From Our Little Family to Yours.

We hope you have had an amazing Christmas this year. 

We pray that you know just how loved you are, by the one who sent His son this very day all those years ago. 

Born into this world to redeem us. 

Happy Birthday Jesus! 

We are so thankful for the best gift we could ever have been given! 

Just Rise Up By Sarah Francis Martin

I was given the opportunity this Fall to review Just Rise Up by Sarah Francis Marin, part of the Inscribed Bible Study Series for women. I loved the timing involved with reading this book as I started it right before our trip to Kenya. It seemed perfect to read her words about sharing our faith in a public way learning to be bold right as we were about to adventure to do that exact thing. 

I started in the weeks before our trip and actually finished after we returned. The study is based on Psalm 145 and calls us to consider whether or not God is actually the main priority in our lives, as He should be. Sarah breaks the study into five Chapters (topics) with five readings in each chapter. Ideally one reading per day with a place for journaling as you read, as well as questions to ask yourself encouraging you to think and dig deeper on the topics. 

The first section was all about living a live of praise, the study really encouraged and challenged me to begin thinking about how much I give praise to God during my daily life. Do I really acknowledge His gifts to me everyday? The Second section was on having a kingdom focus, really encouraging me to consider my daily activities and choices with an eternal focus and perspective. Section three dealt with pride and the issue of really bowing low before our king, recognizing my need for Him and His standing in my life before being able to rise up for Him. 

Section four is on our dreams and God's agenda, and lastly section five was about influence. 

This study was intense, which I wasn't quite expecting. Given that I had a deadline for the review, I really don't feel I gave it the time I needed to in order to enjoy all that Sarah intended it to offer. I will definitely be revisiting this again in the future though and taking the time to answer the questions and journal as I go. Because it really was so rich in wisdom and good questions to ask yourself.

I would absolutely recommend it to any woman looking for a great quiet time tool to use for several weeks. It is perfect for use in that way!  

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review from BookLookBloggers, however all views expressed are entirely my own thoughts and opinions 

Understanding of Home.

I shared last a few days ago on my instagram how there's something about the red dirt in central Africa. While you are there it's frustrating and you feel like its always on your shoes, feet and getting into everything. Kind of like the sand was when we lived in the Middle East. Now I find myself dreaming of that red dirt roads lined with precious children who want to just be with you, always ready to greet you with a smile. 


The concept of home is a strange one to both me and my hubby. Both having grown up away from our home countries and in other cultures it's always a weird thing to be asked where home is. It's such a loaded question that I'm never really sure how I'm supposed to answer.
It usually has many different answers depending on how I gauge the person asking it.
The simple answer would be wherever I currently reside, which is with my hubby in the Midwest in our home together. That is home.
Yet my family are scattered, my parents live in England on the coast. In a farm area where it takes 20 mins to drive to the nearest McDonalds and all the local stores start closing around 4pm and the average age is probably 60 something. That was home for a while too.
Then there's my university town, the dreaming spires, the history, the people who left prints on my heart during the 4 years I wrestled with life in my early 20s. I went to school there, wrestled out my faith and convictions there, started my career there and also ended it there (but that's a whole other story). That is home too.
The desert town which no longer exists in reality because everyone I knew back then now lives in another part of the world and is in a different stage of life. That's home too.


I think the complicated answer is that every place I called home, took a piece of my heart.
Every time we unpacked boxes and I had a room to call my own, it really became mine for a season. I did life in every single one of those empty shells known as houses, they became homes because of the people in them and the events that took place in them. Home is so many different places to me.


I have never known a building where you come home from the hospital and spend 18 years of life in the small four walls growing and maturing along the way. Redecorating your room every time you outgrew the colors or designs. (For the record a lot of my walls have been white, a luxury of  rental houses)
To me every place you go has the possibility of becoming a home.
Maybe that's why I feel like visiting Kenya took another piece of my heart in the same way. I got off the plane and felt a familiarity, a homecoming to a place where I had never been before. A comfort. I have really only visited central Africa twice. Twice. That's it.
Yet it seems to be permanently etched on my heart. On my mind.


Who knows what the Lord will do with that.

What Kenya Taught me about Fear.

What I have probably never shared before, as I tend not to speak it out loud very often, is that I have a fear. A very irrational fear, one that started just before I got married & seems to keep growing in size. A fear of flying. 

I know. I know. I've heard all the answers for how to get rid of it. But its seriously like being afraid of heights (which I think may be related as tall buildings now terrify me too) you can't simply just explain it away or pretend it doesn't exist. 

Several things help, but really its something that I have to pray through many time throughout the entire duration of any flight. The frequency of flying may make a difference as well. Before we got married and were travelling back and forth across the Atlantic frequently I had less of a fear of flying, then it increased with no bad experience to provoke it, just like I suddenly woke up and realized just how strange it sounds to travel in a metal tube with wings up in the air.

So with our decision to go to Kenya last month, there was a huge understanding for me that this meant getting on a plane. Several planes. 5 different flights to be exact. 35 hrs of being in the air. It was a stretch for me.

Especially when we seemed to encounter problem after problem with our flights on the way to Kenya. Our first flight departed 6 hours late due to mechanical problems with the plane (that information really made me feel so much better!). Then another flight was delayed due to a medical emergency, which really wasn't an emergency at all thankfully. One went through a storm and of course turbulence (which actually has a calming effect on me, I did say it was irrational).

The drive that kept me going of course, was the fact that I really wanted to go to Kenya. We both felt strongly that we were being called to go together & serve for the brief time we were there. And that meant being obedient and getting on that plane. 

It requires putting my trust in God and His plans for my life. Just putting one foot in front of the other and believing that He has good plans for me. Sometimes it feels beyond me to be able to do that. Especially in a fear this real.

But the one motivator I had in all this, was something that I shared during our daily devotionals as a group on our trip. As much as I am afraid of things in this life, it doesn't outweigh the fear I have of missing out on what God has for me because I was afraid. The fear of not doing something out of fear. 
Missing what He has called me to do. Missing out on being a part of what He is doing on this earth. 

So I keep battling & praying that He removes this fear someday! Battling my fears so that I can be a part of something bigger than them and bigger than me. 
Glorifying Him, even when its hard and brings me tears of fear. 
Knowing that He comforts me and protects me. I am never really in control ever in this life, this is all Him. 

And the glimpse it gives me of His creation is pretty incredible. 

I loved reading Nicole's perspective on fear today.