Don’t ask me about new year’s resolutions. For some reason, I can get melancholy when I think of another year ahead of me. Instead, I am blessed when I look back over last year and see God’s hand, His work in and around me. I like to think back and see what happened, what milestones were reached, what difficult times we survived.
*This year, Cameron learned to ride a bike and Melodie learned to read.
*Our friend Ryouji accepted Christ.
*We had opportunity to make new friends and share God’s truths with them.
*Norman has gotten deeper in the art community, being interviewed by a newspaper, magazines, and was even on TV!
*We were not adversely affected by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami.
The Year 2012 means a new chapter in the Smith family. It’s the furlough year! The last time our parents saw our children was 4 years ago. Melodie was 1 year old; now she’s 5! That’s a big change! Seeing family and friends again is a highlight of our time in the USA. Keep us in your prayers as we adjust to life on the road, living out of a suitcase, and, in many ways, fitting into a “foreign” culture to our children.
Psalm 1 has been a blessing to me lately. Verse three talks about the righteous being like a tree planted firmly by the streams of water, producing fruit in season, not withering. Furlough has a real sense of being “uprooted” and “unplanted” for me. We are a family without our own place to call home. We won’t even be in the same state for very long. Yet, as a child of God, I can be firmly planted next to my source of strength. God Himself resides in me! It reminds me of when Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman and offered her the springs of living water so she’d never thirst again. I have access to that same spring of never-ending life and hope and strength in spite of my circumstances.
We trust that God has been visible in your past year and that you know He will be with you in this new year as well.