Confessions

Kate and I have felt guilty lately. Why have we felt guilty, you ask? It’s simple. We’ve had this blog a long time. Not only have we not used it as often as we intended, I haven’t blogged on it at all. It’s become a bit like a diet. Something we make mention of often but never actually get around to instituting. Sure, while you’re eating the double bacon cheeseburger (hypothetical in this country of course) you say, ‘I should really eat healthy,’ but that doesn’t stop you from ordering a milkshake afterwards.

Why is this such a big deal? There are lots of families and couples who don’t blog, so why do we feel guilty about not using ours? For several reasons….

            First, we left a lot of very close family and friends in Auburn, Huntsville and Birmingham. We miss their fellowship dearly, talking to them, hearing about their lives and sharing about ours. We said to many of them, ‘We’ll keep in touch,’ but a skype call once in a blue moon hardly makes up for the daily interactions we had with them. So consider this our contribution to the discussion, we want you to see what we go through on a day to day basis, not because it’s overly exciting, but because we miss you and love you and want to keep up with you (so please, update your blogs as well, or send us an email about ours every once in a while.)

            Second, we know the experiences we are having here are forming us. We want our friends whom we have parted with to know what we’re are going through, and see how some of our views, thoughts and behaviors will have changed the next time we see them. Formation happens in community with others, and we praise God for a dear community here, but we also want our former communities to see what is happening to us.

            Third, and very selfishly, we want to learn how to communicate better. Writing is an excellent way for us to express our thoughts in an ordered, intentional fashion, and that’s how we want to speak, think, and talk. This blog will, hopefully, be a tool teaching us how to do that. So please, if you don’t understand what we’re saying, ask us, it will help us more than it helps you.

            So here’s our plan, hopefully we will hold each other accountable, and maybe you can help hold us accountable too! For the next two months, we each are agreeing to post one blog post a week (one from me and one from Kate). The topic is of little importance to us, it may be our thoughts, it may be our experiences, it will likely be a mixture of both. We are also going to post a third post in the week, a collection of things we’ve seen/read/enjoyed on this here computer, to hopefully encourage you (since we realize, almost every other blogger has more to say than we do). So for the next two months, that’s three posts a week. Don’t feel obligated to read or comment, but if you do, thanks. We hope it will encourage you as much as you have encouraged us.

In His love, grace and peace,

Nathan and Kate.

P.S. Here’s a picture from our trip to the Bedouin Market today! Enjoy!