"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
Lamentations 3:22-23
Lamentations 3:22-23
That verse was fresh on my mind this morning as we were driving to the carepoint, and I prayed for our day. Just a few minutes later as we were driving down a bumpy dirt road - and I was trying not to fall on the person on either side of me, and praying for no flat tires - God illustrated that verse for me in a way that reminded me of His hope and that carried me through the rest of a humbling and hard day...and it will be on my heart and mind as I go to bed in a few minutes.
We were being driven down the dirt road by a friend, who reached over at one point and grabbed Mike's knee, saying "Let me tell you a story about how God is faithful." He proceeded to tell us - in a deep accent - how he and his wife had wanted a baby very badly from early on in their marriage. They prayed for one for a few years, and he said that they felt like Hannah in the Bible...and that they echoed Hannah's promise to the Lord. They told the Lord that when He blessed them with a child, they would offer him up to His service. A few years later they were pregnant, and raised their son to love and fear the Lord, never telling him of the promise they had made over his life.
After he graduated from school, he went on to do business work, planning in the near future to do a year "in Christ's service." All the while, his parents were watching closely, as they knew the plan the Lord had for their son. They watched as that son - and his new wife - served for a year "in Christ's service" that then turned in to two years. This father and son had a conversation soon after that second year where the son told his father that he had found what he was created to do and that he and his wife would be serving the Lord in missions in Swaziland.
This father is now the father of one of the lead missionaries that we are working with this week...in ministries that feed over 3000 children each day all over Swaziland. He and his wife have been faithfully and selflessly serving here in the country for over 4 years, and now this missionaries father comes to celebrate the Lord's faithfulness on the call of his son's life.
Yet as I go to bed tonight, one of the things that stands out to me the most about that story and today is the juxtaposition of God's faithfulness alongside the world's brokenness because of sin. That man who told the story recently lost his wife to an unexpected death, has lived through the apartheid in South Africa, has seen all kinds of poverty and heard all kinds of heartbreaking stories about what is going on in Swaziland...yet the story he told us this morning was about the faithfulness of God.
So as I look back on today with humbling realities, faces, names, and pictures stuck in my mind from the carepoint and a few home visits...I will also always look back on today refreshed by the promise that though the fallen nature of the world can be overwhelming...the Lord's mercies are new every morning....and God is faithful.
We were being driven down the dirt road by a friend, who reached over at one point and grabbed Mike's knee, saying "Let me tell you a story about how God is faithful." He proceeded to tell us - in a deep accent - how he and his wife had wanted a baby very badly from early on in their marriage. They prayed for one for a few years, and he said that they felt like Hannah in the Bible...and that they echoed Hannah's promise to the Lord. They told the Lord that when He blessed them with a child, they would offer him up to His service. A few years later they were pregnant, and raised their son to love and fear the Lord, never telling him of the promise they had made over his life.
After he graduated from school, he went on to do business work, planning in the near future to do a year "in Christ's service." All the while, his parents were watching closely, as they knew the plan the Lord had for their son. They watched as that son - and his new wife - served for a year "in Christ's service" that then turned in to two years. This father and son had a conversation soon after that second year where the son told his father that he had found what he was created to do and that he and his wife would be serving the Lord in missions in Swaziland.
This father is now the father of one of the lead missionaries that we are working with this week...in ministries that feed over 3000 children each day all over Swaziland. He and his wife have been faithfully and selflessly serving here in the country for over 4 years, and now this missionaries father comes to celebrate the Lord's faithfulness on the call of his son's life.
Yet as I go to bed tonight, one of the things that stands out to me the most about that story and today is the juxtaposition of God's faithfulness alongside the world's brokenness because of sin. That man who told the story recently lost his wife to an unexpected death, has lived through the apartheid in South Africa, has seen all kinds of poverty and heard all kinds of heartbreaking stories about what is going on in Swaziland...yet the story he told us this morning was about the faithfulness of God.
So as I look back on today with humbling realities, faces, names, and pictures stuck in my mind from the carepoint and a few home visits...I will also always look back on today refreshed by the promise that though the fallen nature of the world can be overwhelming...the Lord's mercies are new every morning....and God is faithful.
Oh my goodness, I did not know this! What a beautiful story of God working throughout the lives of others!
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