Enough about ME!

My heart is hurting, I am up this morning feeding my son and more and more my heart is broken for a certain group of people that surround my Clarksville life! One of the greatest blessings about living in this town is being surrounded by the military community. You do grow accustomed to it until your sweet nephew comes to town with his eyes wide open as he watches a "real soldier" walk through the mall. You should have seen his face when I told him that soldier may even fly HELICOPTERS!!!! We have the coolest friends. Many of us go to work 9-5, important work don't get me wrong, but then many here go do underground missions and trainings that involve God only knows what and some days (I would venture to say most days) we "the 9-5 people" just take this whole thing called freedom for granted! Just in my small network of friends, I know many wives who have just had to say good bye to their husbands for 15months! 15 months, that is no walk in the park, that is over a year of their lives spent without their soul mate, the one they have been striving so desperately to become one flesh with, to connect with on the deepest level this earth has to offer and BAM, just like that, this love is separated my 1,000s of miles and hundreds of days! It has been such an honor to share life with many of these families in our current small group. My pity party about moving 13 hours away with a newborn and getting to spend every single day WITH my husband didn't go over well there! One guy said something that will ring in my ears forever, he said, "Kelly, Clarksville, TN (no offense) was our 7th choice." Is that comical or what, the town I so desperately don't want to leave was one that he so desperately didn't want to come to! 7th choice, now they have had to have total surrender. See when they sign on to follow the Lord in this call on their life, surrender becomes their middle name. They surrender where they live, how they spend their time, who will love and support their family and what they will be doing day in and day out for however long the Lord has them in this assignment! They have to trust that God works through this often times seemingly random authority and pray that through every move they are able to establish a new church home, a new church family, a great set of neighbors and hopefully a local shopping store to boot! Not just so that their family can have a hunky dory time, but so their spouse and children will have a support system as they go to what I so ignorantly refer to as Iraq (that is what I call the entire Middle Eastern area) to make sure that we are able to live this "normal" life I take for granted each and every day! So enough about me, let me say thank you to you! Thank you for making it to where I can type this e-mail and praise Jesus all the days of my life without worry or concern. Thank you that my son can hear about Jesus' love without reservation from his parents! Thank you that my husband CAN go 13hours away and tell those students in Elizabeth City, NC about their Savior Jesus and thank you for making my cross to bear seem so terribly small! If you or your family are on my end of this, the ones doing all the taking and none of the giving to this cause of freedom, please join me in prayer. I know a Shannon, an Amy, another Amy, an Amanda, and a Danielle (again just in my small immediate group of friends) that are living life right now without their soul mate physically by their side. This list doesn't even touch our friends whose husband go over every few months, coming and going, in and out of thier homes, in and out of their families' lives with no end in sight! There are so many in our church alone that aren't listed who deal with these realities every day. So what should we pray for in 2008? I think this would be a good place to start! Pray these woman make it! Pray they not only make it, but that God wraps His arms around them and rocks their world this year! Pray that He literally overwhelms them with His love and pray that they have the strength and grace to receive it! Pray that this is their LAST separation. Many of these woman have been dealing with this for years and I would venture to say that it is getting OLD! Pray protection for their husbands and pray that we as their support system do everything in our power to walk along side of them during this season! Finally, pray for their men! Pray that they will have an encounter with God in His land that will rock their faith to a whole new level! Pray that they will come back more sold out, as stronger spiritual leaders, as men of God who no devil in hell will be able to tempt or waiver!!!!!! As far as the big picture, who knows what to pray, praying for peace seems like such a cliche'. What is God's will in all of this, what prophecies are being fulfilled as I sit in my cushy life writing e-mails? Anyone with insight on this, PLEASE comment! I don't even know where to start! Thanks again military families for your gracious gift called my freedom! We love you and are thankful for your surrender!
Because of Him,
Kelly