Our lives have been full of firsts lately. Today was no exception.

In November, we welcomed Helen and her 3-year-old son into our home all the way from China. She’s expecting her second child, a baby girl, a wonderful gift that unfortunately isn’t considered wonderful in every corner of the world. At 29 years old, she had never seen a play before. In fact, she had never even been to a movie before coming here. But today, along with our family of 6 and two other couples who work alongside us to serve in China, she and her son saw Moses.

Her eyes were wide in amazement—as were all our eyes—as we watched a river appear out of nothing at the very start, and we watched a mother as she dramatically surrendered her child to the God she loves. It took only a few minutes for me to realize that while today was a first for Helen, the story was a familiar one.

Helen’s 31 weeks now. Not unlike Moses’ mother, she was willing to do whatever she needed to do to protect her child. In her case, that meant leaving her husband and all she has ever known to live in a foreign land and live among people who don’t speak her language. While we desire to be a part of God’s blessing to her as she’s here, I know we can’t keep her from asking hard questions when she feels lonely and is missing her family, family who do not even know of the precious life in her womb yet.

As I watched the show today and as I watched her watch it too, I realized that the blessing was not so much in giving her the experience of a stage performance for the first time, it was in giving her a reminder of the truths the show told.

There is a bigger story than the one we can see right now.

Our God is faithful and unchanging even when all else is not.

He not only will use us in our brokenness but loves us in our brokenness and makes us whole despite it.

We are never alone; even in the wilderness, He is there with us, speaking to us always, sometimes in just a whisper and sometimes through burning bushes.

He not only knows our needs; He knows our hearts. His provision is not only for physical needs but for the desire of our hearts. He loves us that much.

He goes before. He makes a way where there is no way. He makes the impossible possible.

We can be a part of big things if we just come to end of us and follow Him on dry land.

And, just like God, as we named these truths tonight as a family, we realized that maybe He wanted to remind us of the same things.

So, thank you. Thank you to those who serve through the gift of singing, those who dream up creative ways to tell the story, those who program computers to move lights in ways we didn’t know was possible, those who care for the animals that your stage is famous for, those who greeted us as we entered, those who served us during intermission with a smile, and those who prepared the theatre for us early this morning while we were just waking up and getting dressed to come. Thank you for all being a part of the blessing He had for Helen and the blessing He had for all of us today. You are all a part of something big.

Humbly,

Kelly

P.S. How in the world did you get the staff turn into a snake anyway?