Fruits of Trust

Brothers and sisters,

If there is one thing Nic and I have been learning these past few weeks, it has been that the Lord is truly the giver of every good and perfect gift.  We are provided for every day with the things that we need and even the things we want, which is hard for me to accept for whatever reason.  Seriously, Jesus has been generous enough to not only pay our rent, but to even provide us with little things like money specifically for us to be able to have dates together (a fund given to us by one of the most wonderful and generous families on the face of the earth).  We have continuously been blown away by the kindness he has shown to us and are trying to figure out what it means for us to respond faithfully to that generosity by making our gifts, resources, and lives accessible to others.  We ask that you pray for our hearts to be open to trust, generosity, and praise more and more every day.

The Lord has also been faithful to provide me with employment!  Thank you to everyone who has been praying about this with us.  Starting on Monday, I will be working with the YMCA in their after school program at Bellevue Elementary School.  I am very grateful to have an opportunity to influence the youth in my community for the glory of Jesus; intergenerational relationships and training are so crucial to the health of the kingdom.  I am very much looking forward to teaching these kids what it means to be people of good character, and I am especially anticipating what they will teach me in return.  If you could be praying for Nic to have clarity on where the Lord would have him work, that would be wonderful.  We know there is a job out there for him, we just need to be patient and wait on the Lord to reveal it to us.

We have been meeting with Austin and Julie every Monday morning to talk about the direction that The Vue is headed in and what steps we need to take in order to achieve the goals of this ministry.  We pray often that our ideas would not be our own, but the Lord's, and we hope that whatever fruits may come from this ministry would be rooted in and sustained by the vine that is Jesus Christ.  We are hopeful that through this ministry, disciples will be made of 20-somethings who are empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out and disciple more people throughout the city of Pittsburgh.  He is faithful and we are so excited to see what he is working in and through us and the people we are growing with.  Some of the people we have met through The Vue are the most inspiring, motivated, and strange people we know.  They are genuine in their lives and faith; we are so thankful for their friendship and encouragement.

On another note, I am already helping a friend coordinate and promote and art show this November.  I am beyond excited!  There will be more details on that at a later date.

The Lord is faithful in every way if you submit your ways to him.  We are beyond blessed by his love and mercy for us, and pray the same for all of you.  Please, keep this ministry and his kingdom in your prayers. We love you.


Grace and peace,

N&K

22 Days Later

Brothers and sisters,

We are blessed to share our lives with you.  We would not be married and living in Pittsburgh if it were not for the community of believers (y'all) that have surrounded us and who continuously show us the love of Christ in the most ridiculous and humbling ways.  Thank you for everything you do for the kingdom - we love you.  Let us know if you ever need anything. Seriously.

Since we have not been able to communicate personally with most of your since the wedding, I want to catch all of you up on how marriage, moving, and ministry has been for us.  If you don't mind, I will be very frank about everything.  Our marriage belongs to the Lord and to the church, and I am not shy.

If I had to put into one word what Nic and I have experienced in our short time as a married couple, it would be this: trial.  This is not the space for unnecessary details about our personal lives, but I am more than comfortable saying that we have had everything but a "honeymoon phase," and we are so thankful for that.  Any sin we have hidden from ourselves and one another - known and unknown - crawled out of the depths of our heart the moment we said "I do."  For real, though, I feel like the past few weeks have consisted of us fighting our monsters together, one at a time, and through hours of prayer and tears. This time of our life that everyone told us would be the easiest has been the most difficult, but, praise Yahweh! he knows what we need.  In our weakness, Christ has been our strength.  We love each other more than ever, and that love has been sharpened through our fiercest arguments, darkest moments of despair, disappointments in one another and ourselves, but mostly these: humility, repentance, forgiveness, and love.  Nic and I are stubborn, selfish people, and it is fitting that our marriage began the way it did.  Jesus knew what we needed, and we would not have made it without him. Hallelujah.  We are excited to see how the Lord is going to continue to shape us and grow us together in and through our marriage.  If you could pray for us, that'd be wonderful.

We are also hopeful of what Jesus is doing here in Pittsburgh.  We love this city and the people here already (even though they honk at me a lot when I am driving).  The culture here is so different from anything we have encountered, and even though we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into by moving here, we know that God has been forming us specifically for this place. It's beautiful. If you could pray that the hearts of the people here would be opened to the Gospel, that'd be fantastic.

This morning we met with Julie and Austin to discuss the mission, values, and heart of The Vue.  We are reworking everything; it will take time.  I do not have much to say about that currently, but I assure you that there will be much more to tell very soon.  If you could pray that the Lord's desires would be our own, that'd be great.

Nic and I are in the process of looking for jobs.  We do not know where to look, but we know the Lord has jobs for us here. If y'all could be in serious prayer about this for us, that'd be dope (Tom Haverford, anyone?).

And that's all I really have to say right now! Once again, thank you for your prayers and support and for loving us.  We are blessed beyond belief and we don't deserve it at all.  I hope to have this blog updated regularly, so look out for more updates weekly (or monthly... maybe).



Grace and peace... we love you.

N&K