Happy New Year!

A decision made...

Thank you for praying with us as we have been making plans for our next step.  We have come to a conclusion that seems to us to maximize the positive aspects of each family member's hopes and desires...and it seems quite clear that this is the way that God is leading.  We will return to Nepal on March 2nd...well, it will be a long trip to get there, as our tickets are those "around the world" type.  We will spend nine weeks in Tansen.  Our plan is to serve at the mission hospital, archive our Chepang work of the past 14 years, enjoy relationships with people we love in Nepal, prepare for a sabbatical in the U.S. in 2014, and see what else the LORD might have in mind.

As this is likely to be the last across-the-globe trip for the six of us together (Nick, our oldest son, is making his own plans to chart his own course, and these include a focus on education with sights set on a good college experience)...we plan to culminate with a trip through Europe on our way home.  We haven't chosen every destination yet, but we do hope to see many European friends with whom we have served in Asia.  We will have one month to explore there.  We look forward to exposing our boys to more of this fascinating world.

We hope our house is re-built when we return to Spokane, but if not, we will navigate the final decisions upon our return.  In our absence, our wonderful friends, and comrades in this life, are willing to stand in for us to oversee the building project.  We thank God for you!

So, the Beines remain nomadic, even if for a shorter stint in 2013.

May you know the comfort of belonging to God, the one who is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Kimberly, for the Beine Bunch

Modification of the Agenda?

We have had hours of talking about our next step, and time to pray with many of our dear prayer warriors.  We have considered the opportunity to make all of the choices as our house is re-built.  We have considered the implications of leaving for Nepal and just letting somebody else build us a house.  We have considered what impact there might be on our kids if we did not return to Nepal this year, and yet still took a sabbatical next year.  We have considered our current state of exhaustion and the February 2nd date that seems to be coming at breakneck speed (this is the date on our current tickets to Nepal).  We have considered the implications for our next teacher who is serving with us as part of her degree program at Moody Bible Institute.  We have been doing a lot of considering...

At the moment, we are considering carrying on with our mission...to Nepal...just with a little delay.  We are mulling over the possibility of leaving in March, instead of February, with the plan to return to the U.S. at the end of June, as originally scheduled.  The advantages of this are many: good completion of our Chepang project, a little more time to logistically prepare (we don't even have suitcases yet!), good closure on this phase of our Nepal service (including closure for Nick, who might not return again to Nepal, with us, as he is setting his own course for life), the opportunity to see Europe (which we had already scheduled into our trip on the way home), etc.  You know, as we considered how we might invest our next six months, we realized that a house is certainly not a secure/"for-sure" thing...we might pick all the amenities we like (right down to the final light switch), and in a moment, it could all be gone again.  Or the end might come, in the twinkling of an eye, sometime in our lifetimes.  When it does come, I hope we are found investing in the things that last: people.  There are some people in Nepal, to whom we are committed, and it seems we need to see this next step through.  What will come in 2014?  We have no idea.  For now, it seems that we are being drawn back to Nepal, for yet another stint of service.  Is it easy?  No.  Is it fun?  Sometimes, but usually not.  Is it fulfilling?  Yes.  Perhaps there will be at least one Nepali who will be summoned at the final trumpet call, whose life we had an opportunity to touch in 2013...perhaps...and maybe not, but I am pretty sure that when that final trumpet sounds, I will have no thought for my house.  Christ will come again...to bring His people home.  He is preparing a marvelous house for us...I am sure that my choices on my small abode here does not even compare.  We seek the peace that surpasses understanding as we stand on the doorstep of our next journey. 

Thank you for praying with us!
Kimberly, for all the Beines

Remaining needs

For those of you who want to help with our remaining needs check out the spreadsheet at:

 Beine needs spreadshhet

Joy from ashes

HOPE…

This is the gift I was given the day that an electrical fire devastated our house (the dwelling that has served as this nomadic family’s home base for the past thirteen years…”our extravagant gift from God” as we call it).  It happened on November 28^th, 2012, fifteen minutes after David left the house for the day (the rest of us were at work and school).  That night after the boys had gone to sleep and we processed this event as a couple, I told David that I did not feel one ounce of despair.  Hope was my buoy, given as a pure gift, as far as I could discern.

The ashes have all settled now, our salvageable items have been removed, the “tearing down to the studs” (before the re-build) has begun.  We are told that it will take a minimum of six months to re-construct our house.  We have experienced a rich community of fellowship and love here in Spokane (from our neighbors, the public schools where our children attend, our church, and from friends across the globe).  We have been lavishly loved by people providing beds, toothbrushes, clothes, dressers, telephones, dishes, pillows, salt, sugar, firewood (when the furnace went out at our rental home)…and a thousand other little things that I never realized were making my everyday life very comfortable and convenient.  Many other dear people have given us hours of their time, organizing stuff, delivering furniture, cleaning sooty but recoverable items, transporting our children, caring for our pets while we looked for a suitable rental, choosing and hemming curtains to cover our windows at the rental, putting together a tool box for us (which has come in very handy with assembling new tables for our rental).  We know also that countless others have prayed for us through this event, and we feel so richly blessed.  We count ourselves some of the most fortunate people on earth; our lives are truly abundant.  We are finding that JOY also comes from ashes.

THE NEXT STEP…

Now we are mostly settled and looking forward to a different kind of celebration of the birth of our Savior this year (not quite sure how it is going to look but thankful to be together as a family, with Grandpa and Grandma Beine here too).  We already have tickets to return to Nepal on February 2^nd, 2013.  Do we keep that plan and leave the house re-building to the watchful eye of somebody else, or do we alter our plans for the Nepal stint this year?  Prior to our fire, I (Kimberly) was already feeling a profound exhaustion in my soul and was seeking a way to slow the pace of our lives just slightly.  Now, I am feeling that keeping the plan to return to Nepal in February may be my pathway to collapse.  David is highly motivated to keep our original plans, as our Chepang project is drawing to a close and he would like to properly archive the work we have done, so that we can pass the baton well, to those who come next to serve the Chepang people.  Not to mention that we feel we may need some closure (emotionally and psychologically) on our Tansen time.  We have already scheduled a sabbatical (where we will stay in the U.S.) for 2014, and after that we do not anticipate our eldest son returning to Nepal (he will be preparing to forge his own path in life).  Also, the team in Tansen, Nepal is in transition; very soon the community of foreign servants there will be almost entirely new to us.  So, it does seem like a good idea for us to go to Nepal in 2013.  We would like to make this decision by the end of this year; it will greatly affect the future of the college student who already has a plane ticket to go with us (to guide the boys in their school work while in Nepal).  So, we ask ourselves, “What is our next step?”

I feel quite confidently that this house fire is part of our story,that God is using to direct us along the path that we should tread.  In our current exhaustion, that path does not appear clear to us.  Please pray that we would discern His good plan and press on in the direction that would delight our Master.  Thank you for your precious friendship!  You are a thread in the beautiful tapestry of our lives that God is weaving.

Kimberly, for all the Beines