B – Blown
away at how God continues to provide… always right on time and sufficient! I STILL haven’t taken time to put together the list of
needs that I mentioned weeks back but several of you have contacted us
individually and have given so generously!
Thank you!
C – Cookhouse…
The house itself is complete, praise the Lord! We've had several meetings over the last few weeks regarding what it’s
going to take to get started, the amount of food/$ we will need and
lining up workers, too. We would love to start by feeding 100 children & elderly people who cannot provide for themselves 5 times a week. As it seems in Haiti, nothing is done in a hurry and so we are in the 'pray and wait' mode. We have been somewhat frustrated that things haven’t moved more quickly. We do, however, trust that in God’s time things will be up and
running and we are still hopeful it will be sooner than later.
D – Dreams
are coming true! A little over a year
ago we shared our dream out loud about moving to Haiti. God continues to blow us away and we are
LIVING that dream and currently praying through another! “At
every crossroad, follow your dream. It
is courageous to let your heart lead the way.” ~Thomas Leland
E –
Everywhere I look there is beauty… beautiful mountains hand crafted by our
Great God… beautiful trees that seem to reach the heavens in height… beautiful
friendships and families that look out for one another… beautiful smiles on
faces that belong to bodies in such great need…beauty from God, no doubt!
F – Fighting
to keep perspective a lot of days but astounded at the way we continue to be refueled
by giving more when we feel completely empty… “If you give beyond your ability,
God will bless beyond your ability.” ~Mark Batterson
G – Grateful
that God is big enough to handle all the grit…
H – Hopeful
that we’ve only begun to see God showing out here…
I –
Impossible situations? No… nothing is
too hard for God. “Each of us may be
sure that if God sends us on stony paths He will provide us with strong shoes.”
~Alexander Maclaren
J – June is
upon us… School will be out, graduations will take place, friends will visit,
and new projects will begin…
K – Kindness… I never hear this word without thinking about one of my favorite worship songs from years ago called, “Kindness”. It talks about how the Lord leads us to repentance with His kindness. We are all apt to do more when we are shown kindness, I think. I remember having some teachers in school that never
did anything kind. As a result, I didn’t do much in
their class except what absolutely had to be done.
Then, there were those teachers who went the extra mile to show kindness. When grading papers they made comments about
my work or started conversations with me regarding what I had written about,
etc. They didn’t have to do that but
they showed an interest in me and not just checked my name off of a list
showing I had completed my work. This spurred me on to do more... in the classroom, on my projects and even at home. I’m
sure you’ve encountered such people… both types. My mom used to recite this little saying when
we were younger that went like this, “You can win more flies with honey
than with vinegar.” Not that we ever
wanted to collect flies but the point is so true! Whether we are dealing with our children,
people in the workplace, family members, drivers that pull out in front of us, church members or just people at the
market, kindness goes a lot farther than rudeness. Wouldn’t you agree? This is getting lengthy but I want to share
this little story with you that Max Lucado talked about in one of his books. It encourages me and I hope it will encourage
you, as well…
“A friend of mine witnessed a humorous act
of kindness at an auction. The purpose of the gathering was to raise money for
a school. Someone had donated a purebred puppy that melted the heart and opened
the check-books of many guests. Two in particular.
They sat on opposite
sides of the banquet room, a man and a woman.
As the bidding continued, these two surfaced as the most determined.
Others dropped off, but not this duo. Back and forth they went until they’d
one-upped the bid to several thousand dollars. This was no longer about a
puppy. This was about victory. This was the Wimbledon finals, and neither
player was backing off the net. (Don’t you know the school president was
drooling?)
Finally the fellow gave
in and didn’t return the bid. “Going once, going twice, going three times.
Sold!”The place erupted, and the lady was presented with her tail-wagging
trophy. Her face softened, then reddened. Maybe she’d forgotten where she was.
Never intended to go twelve rounds at a formal dinner. Certainly never intended
for the world to see her pit-bull side.
So you know what she
did? As the applause subsided, she walked across the room and presented the
puppy to the competition.
He then goes
on to say, “Suppose you do that with your competition. With your enemy. With
the boss who fired you or the spouse who left you. Suppose you surprised them
with kindness? Not easy? No, it’s not. But mercy is the deepest gesture of
kindness.” Makes me want to practice kindness more!
L – Levinsky! None of you are surprised, I’m sure, that I
am bringing him up again! J
We are so excited that he is back at home. (I am actually working on a different post
with the pictures of his homecoming!) He
is still recovering and recouping. He
will have to continue taking the antibiotics for a couple more weeks and will
have to go back soon for blood work and a check-up but we are still rejoicing
that he got to come home last Friday.
Thank you for all of the prayers you offered up for him and his
family.
M – Missing…
It’s hard some days not to sit and dwell on what we’re missing while being in
Haiti. I am constantly missing my
family, my pets, my friends, my favorite spots, face to face time with my
‘sisters’ and the list goes on… but I am so grateful that God will never ask me
to let go or take something from me without it being because there is
something better in store. Am I saying
that our ‘family’ and friends here are better than those we left behind? Not at all… just that in the grander scheme,
God has plans for us right now that will prove being here is better than us
being anywhere else. Many of you know
that we are in the process of adoption right now. J It only takes a photo some days to make me cry uncontrollably when I see my family or my sweet pets and can’t hold them but when
I look in the face of this child God has led us to parent, I have no regrets. While we can only see the ‘right-nows’ in
life, God sees our every day from here on after and He has proven more than
once that He is completely worthy of our trust.
“There will stretch out before
you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path… But this, far
from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” ~Sir Winston Churchill
N – Never
say never… just don’t J
O – Overwhelmed…
completely overwhelmed with trying to learn a new language (never-mind that Caleb has long passed us in the process) but happy that we
are picking it up a little at a time and grateful for our teachers!
P – Protection… living in a foreign area where kidnappings are prevalent and walls
and gates are necessary can be scary. We credit our
protection to the one who watches over us day and night. (“He will command his angels concerning you to
guard you in all your ways” Psalm 91:11) While we have to live every day with a heightened awareness of our surroundings, we can live without fear because we know God watches over us.
Q – Quiet
time… monumental and mandatory for success… not always easy to find quiet
moments but it’s in these times that we can hear our Father speaking the loudest to our
hearts and we regain strength and confidence to face what
lies ahead for the day…
R – Reaching
for the only One who understands my EVERY feeling and trusting that He will
always grab me tight when I am near the edge...
S –
Satisfaction like never before… “I am not saying this because I am in need, for
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to
be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty…” Philippians 4:11-12
T –
Treasures abounding that the greatest amounts of money could never buy…
U –
Understanding more and more how fortunate we are! When we’re tempted to complain about
something on any given day, we don’t have to look far to see that our “little”
is so much more than many others have.
Whether we understand our circumstances/situations or not some days, we
are learning to fully understand that He really is enough!
V – Vowing
to keep circling things in prayer that seem beyond possible. “Nothing honors God more than a big dream
that is way beyond our ability to accomplish. Why? Because there is no way we
can take credit for it. And nothing is better for our spiritual development
than a big dream because it keeps us on our knees in raw dependence on
God. Drawing prayers circles around our
dreams isn’t just a mechanism whereby we accomplish great things for God; it’s
a mechanism whereby God accomplishes great things in us.” ~The
Circle Maker, Mark Batterson
W – Worrying… a waste of time! It’s so natural for us to worry in the face
of great trials but in short, what can we possibly change by worrying? I have gotten myself all worked up over
something that could possibly happen
that never actually happened one too
many times in the past. “Who of you by
worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27) Instead of focusing on the worrisome
‘what-ifs’, let God bear the weight. As
was posted by Word for You Today, “Live for today, and put tomorrow into God’s hands. Begin to eliminate
the words “what if” from your vocabulary. God will always be one step ahead of
you.”
X –
Xylophone… there aren’t any here that I’ve seen… ha… but that’s the only thing that
came to mind for ‘X’…
Y –
Yielding… something that proves harder and harder to do as the climb gets
higher and steeper but we keep trusting that as we yield we are much better off along
the way.
Z – zóréy:
creole for “ear”… “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will
cry out and not be answered.” Proverbs 21:13
John and I have had many conversations about the constant call to give
here in Haiti. We don’t have to leave
our house to find need… I’ve complained lately that I cannot even walk
downstairs without being asked to take care of at least one need before I get
to my own need. (And if we aren’t
downstairs we are often called from downstairs until we answerJ.) Sometimes my flesh gets tired of sharing and sacrificing, meeting people with never-ending “give-me’s” but I am quickly reminded of how many times I go to the Father and
ask for things, myself…... Who are we to
withhold what God has freely given us? We ask Him to provide for us and tell Him that we’ll be an empty vessel willing to
disperse His blessings and not just hold them for ourselves but so often aren't we tempted to skip out on our promises once our need is met? Genesis 12:3
says, “I will bless you…and you will be a blessing…” and Acts 20:35 says, “It
is more blessed to give than to receive.” You know that ‘feel-good feeling’ you
get when you share and you give something to someone that needs it… you don’t
get that good feeling BEFORE you give it, do you?
No, it’s after we give it that we feel all 'warm and fuzzy'. I know I won’t always get it right and I won’t always give my things away without
complaining under my breath or to my better half but thank God He doesn’t stop
giving and setting the example for us to follow. We believe that’s why we are
here. J
No comments:
Post a Comment