Hello All!
This month began with the sweetest of days, May 1st – my (Kevin’s) birthday. At just a ripe young age of 36 this year, I can’t help but feel like the world is my oyster. I recall at 18 years old thinking that 36 was old and that at this age you’re ‘over-the-hill’. Oh how wrong I was! I feel like life is just beginning…and in some ways it is.
On May 8th Amy and I celebrated our First Year Anniversary. We went back to the Sunshine Coast where we went on our honeymoon one year ago. The difference here was that this time we had a great time. Not that the first time wasn’t enjoyable, it just carried with it all the extra stresses of just being married and coming down from the build-up of the wedding and then having our most anticipated night at the Rockwater Resort be tainted by a windstorm (in our luxury tent-house bungalow), not the peaceful romantic experience we had hoped! We were very fortunate however that due to the wind storm, the Rockwater Resort gave us a free night, which we were able to use this trip around – and yes, it was indeed most excellent, weather and all :)
So with one year behind us, and many more to come, we did what anyone else would do and began to dream about Africa again and the possibilities of returning. Besides every great adventure has to start somewhere and it’s usually in a dream. So we’ve been praying and asking God to give us revelation as to what the future holds. There are many options and so begins the process of narrowing down and prioritizing our list. Traveling the world again must take a backseat, while we patiently await Amy’s Permanent Resident Canadian ‘Greencard’, but more importantly – Paths of Dust and Hope is to be completed. For more info on this, Amy posted a blog two-weeks back with a bunch of history and progress on our documentary...take a read if interested.
But then what? Travel? Ministry? Get a haircut and get a real job? Or should we skip all that and go straight to being the Boss, start our own business? There are many possibilities and options and I guess this is what you sort through when you’re young and newly married, combining life and vision, direction and purpose.
May was also a month filled with bumps and bruises physically and emotionally. Physically at my birthday party as we all took it like soldiers to the Laser Dome to play a ‘hard-ball’ version of paintball….ouch! Emotionally, due to a lengthy healing journey God has been taking me through, and if the past few years was walking on hot coals then May was the month God threw me into the furnace. Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego there is a fourth man standing there in the fire and I know I won’t get burnt. I find inner healing is an interesting thing. It affects everything you do. You feel like you are lying in bed in the emotional ICU, you’re physically ok and everyone around you still expects things of you yet inside you feel like your ability to respond is like that of an actual person in the ICU – very limited. Can I just say though that God is an awesome God. Because even though we’ve (to think Amy’s not affected by this is ridiculous) been on this journey of healing individually and together, God has still presented us with amazing opportunities to share our stories and ministry with others, build-up and exhort others in the Body of Christ and encourage others along their journey. It’s pretty cool to see that when we feel at our weakest God still uses us mightily. So indeed there have been some days that haven’t felt so great. However, feelings will often lie to us, but God doesn’t and he can transform one of our ‘worst’ day into one of our best.
Why is it that humans are so afraid of pain? So afraid of having a bad day? Quite often these are the things that create the greatest character in us. Without these days life would become boring, would it not? These thoughts are why on May 28th (both my Mom’s B’day and Baptism Anniversary with my best friend Greg) Greg and I re-dunked ourselves in the salty ocean, as a sort of re-commitment acknowledgement of the past year with Jesus, something I felt like seemed more serious to me this year. Not that I take my relationship with God as a joke but I think that I just had a deeper revelation of my life in Christ this year. The struggles in my life that I am overcoming have really showed me how important it is to remember Jesus and what he has done for us. Sometimes (whether you believe in Jesus or not), I feel like I can get so caught up with the things of the world that I forget to remember the things that are truly and eternally important. Jesus being the most important one. So my re-dedication this year was very powerful to say the least. I really feel connected to God and for that I am thankful. I’m also very thankful for my life, for this month of May, although seemingly a little heavy, I’m thankful to be able to share it with you.
Now for the Newly Wed’s First Year Highlights:
Amy's Highlights:
- Getting domesticated, cooking together, sharing the same bed, cleaning: we are a great domestic team!
- Sharing our testimony together, so powerful and unifying.
- The Montana roadtrip, getting lost in God’s wilderness.
- Studying the book of Acts in Greece, traveling with my best friend rocks!
- Fighting, saying sorry and realizing we came out stronger and learning more about my husband. Walking through the muck together.
- Watching Kev play basketball…he turned down the NBA, ha!
- Kev teaching me how to play volleyball and get confident riding a bike again in the traffic.
- Take-out Indian food and watching movies on Date Night.
- Yes….awesome sex!
Kevin’s Highlights:
- Ok, lets say it…SEX!
- Montana and making the tree-thing.
- Greece, the ferry ride we tool solo to the first island, Aegina.
- Making a music video together.
- Running under the hose together.
- Cooking and eating togther.
- When Amy is sad and cries and I’m able to be there for her.
- Finishing the transcribing for PODAH (Amy did it)
- Fixing up our house.
- Looking for property together.
- Playing volleyball with Amy and starting Tae Kwon Do together.
- Going for a bike ride with Amy.
- Watching movies with Amy.
- Getting out the Tux and Wedding Dress for a little in-house soiree.
- Doing anything…yup, with Amy!
That's it for the Friesen’s.
Bless you, love you
K & A
