This is not really an update, more an opportunity to share my joy with you.

Two things:

First, I read a letter a very dear friend wrote to Audrey and I a week ago and it really lifted my heart and made me genuinely happy. I never had a sister growing up, but this friend was an easy adoption. Audrey and I met her in college and immediately loved her. She is sassy, honest, stubborn and about 4 foot 10. She has come out some real hardship, but her spirit is beautiful and it is always refreshing to hear someone speak honestly about the struggle to know and walk with G*d. A few years ago she ended up moving to Florida. We haven’t done a great job keeping in touch, but there is always lots of love on both sides. Audrey and I got to see her last year when we were there on vacation and it was a reminder of just how much we love and miss her. Getting her letter this week, all I can think about is Isaiah’s words that G*d will bring “beauty from ashes.” All of us have ashes in our lives, those places of brokenness or failure or deep hurt. She is the proof that G*d is never done making beautiful things from brokenness. She is beautiful, she has a beautiful daughter, and now she is blessing and encouraging others. I know I am not expressing this well, but it just fires my soul to know that this is what G*d does! This is what He loves and He is a master at it. This is what we are seeking to do with Him in India–beauty from ashes, a garment of praise in place of heaviness.

Second, we had a great time at our house ch*rch this past week. It was, in many ways, one of the best examples of Chr*st*an love and fellowship I have experienced. It was a quirky, diverse group full of love and laughter. What made it unique was when a young man sitting next to me shared his story within G*d’s story. He told us of growing up in a Chr*st*an home, of his hunger for G*d from a young age and of trying to follow J*sus. Then he told us about his struggle to understand his sexuality within his relationship to G*d. He was humble, kind, and a little afraid. It moved me to see how he loved G*d and wanted to be faithful even while he struggled to understand what was right. When people become issues and faces are replaced with statistics and quotations, we lose something. Homosexuality is a difficult issue, but we can’t divorce it from the people it involves. I immediately began to think about my own view on the issue, I was running Scr*pture through my mind and trying to articulate to myself what I believed was right. But I was abruptly stopped as I watched the response of the other around me. He was hugged, and commended for his courage to share so honestly about something so personal. With complete agreement, we all knew what J*sus would do in our place: He would love. This young man is seeking G*d and seeking to be obedient to G*d. Whatever issues or struggles any of us face in life, it need not be alone. Welcome to the dysfunctional, diverse, wild and beautiful family of G*d! Beauty from ashes. May we all go out this week looking for more opportunities to bring beauty from the broken places of life.

Your dysfunctional brother and sister—Matt and Audrey