The summer is winding down and my travel preparations are winding up. As the time of departure draws nearer I find more and more that I am unprepared. I don’t know if I will be prepared until I sit down on my plane seat. As I seek the Lord out as to where He is leading me I find that when I am in His will, and following His call on my life things begin to line up. All of my concerns, funding for school, student visas, plane tickets and different loose ends, every single concern has been taken care of. I am at the point where I am ready to step onto that plane and set off to Sweden, and none of this is on my own accord. I am continually reminded of God’s character, the God of provision. In Zechariah the Lord gives His promise to us:

Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.

The more I learn of God and His character I am captured by hope, not a “Gee I sure hope things go well for me!” But rather, a knowledge and trust in the goodness of our Lord. A hope in God’s promise saying “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” On a daily basis I am reminded of the Lord’s goodness and loving-kindness.

I leave for Sweden the 18^th of September at about noon, my studies begin the 21^st. Throughout the course of the year I will be in an intensive study of the word of God. I will have a break in December for a bit, and then in late March I will have another break. Here I will hopefully take the chance and travel around Europe, however I am hoping for an opportunity to serve an ongoing ministry on one of those breaks. I come home in the early part of June 2008.

For those wondering what I will be doing after I come home from Sweden, I plan on attending Western Washington University up in Bellingham to finish out my degree in Cultural Anthropology. With this major I will have a deeper understanding of how to effectively work in other cultures. While I don’t know specifically what I want to do after this I know I will be working in other countries after my studies. Maybe as a relief worker, teaching English in a university, I don’t know where the Lord will take me. But wherever He leads me I will follow Him, and hopefully His light will shine out of me.

As I continue my journey, away from home for the next nine months, keep me in your prayers. Don’t be afraid to shoot me an email from time to time, I would love to hear from anyone and everyone. May the Lord bless you and go with you! Thanks for your love and support.

Love with all my heart,

Nathan Kellogg,