Updates from the Handys

20/12/2014

Christmas 2014

28/06/2014

There's something interesting about this country. There is what feels like a time difference. Not a difference time zones, or a sense that daylight lingers longer. Rather, there is a slowness of life here. More accurately, an intentional slowness. Days here seem to be filled with simple moments like siting together, having coffee or eating fruit and talking; rarely thinking about what's next on the day's agenda and never submitting the habit if checking a smart phone to block out awkward silence. Silence is a fine thing and is a sign of one simply living in and enjoying the moment. Even more I don't remember the last time I heard the words, "let's take a rest now" and a rest is actually taken. There have been days that felt like a whole day had passed but in reality it had only been a couple of hours. But a couple hours of real intentional time spent with people. No phones. No TV. Just the company of others. Western culture is different; much faster. Not wrong, just different. However we could all take a page from this book and perhaps make time for the slowness of life.

24/06/2014

11/06/2014

8 days to go before we leave for Bulgaria!!

01/06/2014

It's June! And you know what that means? The countdown to our Bulgaria trip is officially ON! We are flying to Sofia this month!!!

09/05/2014

“I am a fool for Christ...whose fool are you?” ~ Brother Andrew

04/05/2014

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Today, we purchased our plane tickets to Bulgaria!!! We will be leaving from Seattle on June 19th and staying in Bulgaria until June 30th. While we're there, we will divide our time between Haskovo and Kardzhali, where the WEC teams live. We could not be more excited!

We want to wholeheartedly thank you for your love, support, time, generosity, and prayers--without it, we would not be where we are today! It has been incredible to witness God's amazing provision and confirmation in our journey, and to see these things happen through your sacrificial love. We feel very blessed. We're finalizing our newsletter and hope to send it out very soon, so if you have not been added to our email list for that yet, please let us know!

"...Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well."
{1 Thessalonians 2:8}

07/04/2014

This excerpt from the classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers is incredibly fitting today:

"Our natural inclination is to be so precise—trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next—that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been.

"Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life—gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God—it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3). The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “. . . believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me”.

"Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in—but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him."

30/03/2014

Hi friends & family!

First off--we just want to thank you again for the love & support you have shown us in the past few months! Your prayers, words of encouragement, questions, interest in our trip, financial gifts, and creative generosity have truly blessed us. We continue to be so excited with what God is doing in our lives, and how He is leading us--and YOU are a part of that!! We treasure you all.

As a bit of an update, we were finally able to Skype with one of the WEC team leaders on the field in Bulgaria! This past Saturday, we "met" SeoKyu and chatted briefly about WEC's work in Bulgaria, what our trip will look like, the need for the Gospel in certain people groups there, and what the spiritual climate is like. Since the WEC team will not be in Bulgaria during the May timeframe we were considering, it looks like we will be adjusting our trip to the end of June. This actually works out better because it gives us a bit more time to finish raising funds, and it also coincides with a WEC conference that will be taking place in Bulgaria.

The two towns that WEC has teams in are Haskovo and Kardzhali, both in the southern region of Bulgaria, not too far from Turkey. WEC's primary work in Bulgaria is within the Turkish communities, and from what SeoKyu told us, it is challenging but much-needed work. If you are interested in knowing more about the history of the Turks in Bulgaria specifically, Operation World and The Joshua Project are good resources to learn more:

http://www.operationworld.org/bulg
http://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18274/BU

We are working on putting together a letter to explain more about our upcoming trip and what God is doing in our lives, so if you would like to be added to our mailing list, please message/email us your address!

Once again...thank you so much for the various ways in which you have shown us your support--we are so grateful & blessed!

In His great Name,
Liz & Shawn