I just payed for my next 2 years of hosting so I decided I better post something on here to make it worth something. I’m going to update my site here in the near future. I doubt anybody will read this, but at least I’ll give it a shot.
Since coming back from India I don’t think my life is particularly interesting for other people. At least, not when compared to the strange happenings on the other side of the world. So, I’ll try to add as many videos and pictures as I can to liven things up. I’ve been tinkering with a new hobby in last few months that I’ve come to really enjoy. I’ve been flying remote controlled airplanes. I won’t geek out too much just yet, but here are a few pictures and a video of the planes that I’ve been flying. (These aren’t my pics or video, I’ll get to that later)
My Mom is an amazing lady. She is extremely caring and one of the most compassionate people I’ve ever met. She helped to shape 4 boys into men. She knew how to balance letting us be boys, and teaching us to be gentlemen. She knows how to make tough decision and stick to her ideals. She, along with my Dad taught me how to stay committed to a marriage even when things are hard. I know I’ll always have her love and support no matter what! She is generous and loving and I’m so proud to call her my mother!
March 2, 2010 at 10:50 pm · Filed under Chris' Posts
Well after a roller-coaster that changed our hearts and our desires it is finally set that Nicole and I are going to be back in Iowa after this school year. I can’t believe who different I feel about making this decision than I did 3 months ago. Back at the beginning of December we told the school that we would not be returning because we had not sold our house and we simply couldn’t afford to stay. Our savings were nearly gone and our house payment is more than we make here. The decision was clear, and quite frankly I was glad to have an excuse to be able to leave. I was really enjoying my job, but life just seemed hard, and I was missing the comforts of the familiar and of family.
During our Christmas break, both Nicole and I had some very deep encounters with Jesus. In particular, at a church service we both said that we were open to God sending us wherever he wanted us. My thought at the time was, “Hey, were in India, where could he possibly send us?” The next day we found out that there was a possibility that would have financially allowed us to stay. I was terrified! My excuse to leave was being taken away. I had never thought that Jesus might ask us to stay where we were! Nicole and I talked through all sorts of things and it didn’t make me feel any better.
Over the next several weeks and months I felt closer to the Lord than I had for years. I listened to a daily audio bible podcast everyday on my walk to and from the school. I prayed almost constantly about it, mostly because I constantly had a knot in my stomach. Slowly I started not only to feel peace about staying, but I started to get excited. I was feeling more fulfilled in my job and in my spiritual life than I could remember. The same concerns were still there, but they just didn’t seem as concerning as they did. Add to that they very unhappy reactions of our family, who had thought we were for sure coming home. Now, depending on what I chose to focus on, I would get excited about that decision. In Iowa, I was excited to be near family, to go to Iowa Football games and to have our dogs back. In India, I was excited to get really invested in the house church we had started going to, for the morning prayer time with co-workers, and for starting to invest in the students.
I still didn’t feel like I had a clear direction one way or the other, but last Friday Nicole got a job offer. All of the sudden we had to make a decision. For the first time, I really closely crunched the numbers on our finances in India with our new possibility. It looked like we could scrap by, really only paying our bills. We couldn’t start to build back up the savings we had before we had come to India. Even as I type this now, I feel like maybe that should have been enough to stay, but there are a few other things that payed into consideration. Back when Nicole and I were engaged we set a goal to pay off my student loans as fast a possible. We especially wanted to pay them off before we started our family. We didn’t want to have the burden of those payments when we started to have more and more financial responsibility. Anyway, if we stayed, all that time would just keep us at the same point with our debt.
So we decided to ask for a raise to my salary so we could at least make a little headway on those loans. If it couldn’t be done, Nicole would accept the job and we would be headed back to Iowa. I felt great peace about either way and was just excited to be near a decision. Before I spoke with the principle a verse that I hadn’t read for years came into my head(Nehemiah 1:11). The part that I remembered says, “… Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I thought that seemed fitting, and so I went into my meeting. The principle was quite positive about he possibilities, and brought up one that would keep us at the school for 2 more years and also put us right where we wanted to be financially. (sidenote: a similar thing happened to Nehemiah) Nicole and I were both floored. It felt like God was doing more than we could have asked or imagined. The principle said me was almost sure he could make everything come together, but that he just needed to confirm that over the weekend.
I felt overjoyed, like I was exactly at the place where God wanted me and that he was making perfectly clear. Well come Monday, when I met with the principle the bottom line was that he couldn’t do anything more than the first option where we would just scrap by. In a little bit of a daze, we accepted the job for Nicole and told our families (who were shocked and overjoyed). Right now, I’m a boiling-pot of emotions. There are a job possibilities that I’m excited about in Iowa, but overall I’m scared of sliding back into the mediocre daily life I was living before we came here. This weekend I started to make plans for the next two years of our lives in India. I could see how we would both grow in our faith and character. I saw the challenges before us and was excited to conquer them. I’m not sure what to make of all this right now. Was it just a test to see if we would be willing to stay? Was it to change our hearts, to make us willing to go wherever He calls us? I don’t know, and probably won’t for a while.
What do I know? The God I serve can do anything. He loves me more than I can understand and the more I know about Him the more I want to know. He has my heart and I will follow where he calls. What he has for me is better than the plans I make for myself. Here is my life Lord.
November 6, 2009 at 2:16 am · Filed under Chris' Posts
So with Nicole being gone this week I’ve had to make some new friends. Here’s a few videos of my new friends:
This one might be worth watching in HD. Just click the little HD icon in the bottom right corner of the video. Then click the full screen button. It might load slow, but looks a lot better.
November 1, 2009 at 11:16 pm · Filed under Chris' Posts
I noticed that it had been a long time since I posted anything so I though I’d drop a quick post. Nicole is out on activity week for the next several days as are most of the staff at Woodstock. The guys I work with are still here as are a few of our neighbors, but I’m still feeling more isolated than usual. I noticed a little thing today that made me feel just a little closer to home. Ever since we’ve been here if I wanted to know what time it was back home I would an hour and 1/2 to the current time here and then just flip the AM/PM. Well thanks to the fact that India doesn’t observe daylight savings time I now only have to had 30 minutes! So without doing anything I’m an hour closer to home. Yahoo! Anyway, I hope all my readers are well and have a great week.
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