Me And "My Boys"

Traveling with His Little Feet for the last two or so months has been quite an adventure :D
We travel around the US, going to different churches, raising orphan awareness, and by God's grace, making an impact for the Kingdom on lives both here in the US and around the globe.
Each church that we are hosted by provides us with "host families", these are families in the church that have opened up their homes to us for the time that we will be in their area (usual two or three nights). Usually it's two children and one staff member per host home. The two wonderful children that I had the privilege of staying with in the host homes this last leg of the tour were Eyob and Yohannes. Two brothers from Ethiopia.
These two have provided me with many good laughs, fun stories, hugs, and sweet memories.
Here is a small peek into our time together:

Yohannes and Eyob's first time seeing snow.

"Sharing the love"



Eyob learning about the US in a fun way :-)
Eyob intently working on...something.

Yohannes at the park.

Aw! Isn't he adorable?

Yohannes and Detcho playing a game at one of the host homes.

Eyob and Nahagi. (Nahagi and Detcho are also in the choir and are brothers as well)

To read a sweet story about me and my boys click here

Hidden Treasures

Why are things that are so precious
hid in things of little worth?
Perhaps to show the life which Christ
would live here on the earth

Why is a diamond hid in a stone,
that is known as rough?
Wouldn't clay be far more soft
and not near so tough?

Christ ways are not our ways,
we choose the easy way out,
But He knows what He's after
and His treasures are far more stout

Than anything I've seen
formed in mud or pliable clay
Perhaps that's why He makes them thus
and hides them safely away

He forms these precious things in secret
Not on display like we
He even now is forming
a precious gem in me

He works in quiet places
Unseen by most every eye
Only those who truly seek
Will find where His treasures lie

So seek His treasures in hidden places
Though rough the digging may be
Look to Him and find true beauty
Where you didn't expect it to be!

PRAISE JESUS!

With about 14 out of the last 18 days over 100 degrees and the other 4 days in the high 90's this mornings going out to mid 60's-ish was beautiful!


What's even better is I don't know that it has even sprinkled (maybe it has a tiny bit, I'm not sure) since the post I wrote on June 29th titled "He Opened the Floodgates". Well today He did it again!
I love Jesus!

God is a good God, YES HE IS!!

My brothers and sister and I thanked Jesus as the rain came pouring down. It is lovely to see puddles of water after so many days of dry hot weather!

Thank You Jesus!
We humbled ourselves and prayed and You are healing our land!

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2Chr 7:14

For the JOY Set Before Him

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb 12:1-2

Here is a smile, a hug, and a prayer from your sister in Christ who is running the race with you. Let us find our strength, hope and joy in Him Who is seated at the right hand of the Father and in Whom we abide!

He Opened the Floodgates!

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,...Unto him be glory

Eph 3:20a & 21a

God is SO good!!

So we have been having quite a dry spell lately. We have been praying for rain.
Today when I was on my way back to the house from having my morning time with Jesus, I saw the cracks in the dry, thirsty ground and asked Jesus to fill those cracks with water.
The song "Open the Floodgates of Heaven, Let it Rain" has not only been reverberating in my head and heart, but has also been sung and hummed by other members of the family quite allot lately.
It would be one thing if we did have over a hundred head of cattle on our land (my Daddy's doing lease grassing, leasing our land out to a man to graze his cattle on), then it might not been such a big deal, though the horses probably wouldn't like it so much if the grass dried up.
So Momma and I decided that we were going to start praying for rain. We thought it would be fun if we just prayed for fat cows. We thought it would be quite a testimony if we had no grass and still had fat cows. Then we saw the problems with that. The man who owns the cows would probably move them if we didn't have any grass. Even if they were fat. He might not have the faith to believe they would stay that way without any grass :D So I suggested we pray for 1) Green grass. 2) Fat cows. 3) a jolly owner (who would want to leave his cows with us).
Well, after the pond in the pasture where my Papa's cows are dried up I could see the wisdom of praying for rain. God knew what He was doing when He made rain. It's allot easier just to pray for rain than to pray for green grass, fat cows, a jolly owner, water in the pond, the cracks in the ground to be filled...yeah, it's just wiser:D

So yesterday it looked like it was going to rain. Anticipation was high.
I heard someone say there wasn't supposed to be rain for another ten days or maybe this weekend at the earliest.
Was God going to do it?
That night the rain went around us. It was as if God was saying "Do you trust me?"
I had faith that my God would come through, He's ALWAYS faithful, maybe not always the way we think He should be, but He always is nonetheless.

Tonight I looked out the window at the huge, lumbering, gray cloud coming our way loaded down with water. Was this the answer to our prayers?
A small succession of pale colorful stripes began to peak out of the bluish gray mass. It began to get brighter and longer.
I asked John if he saw the rainbow and he asked "did He answer my prayers? I prayed for a rainbow!"
What had started out as a short pale striped piece of an arch soon grew brighter and stretched into a full ark with a dim ark above it. Not only that, but soon we could see one end resting in our pasture (something I've never seen before)God is so good to us!

It had been raining for a while now and John and I were out on the trampoline jumping and singing praises to our wonderful God. Thanking Jesus for His goodness in sending us rain. We were getting quite wet.
I had read and explained (the best I could) Ephesians 3:20 to John the night before and after I reminded him he quoted it in his own words over and over saying "He is able to do EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY, ABOVE ALL we could ask or EVEN thing!!"
After a while I got off the trampoline. I could still hear John singing praises.
The rain began to stop. I walked over to John who had stopped singing and asked "Did you stop praising Him John?" He said "I'm praising Him in my heart." To which I replied something like "It stopped raining". He began to loudly praise Jesus once again and the other kids joined in. The rain began to pour once again.
We praised our Jesus for the wonderful rain. It only rain for about 30 or 40 minutes, but as Daddy, Mom and I were talking afterward, we think this is just the beginning. Sort of like the appetizer before the meal.
So this post is my offering of praise unto the One Who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY, ABOVE ALL that we ask or think! To HIM be glory! I Love You Jesus!

Praise Jesus!

Sing all ye little ones
To the goodness of God!
Praise the Lamb of Righteousness
For shedding His blood!

In the words of Mr. NRJohnson "Oh what a Jesus!"

If your wondering what I am celebrating about, just wait until you hear. It will most likely make you want to celebrate too!

Yet another sheep has entered the fold. Yet another sinner has found forgiveness and cleansing by the wonderful sacrifice of Christ!

Oh the glorious thought that the sacrifice that was made 2,000 years ago on that cross, the blood that was shed is still efficacious for the sinners of this present day.

This glorious event which has all the angels rejoicing in heaven, brings to mind a verse from a song that says:
"My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin not in part, but the whole
is nailed to the cross and I bare it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord O my soul"

Okay let me rein it in a bit.
So here's the story: we have a young man staying with us these days. He's in his early teens.
So this young gentlemen-in-the-making had stated that he wanted to learn about God. Well I guess he came to the right place!
Not many days have elapsed since our young friend came to stay with us and yet God has done a work. God does not always take days and weeks to do the work He has set out to do. As was evidenced tonight when this young G-I-T-M gave his heart to Jesus.
"He's grinning from ear to ear" Said Momma upon entering the room after seeing said gentlemen to bed.

Hmm... if this is the state of a mere human, what must be the rejoicing in heaven?

Of Mosquitoes a Cat and Persistence

This morning while I was having some quite time with the Lord, I got two lessons in persistence.

The first
I usually come outside in the early morning to be alone with Jesus and so far I haven't had much of a problem with distractions from the nature around me, usual it does the opposite, pointing my eyes to Christ.
But this morning as I was sitting out up against our gate an element of the nature around me began to invade my quite time.
This particular invasion was just that, it was a pesky nuisance and a distraction. It was persistent and annoying and itchy. If you haven't guessed it yet, it was mosquitoes. The little pests. For some reason they seemed to like my fingers this morning.
I would be sitting there, not bothering them, and they would come souring in and with that nasty little straw-like fixture on the front of there faces they would proceed to steal from the supply of blood with which I have been entrusted. Well, that wasn't about to happen without a fight! And I must say, most of them came out allot worse off than I did.

The Second
On my morning outings with Jesus we have obtained a tag-along. We usually have two, but one is a little more persistent than the other.
Each morning when I go out these two friends will usually fallow me around.
Well the smaller of the two has taken a fancy to getting a good scratching (which I made the mistake of giving her one morning, now she thinks she can have one every morning).
So this morning, I went out a little earlier than usual and nether of my friends were around.
I whistled for D.J. (our Border Collie) but I guess it was a little early for him.
Okay, I'll just be alone than this morning. I wasn't to perturbed by the idea. But then, as I came to my spot up by the gate, seemingly out of no-ware comes my other little friend. How she happened to be right by where I was going to by I don't know.
So in her usual fashion she began to rub “up and down and all the way around”.
In my usual fashion, I tried to ignore her.
I calmly took my seat and she began to persistently rub her nose and head under and around my hands, trying somehow to get them to scratch again. While, she wasn't that successful, so then she did something that wasn't acceptable! She unsheathed her claws and proceed to grab my hands and climb up my legs. She had already been pushed away, but she got a pretty good shove this time. (just encase you hadn't guessed- and I'm not quite sure what to say if you haven't- this friend is our little gray and white kitty, Lace or Lacy- I'm not sure which, she's Kay's cat)
So after that she went backed to nosing around my hands and amazingly they began to scratch. Hay, if it keeps her from clawing, I don't mind scratching her head a bit.

So these to episodes got me to thinking, why would a mosquito be willing to risk life and limb for just a few drops (if that) of blood?
And why would a little cat be willing to face rejection and “persecution” for a little scratch on the head?

The Conclusions I Came To:
For the mosquito: they had to have it. It was the very substance they had to have to sustain their life. Without it they would have died anyway.
For the cat: it was her joy and delight. She was willing to face a little hardship to gain what she held dear.

My Questions:
Are we so hungry for more of Christ that we are willing to risk our very life for more of Him? Is He the substance of our very life?
Is He so dear to us that we are willing to face rejection and persecution and still press forward toward more of Him? Is He our driving passion?

Are we going to let mosquitoes and little kitty-cats outdo us in our persistence toward the One Who gave His life that we might live? Toward Life Himself? Toward our Jesus?

Oh Lord, let me not be such a one!

Not Only SO Cute, It's Truth!

I suggest you let it buffer before you try to view it, that way you don't miss any of the cuteness.

This Two Year Old Is Oh So Close To Knowing Her Scripture Verse