God At Work

I am sitting on my back  deck taking a mini "sabbatical" that will last about as long as my cup of hot chocolate.  It is an absolutely gorgeous day!  Gone are the rain clouds from this week end.  The sun is shining and it is calm. The geese are making a ruckus and the birds are singing.  I'm watching a robin as it searches for food for it's young that are nested directly below me in the deck floor.  I see this all for what it is...a gift from God!  My papa knew what I needed today and it makes my heart cry with gratitude.  I wish you could hear and feel what I'm experiencing.  It is meant to be shared.  So for now the best I can do is show you a few pictures.

I feel as though we  have been put through the wringer and are still trying to iron out all the wrinkles.  I do not feel comfortable sharing all the details of what has been happening.  I do not want to hurt the people I love.

 What I will say is that Satan is once again trying to bring us down, but little does he know God uses it as a refining fire...love that!  (oh!  By the way, mama bird found a worm for her little ones and is less than 15 feet from me!)  One thing I can mention is that last week I met up with a wonderful elderly lady who I visit with regularly.  She is a true gem!  She is always gentle and encouraging.  However, this time she looked at my face and asked what it was that I had on my face.  As you may know I tend to have a lot of acne, but on this day my face was mostly clear.  I stumbled over my words to explain.  I almost instantly knew the words were not from this godly woman at all.  I am convinced that she does not even know they came out of her mouth.  I believe Satan intended to use it to bring me down.

 A few days later Martin decided to sleep in the spare room as both of us had been sleeping rather restlessly.  The next morning he told me about a night mare he had.  In his dream we were  being attacked by several people.  Martin managed to get away from his attacker and jumped on a snowmobile to help me, only to find that my throat had been cut out.  You know the feeling you have when a dream or nightmare feels very real, and you just can't shake that feeling the next day even though you know it was only a dream?  Well, that was Martin.  I could see the remnants of terror  and sadness in his eyes.  I asked what time he had this dream.  He then proceeded to tell me the time, which was the exact time that I awoke and had this sense of the presence of the evil one.  I immediately commanded the evil one to leave and all his demons and peace descended.  Little did I know what Martin had been experiencing a that exact moment.  Isn't God the greatest?!
Upon hearing about the nightmare, I instantly knew how to interpret it.  I honestly believe it is about Satan trying to silence me...trying to quiet my voice as I advocate and speak up for the less fortunate.    I had seriously been considering switching back to a private blog or quitting altogether and also quitting face book.  Needless to say, I am not about to be silenced for I know without a shadow of a doubt that advocating and speaking up for the less fortunate is right.  It is what God calls all of us to do.  What I never, ever would have guessed... is how difficult it is. 

The story does not end here though...

Saturday night I climbed into bed exhausted in every aspect.  Angry.  Hurt.  Disillusioned.  I cried out to God to please, please send us more people to stand by our side.  Wouldn't you know it...the next day we met a couple who recently adopted the sweetest boy from China.  We connected in ways that are hard to describe.  We went out for lunch together and by the time we left, Martin and I were so encouraged that we felt ready to tackle the world! lol!  Honestly, it was refreshing, unbelievable and we're still questioning whether this can actually be true.  Knowing God as we do...I'm guessing it is!

To top it all off...Late Sunday night I got a call from this couple asking if we still needed a Registered Charity to accept the grant from ABBA Canada http://www.abbacanada.com/default.aspx.  I explained that we expected A Home For Every Child to be able to do this for us and would get the final "yes" on Tuesday.  Their response..."if you still need someone...we've talked to the leadership in our church and they would be more than willing to accept the grant on your behalf...no strings attached!"  Unbelievable!  What an incredible blessing!  Thank you so much!  You know who you are!!!  May God bless you richly for your compassion and generosity!!

Finally... A Home For Every Child is able to accept the grant on our behalf!!!  Thank you Lord!!  And thank you Amanda Preston!! You can check out this wonderful organization here http://www.ahomeforeverychildbc.ca/

We are still processing all of this.  There is still so much to be learned from it all.  I pray that when all is said and done we will be refined.  That we will be all God wants for us to be.