What a difference a week makes!

Last Wednesday night as our family was enjoying a meal with a friend we did not know that the rest of our evening would not be as calm. After we had had an enjoyable meal, we decided to put our boys down so that we could continue talking with our friend. As I was putting medicine in Daniel's eyes, because he had pink eye, I heard Grace begin to scream. I immediately thought that she would calm down as soon as I held her and that she was just mad because I had not been holding her from the beginning. After trying to comfort her for a few minutes and her screams continuing to intensify I called the doctor and explained that her shoulder was red. He immediately told us to go to the ER. Our friend stayed with the boys as we prepared to get to the hospital. Chris did tell me on our way to the hospital that Daniel and Joshua were praying for Grace as he entered their bedroom. We are very blessed that the hospital is only a ten-minute walk from our apartment. I held Grace very tightly against me as she seemed to be more comfortable and we walked in the cold air with the beautiful Christmas lights sparkling all above us. When we arrived in the hospital we saw a tiny waiting room crowded with many children and adults. We gave our information and then waited for our turn. The room was crowded with so many different stories. There were many concerned faces in this tiny room. I tried to interact with a few and find out what their stories were. There were so many sick children. As we waited there in that tiny room for two hours, I was so thankful that Grace was sleeping and that the Lord had placed us there so that we could pray for these people. I felt so privileged to be able to pray for these people, who did not know me and did not even know that I was praying for them, but the Lord had placed us there so that we might glorify His name through prayer. When it was finally our turn, we were directed to a room at the end of the emergency area. After discussing Grace's accident, she was given some pain medicine and we were told to wait and see if that helped her to calm down. We became a little frustrated because we knew that she was in pain and we wanted to stop her pain immediately, so we prayed for wisdom and the doctor finally agreed to an x-ray. Moments later we found out that she had broken her collar bone and that the nursing staff was looking for a small enough splint to keep her arm and shoulder stable. The nurses were wonderful and bandaged her up nicely. As we were leaving we were blessed to find out that our doctor is a believer. What a blessing from our Lord! He is so good! Christians are hard to find in Belgium and the Lord blessed us with a Christian doctor on a night when we needed encouragement. As we walked home from our first ER visit, it was now past midnight, but we were stregnthened and encouraged by our great God! The Lord blessed us with unimaginable strength. I look back and think what a week, but the Lord is so good and so faithful. Throughout this incident Grace has had so many people praying for her and we have been able to give God the glory even in this accident. Grace is doing great with the harness that she has to wear for another two weeks, but each day she seems to be feeling more and more like herself. I am so thankful for the past week and the strength that the Lord has given us. Tomorrow my parents arrive and we cannot wait to see them and have some extra help! What a mighty and sovereign God we serve!

Waiting...

Waiting seems to be a theme in my life recently. It seems as if I must wait everywhere I go. At Daniel's school before I pick him up, at the post office, at the grocery store, for the elevator in our building and for the plumber to come back and fix our tub. Waiting, it is in every part of my life. We are waiting on several packages which are coming from the States. Some have important documents in them and some have goodies in them, but no matter the content we are still waiting on them. I am still waiting on my official papers to be finished here in Belgium, so that I can recieve an identity card. This is a very long process which has numerous steps involved. I am still waiting on some paperwork, so that I can advance to step two of the process. And just recently, we have added to our waiting list, medical results. Chris has been very sick for the past couple of days and today we should get back his results. We hope to find out something so that we can proceed with a treatment to help him feel better soon. It sounds like he may even get some antibiotics, which are not commonly given out in Belgium. I think that one has to be very ill before they will prescribe an antibiotic. So we wait patiently for the doctor's call. I know that in all of this waiting the Lord wants to teach me how to lean more on Him and not be impatient. Some days I do better than others. I pray that as I wait for all of these things that I have mentioned that I will not miss out on what the Lord wants to teach me while I'm in the waiting process. I know that when I am waiting it makes me more dependent upon Him and not myself; this is always a lesson that I need to continue to learn. So, here I am waiting, trusting in the One who is always faithful, knowing that He is still in control and knows what is best for me at His perfect time, not mine.

Living in weakness!

It has been such a long time since I have written anything on here, but the last month has been difficult. Daniel came down with the chicken pox, much to our surprise, since he has been vaccinated twice against them. He had a mild case (only about 40-50 bumps) but he missed about a week and a half of school. We expected the other two children to get the disease, but the Lord spared them this time. We are still baffled by this. Sickness has just been a part of our lives these days. Chris has been constantly battling a sinus infection which medicine does not seem to help. I had the flu last week and Grace continues to have a cold. Josh got sick earlier in the week, but is doing fine now. To be honest, we are just very weak and tired right now. As I was crying out to the Lord this morning, I was taken to Psalm 21, and the Lord did not let me leave the first two verses. "Oh, LORD, the king rejoices in your strength. How great is his joy in the victories you give! You have granted him the desire of his heart and have not withheld the request of his lips." As I was pouring out my heart to the Lord, He reminded me that I must rejoice in my weaknesses, so that His strength can be made even more glorious in my life. I must surrender each day over to Him. He is the One who is in control. He has brought us here for a purpose and we must continue to be obedient even in the dark and confusing times. He is our ultimate source of strength and hope. Psalm 18:32 states "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." Even though these days are hard, I will continue to trust in Him and in His faithfulness.

Growing up in the Presence of the Lord!

As I have been reading through the book of 1 Samuel, I was struck by the verse which states that "Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord." (1 Samuel 2:21) What an amazing thing to grow up in the presence of the Lord! As Daniel started school last week, I have seen before my eyes how he has been growing up in many different ways, but especially in His faith in the Lord. Starting school for the very first time is always a huge challenge and being in a school where he does not speak the same language as his classmates has presented some more challenges. I can thankfully say that I have seen his little faith in the Lord truly blossom this past week and I am so thankful to the Lord for allowing him the awesome privilege of growing up in His presence. May we all seek to grow up in the presence of the Lord as we seek to completely place our lives in His hands and rely on Him for everything. It is truly an amazing process to watch and I praise the Lord for allowing my family to be stretched so that we may all grow up in the presence of our faithful and mighty Lord!

Trips to the park

A new daily routine in my life is our trips to a nearby park. When we lived in Virginia the boys could play outside in our yard, but now that we live in an apartment, we must go to find open spaces to run and get rid of some energy. We have found one park which we enjoy and we try to go there as often as the weather permits. We have been blessed to have some beautiful days and we have all praised the Lord for them. The boys look forward to the park so that they can slide and swing, but I see it as an opportunity to meet people from many different countries. As we walk to the park, I am always in anticipation of who the Lord will place in my path today. I have been so blessed to meet some wonderful people. I thank the Lord that He uses such simple things, as going to the park with our children, as wonderful ways to spread His love. He is amazing and He continues to amaze me by His faithfulness! May we continue to go to the park, not for our enjoyment but for His glory.

Pictures from Belgium

Rejoice in God's Grace!!

1 Corinthians 15:9-11
"For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed."

During this week, this verse has stood out to me. I am learning that only by His grace did I come to Him and only by His grace can I do anything to further the Kingdom for His Glory. I continue to learn that I need him because I cannot do anything without Him but I want to make sure that I always first rejoice in the grace of salvation that was given to me. John Piper(pastor/author) states about Luke 10:20; "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." He states from a book that:
"But. Let this not be your first joy or your root joy or your indispensable joy. Rather, 'rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven." That is, rejoice that you are enrolled in the redeemed. Rejoice that you will go to heaven when you die. Rejoice that God has written you among the elect. Rejoice that you are saved. This is the greatest thing. Not ministry. But knowing God, seeing God, enjoying God. The greatest thing in the world is to be saved. Because it is being saved to enjoy God forever."

What does this have to do with anything, well for me is that I am reminded by Paul that I am saved by grace and I am who I am by grace so I pray that this grace that has been given to me is not in vain but for the glory of the Lord. I am reminded from Piper that I rejoice first in the grace of my salvation before anything else that the Lord has graciously given to me or to our family. I need to rejoice in the Lord for the grace of salvation first before rejoicing and thinking about things that pertain to different grace given by the Spirit. I might need grace in writing to make sense of my thoughts but these two things stood out to me. by Chris Kollman

Praise the Lord for small details!!

Praise the Lord, we are doing well and we are in week 2 of everything. We are getting used to everything, which is a great learning experience. The kids are doing great(PTL) and we are doing well also by His grace. We praise the Lord for being a God of details. He answered our prayers by allowing the Tech. Service Man to come early today to hook up everything so that we can write this blog tonight or early this morning. We are starting to make new friends, which is a blessing as well and will see where the Lord leads with these relationships. Thank you for your prayers and following us as we are not doing well in keeping you posted but we will do a better job. Please let us know how we may be praying for you all!!

Under construction!

The Kollman Family is creating a blog for the first time ever! In the next few days, we will be working on our blog! We hope that you will join us in our adventure with the Lord!