Steve and Jenny Valentine

Well after a two month blogging hiatus, we decided to reappear in the bloggosphere! Instead of a wordy post, I thought I would show some highlights of the past couple months with pictures.  OH, and before I forget, we're moving to Poland...for real. One of the biggest highlights happened on July 1, when we reached 100% of our monthly financial goals (yay God!). So plane tickets were purchased and on August 9th we will leave here and arrive in Poland on August 10th. Only thing that is  needed on the financial partnership front is $6,000 in start up costs. Karis completed preschool Random opportunity to meet Kurt Warner, playing my cello with some of the CCC worship team for the Kurt Warner foundation event Another random, I won all these fun things through an online giveaway, in which I only really entered because I wanted to win the ESV Bible (I never win anything, so it made us laugh!) Isaac and Karis caught their first fish Traveled to No...

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...

I have been mulling over this topic for a couple weeks now. It first hit me when speaking with someone a few weeks back about the timeline of our going. The conversation went something like this, Them: so when do y'all leave? Me: We are hoping for July, depends on when we reach 100% support. Them: Wow, that's only like (counting on their fingers)...April, May, June, July...four months! And just like that, I felt as though the wind was being knocked out of my body, I thought, "there's not enough time"! You know, not enough time to spend with those I love dearly. And fast forward a couple weeks, I was sitting in our last Bible Study meeting for the Spring, while listening to women share their hearts of what the Lord had been doing in their lives, I thought again, "there's not enough time"...Here. Spending time with these women who push me to the Cross and encourage me to continue to dig into His word. Then there was the day I sat on the cou...

John Piper states "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him". Piper's statement came to the forefront of my mind while reading a Puritan prayer from the Valley of Vision that said: I thank thee that many of my prayers have been refused -                 I have asked amiss and do not have                 I have prayed from lusts and been rejected                 I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness.    Go on with thy patient work,                 answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. So am I satisfied when God says no? For a God who works all things together for the good of those who are called a...

From the moment that we decided to give up everything in order to move across the world, we have experienced a variety of emotions. After all, we had a baby, were appointed to serve as missionaries in Poland , began raising up financial and prayer support teams, sold our home, sold almost all our belongings, traveled the States to continue raising support, and moved into a one bedroom apartment! So what seems fitting to say about our emotional condition over the past year is this: we are completely and utterly dependent on God, our Savior, to sustain our every breath through each new day and the many things we will experience in the midst of life’s ever-changing moments. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts that we can (and want to) press forward into what lies ahead for our family. We are often uplifted by songs and hymns. We want to share the words from a couple songs with you. It is our hope that you find great encouragement in these words below...