A week of blessings capped off by a day of grace

Wow!!  What a week we were able to experience this past week.  Each day this past week, it felt more and more like we were on a tire swing, except we were at the end of the swing, and someone kept twisting and tightening the rope to draw it up higher and higher, all the while waiting on them to let go and send us spiraling down to the ground.  Our emotions and plans  were getting all twisted up, as we continued to think about the long list of to-do’s that were not getting done.  With both of us working now (PTL!!!), it is more difficult to get all of these usual tasks done during the day.  However, we had to keep our “eye on the prize”, and that is just getting on the plane.  So we continued to place our focus on getting there, and our Father took care of all the details.

Early in the week, a great friend that I have the opportunity to work with took on the incredible responsibility of taking in clothes for us from her friends, so we would have something for Mary Beth this week and when she arrives home.  A few weeks ago, I had to lay down my pride (lots to lay down too….) and relinquish the fact that we did need to get some clothes for our daughter, and it was going to be tough to gather enough time to shop for her before we left.  This young lady has a huge list of shoppers and sellers of consignment clothes that she reached out to for our daughter.  Within minutes of the message getting out, she was overwhelmed with responses of clothes ready to give to us!!  I was overtaken with the thought that so many people that did not know us would want to donate clothes to us.  What a reminder of what it means to give to someone – just to give!  This past week, our friend took in all the clothes, washed them and separated them by season for us and brought them to me – all with a smile on her face!  I was definitely humbled….in more ways than one.  Jenn and I want to express our gratitude to the hearts of those that donated to us, as well as to our friend who took time away from her own growing family to do this for us.  We are in great appreciation of your gifts, and our daughter will look fabulous next week (!!!) with all of these gifts.

If that was not enough for the week, yesterday was another day we were totally blown away by gifts of kindness.  We were asked to come back to the park where Luke played his flag football game for a little get-together with some 4^th grade families so the kids could all play before we left.  We had a lot to do to prepare for the trip.  But these are incredible families, and we appreciated the fact that they would include us in this family outing, so we gladly accepted their offer.  Of course, we were late (as usual) getting back to the park for the picnic.  But maybe these families know part of our personality enough to know that we needed to be a little late to this gathering.  As we arrived, W. Mc. asked all the families to gather around us and announced that this was a surprise shower for us!   Wow…..blown away!  We thought this was just to be a time when the kids would get together for a few minutes, then we would get back to our schedule and go back to work.  Not today!  She then presented us with a basket that seemed to resemble the “loaves and fishes”, because when we finally looked inside after that party was over, it seemed that the gift cards, cash and checks would not end.  Unbelievable!  People we had never even really connected with gave us gifts with “open hands” from what we saw from inside the basket.  We drove down the road, leaving the park, quiet, stunned, in amazement, yet greatly humbled by what we received from so many families that could have given to people they knew better or even people that deserved it much more than we did.  But this is an example of the many kind, giving people that we have met this past year at school.  What an example they are to us of just giving out of their hearts to families!  We are grateful for these friends that we can call family, as they have adopted our children into the fold of their covenant families.

Before we left the party, many of the parents were still there, and S. Mc. called all the parents and children over to us to pray over us.  Parents laid hands on us to pray for our journey and prayed over us.  One of the coolest parts of this time in prayer was that a few children stepped up to pray OUT LOUD for us, our trip and our daughter!  Blown away!!  I did not recognize many of the voices of these dear children.  However, their Father did, and I was imagining Him smiling down on his covenant children interceding for others.    He likes to have His children come to Him for others…..no matter the age. Again, we were humbled….

Even tonight, our doorbell rang as we were sitting down to dinner.  A mother that Jenn teaches with came with her daughter to give Lauren a care package that she put together herself, just because she is excited for us, and she wanted to do something to help our journey go smoothly.  This same family is yearning for their own daughter and waiting on their agency to inform them of their LOA any day.  We will continue to lift them up.  Special blessing of a family, and we are glad to call them friends!

In regards to the bedroom situation with the kids that I mentioned needing your prayers?  All done peacefully, and I know that our Father directed this time.  The kids and I spoke about this Friday night at dinner when Jenn was spending time with parents of her 2^nd grade class, and we laid out the possibilities.  We got up yesterday morning and moved the appropriate beds around to where everyone was satisfied and happy!  Man, that was easy!  If I had known it would have been that painless, I would not have waited so long. But I also know that if I had done this earlier, we may have missed the blessing of having our children pray over the situation, and the outcome of their hearts may have been different.  So our rooms are ready for Mary Beth to come home now, where she and Lauren will still share the same room.  YAY!!

I was going to post all of this last night, but it was after 11:00 p.m. before we sat down, and I could not get my thoughts squared away at that time to write.  However, I would have missed another blessing to end this week.

Most of you might have the same type of Sunday mornings as we do, but hopefully not.  We rush to church, hoping to have our hearts squared away before we walk in the door.  As Jenn stepped into the truck this morning, she said “He must have something good planned at church this morning!” meaning that Satan was trying to keep us from attending or getting there in time, so our Father’s plans would be hindered.  Obviously that was not going to happen this morning.

Our church is stepping out of the expository teaching that I love for a few weeks.  We are going through an 8-9 week series over Discipleship, which is awesome already, and we are just a couple of weeks into it.  After digging into the Great Commission in Matthew 28, we moved to Luke 14:25-27, which discusses the cost of being a disciple of Jesus.  Pastor Shadrach emphasized that in order to be a disciple of our Savior, we are to place Him first and most in our lives. What a reminder as we go on this journey this next week, as we could make this trip about us and what “we” are doing.  It really has nothing to do with us, outside of the grace we were given.  We then ended the service with a Spirit-filled communion and a time of worship.  We sang the song “How Deep the Father’s Love For Us”, and I was totally overwhelmed over the verse that says “It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished.” Wham!!!  It hit me – Jesus spent 6 hours hanging on the cross for me/us.  It took that long for God to place all our punishment on His Son for us – forever.  (I have heard of a test that was run of placing a college athlete on a cross to determine the effects on a human body after being suspended on a cross.  After 18 minutes of just being tied to a cross, he was screaming to get down.  Our sin took 6 hours to bear on His body before it was accomplished……)  His Grace is enough for me/us  and He wants us to rest in that grace.   The thought of this hit me in the service, and it was uncontrollable (like Niagara Falls).  What a great time spent letting Him love on us this morning!!   Before we left for church this morning, I shot a quick email to our neighbor to ask a favor of them today, and I ended it with Psalm 134:2.  Little did I know that the plan was for my Father to allow me to do this today.

One more quick thing (sorry for being so long already!) that I want to share about this trip.  As Wendy handed us the basket of gifts yesterday, she used the terminology that “these gifts are given to us to help us carry the Gospel to China.”  It reminded me right then and there that this trip was not about us, and we need to focus on Luke 14:26-27 as we journey this week and take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Allow our coming days to be focused on being humble servants.