REJOICE IN THE LORD!

In the mist of some tough times we can Rejoice in the Lord!  We learn this in a few places like;  Romans 5:3 and Matthew 5:12.  We will see where it tells us to rejoice in our sufferings!  This week I noticed how the Lord kept blessing me with small but powerful conversations and events that have turned into what I will call mini-testimonies that I am sharing with you.  Sometimes we have to listen carefully an we can hear the answers to our prayers and God speaking to us about direction and confirmation through people.  I always imagined when He talked to Moses, Noah, Abraham, and all the others, that it was with the loud voice coming from the heavens, I guess Hollywood helped with that thought a lot too!

• One of our boys asked me for a box, and because boxes are not easy to come by here, I first asked; "What do you need it for?" He told me that his teacher was suggesting the kids bring some of their clothes, that they no longer wear, for the less fortunate children and he wanted to take a shirt and trousers. One nice thing was that our children are not in that category anymore, although we are still in need.  I told him to just put them in a plastic grocery bag.  As he motioned with his hands he said; "I can't do that Jjaja, I need to wash and iron them really nice and place them in a box so it will make it a really nice gift!"  I think that translates into: Do it with love!  Yes, I got him a box with some makeshift tissue paper.  Interestingly enough, this is one of our two boys that don't have shoes right now because they were stolen.

•  Another young boy that has been, well... lets just say in the learning stages for most of this past year.  He has been making some real visible changes in his character and it looks like he has really accepted Jesus in his heart. As I was preparing dinner the other night, he came up to me, as I usually have an audience as I cook, and said Jjaja; "I have been abusing (that means insulting like verbal abuse, calling names, etc.) this other boy in the family, in the past, but I am not going to do that anymore.  I just want to apologize to you for that and I am not going to do it anymore. Kind of speechless I said; "What?  Why?  Whats this all about?  He said "I just am" because it wasn't right.  I asked if he apologized to the other boy and had asked Jesus for forgiveness, he said; "yes."  When we accept Jesus in our heart, the changes will come.

• We received a package this week that was in transit for five months.  It was an answer to some of our needs and a few "extras."  Some of the items were boy's belts because what we get here fall apart in a few weeks.  The boys were very excited, in fact,  for a surprise I had told them we were going to talk about repairing their belts and bring your old belt to the meeting.  One was almost in two pieces, just falling apart, so he was pretty excited as he had a choice of a couple styles and colors to choose from. The Lord Will Provide.

• In this package were also scientific calculators for our senior girl students.  They were so excited, I wish I had it on video!  They opened the packages, smelled the new packaging, looked at the interchangeable colored covers and then were additionally excited to see they were dual power, battery and solar, because it will reduce on the need for batteries.  They all needed a calculator  desperately for several of their classes.  What we found here last year was inferior models that really did not perform as a scientific calculator or the others would just quit working, so we didn't waste our money on the local models again this year.  This morning as we were leaving for church I noticed one of the girls had her calculator, and I asked; "Why are you bringing that to church?"  The girls all laughed and said Jjaja, "She even slept with it last night!"  I think they really cherished these gifts.  So it was appropriate to bring a gift from God to church.  Did I already say The Lord Will Provide?

• When I was talking to the girls about these gifts, we also presented the results of a recent craft project they did.  They made some yarn hand bags and when Rita went back to America she presented them to some churches in in Indiana, and when she returned, she brought the proceeds of the sales for the girls.  These earnings were unexpected by the girls and they were joyfully overwhelmed because they don't often get the chance to make income.  That is a wonderful gift from God, thank you to the people that purchased them.  But it gets better than that, read on:

• Today at church there was an exciting event that took place.  When it was finally time for the tithes and offerings we had some new participants!  I say finally because I think they could hardly wait!!  We had four people this week that had earned some money and calculated their tithes.  Three for the handbag sales and another from some local work here in our village. This was the first time for some and if not the first time, it had to be the largest amount that they have ever given to an offering.  If you are able to give a tithe it means you earned some money and that is a great gift. To give back to God with a happy heart is priceless!

• There were a few other events that showed generous hearts, where some had shared their money.  One was so happy to have her clothes chest repaired with her own money instead of having to wait until we could afford to have it repaired.  Another was able to help out a relative with some transportation needs that had come unexpectedly because of a death in the family.  We are often blessed by the least expected source.

As I said in the opening, I was truly blessed this week witnessing God at work in so many areas!  I am really happy that He is answering some questions and giving us encouragement, as He guides us further into this journey. God gave us so many happy things that I just can't remember what those bad things are right now, I won't give them any honor!  Rejoice in the Lord!