick and I have both learned a lot and grown a lot through the unfolding of this story. Despite all the hard moments (actually probably because of them), I can say that we trust the Lord more today than we did one year ago.

So this June 10th we are on the Smoky Mountain Summer Project. We're in a city that welcomes 1,000 international students every summer to come and work, many from East Asia and Slovakia and the Czech Republic. I get to disciple a sweet Slovak girl who we spent the summer with one year ago at Slovakia's SpeakOut English Camps. And we get to be here along with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nephews.

On Friday, we're driving back to Spartanburg for the day to close on a cute little house, and in August we'll start welcoming freshmen to the schools around the Upstate again. We're excited to be there again with our Cru team and a church that we love.

This morning Patrick reminded me of the story of the demon-possessed man who was healed by Jesus. After his healing, he begged to travel with Jesus. But Jesus said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." Of course, some details of our story are a bit different, but we feel like God is calling us back "home" to tell all that Jesus has done for us.

A few pictures of the things we're so grateful for from the past year: