Springtime means rain, thunderstorms and showers. Everything turns green again and comes ALIVE. There are so many things that I can praise our GREAT God for that my imagination has praises raining down like a spring rainstorm!
Psalm 104:33-34 (NLT) "I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath! May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord."
For the sake of time, I am choosing to focus on God's provision in relation to Emma's trip, although I am sure I could go on for pages and pages! TONIGHT I feel like Jesus' disciple when he said, "Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25 nlt)
Reasons to PRAISE today!
1. 774 blog views as of today! Thanks to each one of you who are praying for her, encouraging her and supporting her!
2. TOTAL SUPPORT COMPLETE!!! God provided a few days after our last blog post, but it has taken me this long to make it public. God has used each of you to provide the $3081.60 needed! God used you to provide all of that from Feb 19 to April 29. There have been over 50 different donors from all across the United States. Emma's friends and siblings were able to raise $100 by selling some homemade jewelry and potholders at our local homeschool co-op presentation night. Some of you have hired her to do some odd jobs, and others have anonymously given. THANK YOU so much! ONLY our GREAT God could provide in this way! Thanks to each of you who have sacrificed so much to give to her. Because I have the honor of helping to post the monies that have been given, I get to SEE the sacrifices. This year, especially I was touched by the number of older saints on fixed incomes who gave out of their little to support this shy and quiet kid. Nothing speaks words of affirmation, love and support better than what we sacrifice for! THANK YOU!
3. only 51 days till she leaves! WOW!!! Time is flying, and I am proud of her as I watch her serve others, and look for opportunities to grow. I am hoping to post a paper here that she is writing to encourage young people to tithe or give out of whatever God has blessed them with. This grew out of a conversation that our teen class had in Sunday School this past week.
This mama is incredibly proud of her daughter. More than I ever know how to say, but I need you to know how "normal" we are. We are rejoicing because God chose to provide for us, NOT because we deserve it, or because somehow we have gained His favor more than others. This is what He has allowed, and we are humbled by it. Em is fairly typical as far as teenagers go; she likes her privacy. She loves music and reading. She hates exercise and love to play video games. She loves to try new foods, paint her nails and shop. She backtalks to us, and annoys her brothers and sisters. She does not like to do school work, and would be perfectly content to sleep all day. Her room is a mess.
On the positive side, she also will sit and teach the younger kids for me. She is a huge help to me each day by reading the younger kids stories, doing art projects with them, and playing imaginative games. She crochets purses for her young friends, and sacrifices with her little money to make sure that her friends and family are remembered on their birthdays. She even sent one of our single moms a Mother's Day card.
Perfect? Nowhere close. Growing and willing? ABSOLUTELY!!!
And she has chosen to go on another missions trip. Not because she is perfect or holy. She is a normal human sinful teenager. Just like any other missionary or pastor or whatever servant you would like to put in that space. She loves God, His Word and desires to be a blessing to others. She is learning how to share her faith. And she is excited to stretch her wings of faith and see what God will do if she says YES! Sound familiar? As I have talked with many of you, it sounds like your teenager!
One of the things that I hope God does with Emma's story of going even though she's scared and insecure, is that it will inspire other teens to do something hard and terrifying also. I am hoping God will allow us to see what happens when our kids learn at young ages what it means to step out in obedient faith and let God do what only He can and use us to write the next chapter in His incredible, life-changing story!
