Steve and Jenny Valentine

That's the question of the day...or past few weeks really!  Everyone seems to be asking,  " When are you leaving for Poland? "  If I am honest, I have to admit that sometimes I wince (on the inside of course) when people ask that question because it's a reminder to me of two things... 1. We haven't yet completed raising up monthly financial partners...and it's already been such a long journey and we still have 15% more to go, oy! AND 2. We are leaving Central Florida, the place we call home, and we are very sad about that. We are sad to be moving across the world, leaving those we love dearly who will remain on this side of the world. It's almost like a jab in the side every time someone asks that question as a painful reminder of our very present reality of leaving soon...whenever that may be! But, we also celebrate when we hear this question, because that means we are close! Closer to reaching the goal that will allow us to move into our next...

Being a person who is musically inclined, I often find myself being encouraged by music, by the lyrics and find my spirit lifted. In fact, all along our journey to move to Poland, I can pin point certain songs from different phases of the process and what each song meant to us in those moments…music is powerful! Steve also enjoys music and as a family we like to play certain songs (rather loudly) in the car and sing at the top of our lungs. In turn, our children (even little Olivia) will clap and sing to the songs. It has become a normal family tradition when we ride in the van. One of those songs lately that we will crank up is called Forever. We had been given the latest Passion CD from a sweet friend (along with some fun busy games for kiddos) as a gift before we left on our month long trip last month. We are grateful for this sweet friend and her thoughtfulness in giving us this gift before we left, because we found ourselves blessed (during our travels) by the music on the cd da...

It seems normal for us now. Plans changing. We have become accustomed to getting ready to do something and then it not going as we planned that it would. We are living in a reality of flexibility right now. This is our norm. Since we just returned home a few days ago from a month long trip to attend missionary training and visit family and a few partnering churches, we are well aware that at any moment a flight can be delayed, someone can get sick, people will change their minds and it is completely out of our control. Completely. So as we have learned to "swallow a bag of rubber bands" - and be as flexible as possible...we also notice it's not comfortable...to most people...ourselves included. It's never easy. It's not necessarily preferred. But the outcome is always worth it! We want to be made more into the image of Christ and we know that by laying aside our desire for things to go as we want (or even hope and pray that they will go) that we a...