The day before we headed back to the U.S. a notification buzzed my watch: “A new health trend has been detected.” Curious, I tapped the button. A line chart of the previous five weeks of my resting heart rate came up. To be clear, I typically hover at a healthy 72–78 bpm. However, this “new trend” showed the day after we arrived in the U.K. and then consistently through the entire overseas portion of our sabbatical, my resting heart rate averaged between 60–65 bpm. Wouldn’t you know it, since the day we landed in the U.S., it has returned to 72–78 bpm. 

Hold that thought.

A year ago I watched the 30-minute documentary, “GodSpeed: The Pace of Being Known,” a captivating story of American pastor Matt Canlis and his deep transformation while pastoring a small parish in rural Scotland.

Thirty minutes was all it took for the emotional indicator lights on my “dashboard” to start blinking wildly. Tears slid silently down my face. That’s the beauty of emotions. They invite curiosity when you sit with them. What was moving me to tears?

“The average age of our donor is 70.” 

I jotted this down on April 29, 2022, at our first meeting with Burundi Hope Project founder Susan May. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this. Neither fear nor apathy compelled her to deliver this fact.

Eight years ago, before we were an official 501 (c) 3, before we’d designed a single brochure, set foot on a plane, or served one of 1,400+ missionaries... unknown was right. 

We took our first quaking steps while Ryan was still working his full-time job, and I was holding down the fort with our three young kids and running our wedding photography business. We created a website, an “about” video, and started inviting people into this dream—no, conviction—we had been called to. Crazy enough, many of you locked arms with us and said YES to the unknown, too!

On February 1, 2022, we received an email from Founder Steven Chartier of Good Soil Partners (GSP):

“We currently provide education scholarships to high school and college-level students, as well mentoring, leadership, and entrepreneurship training and development. We are in the process of building a 20,000 sq. ft. Dream Center in the capital city of Lilongwe, where we will provide all of these services under one roof. We’re rethinking how we can tell our story and the stories of the young men and women in Malawi to more and more potential donors and thought you might be able to help.”

I quietly inched my way over to a half dozen children sleeping on a mat in the rear of the church. A small cloud of dust danced through the air as I steadied my camera. A moment of clarity, in the midst of so much unfamiliarity, struck me. I was photographing the church nursery.

We cannot do this work without you. I hope you caught the line in Terri’s message to YOU, our TGS partners:
“Know that your partnership with them is also an investment in us. We’re so grateful to be co-laborers together for the Gospel in Europe and beyond.”

“The Good Story, in many ways, would not exist in its current form without this conference. Sitting with such a Spirit-filled group and being able to serve while also receiving so much is such a gift!”

This was what Ryan said to me in response to the question ReachGlobal posed about what we are looking forward to at this week’s conference in Budapest, Hungary.

I remember a knot in my stomach trying to navigate the rapidly changing cancellation screens and “new” policies flashing before me on Expedia. It was March 23, 2020, and my flight with one of our video Ambassadors to Duisburg, Germany, was set to take off in three days.

On April 7, 2015 we launched thegoodstory.com into the world. After years of praying and talking with trusted friends about something we called our “amoeba vision,” which burned deep in our hearts, with nervous excitement we took the leap of faith to put this vision into the public spotlight. We knew it had incredible substance but we had a hard time figuring out what shape it would take.

Have you ever watched tugboats move a large container ship? It’s an absolute marvel of science how boats so small can pull up to 1000 times their weight. It only takes three or four tugboats to move a barge because of the extremely high power-to-weight ratio.

As we worked our way through a full day of consultations we eventually found ourselves sitting across from a sweet young lady. I was immediately captivated by her story.

“So you’ve never actually been to China?” I asked her, amazed.

As you may know, we launched a sister site, missionarysites.com, last summer. Initially, we released twelve beautifully designed Squarespace website templates. Finally we can offer websites that are both affordable and aesthetically pleasing. Now you can integrate all of your communication, social media, and giving information in one place. This is a huge advantage when communicating!

There has been a necessary silence in communication from The Good Story this last quarter. A preservation of energy was needed in order for our spirits to persevere and discern this season. Many days it felt like we were going through the motions, like Mary, tending to what appeared to be an empty tomb for The Good Story.

“Sister Kelly,” those were the only English words he could communicate to me. A treasured title.

We received the unbelievable news of Pastor Rama’s passing earlier this month, from Covid. His assignment earth-side was complete. At only 46, it’s hard to reconcile the timing.

We did A LOT of hoop jumping this year. Our legs are tired, but our hearts full. Despite the pandemic, cancelled trips, and moving The Good Story offices back home where we continue to juggle work and virtual school with our three children, we can certainly look back with gratitude at the ways God lowered the mountains and raised the valleys to clear the pathways for us to complete three major goals.

One thing I learned from our last time working with the Roma, in 2016, is “planning” is a VERY western concept not readily adopted by the Roma. My logistical questions were most often met with a chuckle and an “It will come together sister Kelly, it will come together.”

Online communication has never been more important than it is today. For our brothers and sisters serving overseas or preparing to go, we wanted to create a service specifically designed for their unique online communication and security needs.
We are tickled pink (as the Southerners say) to introduce missionarysites.com

My heart quickened and tears trickled down my face.
YES! My soul exhaled as I closed my Bible.
The tension of reading the news and God’s Word was becoming unbearable. I couldn’t reconcile the two.

“We’ll go to my Roma village to walk and pray for anyone who wants prayer.”

Pastor Sherif, a kind-eyed Serbian, continued, “Bring your cameras, film whatever you want – it’s okay. You are with me, and they know I love them. They trust me, so they will trust you.”