Thankfulness- Day One

Soo, it's been a while since I've been thankful on here. The last time I did a really thorough list of the things I'm thankful for was exactly two years ago, as I was preparing to leave Odessa. Can you believe that two years have gone by?? Some times I can, sometimes I can't. Anywho, as I was thinking about all of the pictures I haven't posted on here from my recent travels, I was also reminded that today's the first of November, and a perfect time to remind myself of all that I have to be thankful for. So, to those of you who miss my frequent blogging, you'll be happy to receive my daily thanksgiving. To those who are groaning at the thought of receiving an e-mail from me every day this month, well......just remember that you signed yourself up for this! =-D

Day One will function as an update for my time out at IM's US training center in Montana last week.

 

The current MMT class, from the bottom right: Larry(Russia), Chris & Kelsey(Romania), Stephanie(Philippines), Anna & Bill(Poland)

Stephanie is from Libby, which is extremely unusual fro missionaries coming through MMT. She's a young woman who's been saved for a while, but is fairly new to really walking with God. She's scared, but also super excited to jump into an established ministry in the Philippines with another young woman from Libby who also went through MMT years ago, but chose to go w/out an agency. I roomed with Stephanie and had a great week getting to know her.

Kelsey and her husband will be serving in Oradea, Romania, where her parents serve.

This was my fourth semester going out to MMT, and it's been really exciting for me to be out there and have the chance to establish relationships with our young female students before they head overseas. It's been such a blessing for me to see a vision of mine come to fruition. The vision/belief that I had was the importance of being able to establish pre-field relationships with our interns, then setting up weekly/bi-weekly Skype times with them(depending on their need/desire), so that when they get to the field they'll have an established relationship with someone directly outside of leadership(of their team, of their MMT leaders, or Home Office leaders) who they trust to talk to about what they're experiencing- and who understands much of what they're experiencing. The point isn't to allow them to gripe and complain about their leaders, or the culture, etc., but to help normalize the situation, and help talk them through godly, biblical replies when difficulties arise. It also allows us, as an organization, to have a much better feel for what is going on with our staff, and in particular, our new staff. Out of the last three classes, there have been eight women in their 20's & 30's; four married and four single, and I'll soon add the two from this class. Out of those eight, I speak with one of the married women weekly and one monthly, and three of the singles weekly, and one bi-weekly. These relationships aren't forced, though I do pursue. Obviously, not all of the ten wanted me to be their accountability person, and that's perfectly ok. Someone else will be asked to encourage and pursue them. For the ones that I do have, some love to talk for a long time, others are happy with 30 minutes. Some I have to pursue- some pursue me. =-) I'm just so incredibly thankful to see these meaningful relationships happening, and to see the mutual encouragement, and then to see their excitement when I actually make it to them on the field. And while the purpose is to be an encouragement to them and help keep them strong while they're serving, I've been blessed so much in return. Their enthusiasm and fire for God(especially the young ones) is exciting and often pushes me to a closer walk with God. So today, on Day One, I'm thankful for MMT and the students who are being trained to serve their Creator.