reason to hope
There's so much going on in my life these days -
On Friday just before I went to visit several of the families on my favorite street I found out one of the older men I know there had died. He had been very sick for quite some time, in and out of the hospital over the last little while as his body was slowly just shutting down. Everyone - his wife, his kids, his grandchildren and all the rest of us knew it was coming. When I got down there that evening several of his children came to tell me he was gone.
I walked farther down the street to another family. As I was visiting there they were telling me about their troubles with their job - how they never actually get their salary when they are supposed to. How at the hospital they work at if a foreigner walks into one of the wards the staff suddenly start to be far more concerned about the quality of care the patients are receiving, but it stops just as quickly when the foreigner leaves again.
I also talked to one of my moms about a potential job for her - and it would be a good job for her, but she doesn't have someone to watch her youngest daughter for her, so she said I can give the job to someone else.
I was thinking as I was driving away about how hard some of the situations we live in are, but the next thought I had was of hope - and we have real hope, so it's really why I am here, why I am doing what I do every day, why I can love my friends and why I can pray and believe that God hears.
Life just keeps getting better.
Today, the boys and I went on our church's annual baptism trip to a little resort (that greatly resembles a park) almost two hours away. One of the seven people sharing the second bench in the pick-up truck we were riding in was a pastor from a nearby town. We didn't really talk on the way out, but as we were leaving to come back he asks me if the boys have a grandmother in his city. I said, yes they do.
He proceeded to tell me he's met her, his church went down to her village to share about Jesus and she told him she has two grandchildren with a foreigner/ywam in Battambang - it really was her.
There are two reasons I am smiling: first, because God answered the prayers Ruen, Rain and I have prayed of helping their family know Jesus too and second, because God was kind enough to show us how he answered this prayer. Like I said - there is so much reason to hope.
On Friday just before I went to visit several of the families on my favorite street I found out one of the older men I know there had died. He had been very sick for quite some time, in and out of the hospital over the last little while as his body was slowly just shutting down. Everyone - his wife, his kids, his grandchildren and all the rest of us knew it was coming. When I got down there that evening several of his children came to tell me he was gone.
I walked farther down the street to another family. As I was visiting there they were telling me about their troubles with their job - how they never actually get their salary when they are supposed to. How at the hospital they work at if a foreigner walks into one of the wards the staff suddenly start to be far more concerned about the quality of care the patients are receiving, but it stops just as quickly when the foreigner leaves again.
I also talked to one of my moms about a potential job for her - and it would be a good job for her, but she doesn't have someone to watch her youngest daughter for her, so she said I can give the job to someone else.
I was thinking as I was driving away about how hard some of the situations we live in are, but the next thought I had was of hope - and we have real hope, so it's really why I am here, why I am doing what I do every day, why I can love my friends and why I can pray and believe that God hears.
Life just keeps getting better.
Today, the boys and I went on our church's annual baptism trip to a little resort (that greatly resembles a park) almost two hours away. One of the seven people sharing the second bench in the pick-up truck we were riding in was a pastor from a nearby town. We didn't really talk on the way out, but as we were leaving to come back he asks me if the boys have a grandmother in his city. I said, yes they do.
He proceeded to tell me he's met her, his church went down to her village to share about Jesus and she told him she has two grandchildren with a foreigner/ywam in Battambang - it really was her.
There are two reasons I am smiling: first, because God answered the prayers Ruen, Rain and I have prayed of helping their family know Jesus too and second, because God was kind enough to show us how he answered this prayer. Like I said - there is so much reason to hope.
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