Life in The Family International

In re-capsuling the last few months–well, last few years, in fact, I see a definite pattern in a one-year-per-episode that the Lord has been making of my life. This last year, I did lots of travel…while trying to find my place on this mission field. It was hard to know how or where I could be most useful for the Lord…and I seemed to only find out, just when I stopped “trying” to look.

The year before that was full of activities with my hospital projects–securing sponsorships, getting the kids’ (with cancer) needs met, etc. Lots of production work there, as well as a lot of instability at home–which contributed to the balance, ha.

My “years” seem to start somewhere near the end of the actual year date, if that makes any sense–like, September, October. That’s when everything seems to kick in. So, as this cycle turned, it became apparent how the Lord was leading me and my not so little family.

We went through so many ups and downs, oh wow. I could write so much on that…but I think, for the sake of this blog, we’ll leave out the negative. Then the Lord did some miraculous things which could have only happened thru complete, Divine Intervention. These were changes of heart, of lifestyle, of the dedication of individuals and requiring me to yield even when it seemed impossible to my nature. And although we’re not nearly in the “perfect” spiritual state, we’ve come a long way in a year, and you can tell by the happiness we’re experiencing as a family.

The latest exciting thing is that the Lord has opened up the doors for a brand new prison ministry. This has been a dream of mine–not so much the prison itself as the actual work we are doing, through art. Going back to the topic of years in a life, it seemed that in each one of mine, the Lord was trying to say to me that destinies had a lot to do with the experiences and choices one made. And the way He is in constant control (for our own happiness) of our lives and surrounds us with people whom He knows will play important roles in our future, giving us experiences that will take us even further than we have dreamed before–that is so interesting.

The current Prison ministry is detailed and very challenging. But, exciting as life for the Lord always is. More and more, I see the intense Spiritual Warfare, the necessity of staying close to the Lord and following His guidance, the wisdom of His Love, and the Power of Prayer. I know this all sounds a bit vague at the moment, but I’ve been so delinquent on this blog that there’s too much to tell. I will though, as thinking back what’s ensued only puts my mind more at ease. So many stories!!!

…His Plan is perfect, and there certainly is “A Time For Every Purpose under Heaven”.

I was getting ready to travel to Coimbatore, and this time had booked a flight since my baby is still quite small and I didn’t think it wise to put him on the rickety bus up. People were also known to get bug bites – so, yes we were definitely not going that way. Since I have had the baby (a month and a half now) I haven’t had much of a chance to go out and meet people and I was really looking forward to meeting someone special. I prayed with Vin that I would meet someone who was in need of encouragement.

Upon checking in, the flight attendants told me there were no front seats. I had requested a front seat so I could have more leg space plus it makes it easier when nursing etc, and I had also requested to be seated next to a lady…………..you can imagine why.

Believe it or not I was seated next to a dignified looking lady from Spain of all places. (Which is also where I am from). She was such an angel of a lady, and we began a conversation right away. I was able to give her an Activated mag and find out more about her and her family. She told me that every time she flies she gets terrible earaches that are quite unbearable for her, especially during the landing. Since we had just been talking about God and how much He wants to be a part of our lives, I offered to pray for her just before we started landing. Her ears had already started hurting, but we prayed together in full faith and then carried on our conversation. As we got off the plane, we exchanged addresses and she then told me that the pain in her ears had completely disappeared and she had felt no pain from then onwards. I felt encouraged that day – seeing two answers to prayer.. One, having met ‘that special person’, and two, the answer to prayer for her ears! I love putting God to the test, because more and more I realize that He never fails to answer in the way that is best for us.

It sure has been a long time since I’ve posted something. I’m sure you’ve all but given up on seeing anything new pop up here from our little corner. But here it is!! Our new baby is here! And yes, it’s a girl and we love her to pieces. We’re still deciding on a name so we’ll let you know when we know She came into this world after only a short 3 hours of labor and she is perfectly healthy and beautiful. All the kids adore her and we are a happy family! Love to you all out there.

One of the pre-requisites for this camp I hope to attend is to send in a witnessing testimony. I was in a hurry so I wrote the first one that came to mind, and while it’s embarrassing to remember how non-aggressive my witnessing was 4 years ago, well it still had a happy ending:

Penelope invited me to an event at the French embassy to schmooze and see if we could meet people who would be interested in sponsoring our work. I’m not good at talking to snooty French strangers, but I wanted to be supportive so I went along. Towards the end of the event I was standing alone off to a side and this man approached me and we started chatting. I got his card and gave him my number before heading on home. Honestly though, I didn’t want to call him back because he had been flirting with me and I didn’t want to come across as accepting his advances. What was I going to say, “Hi, I’m that half-your-age girl you met and I have something I want to tell you”? Don’t laugh. Obviously I had absolutely no experience in Follow Up.

Well, Penelope definitely had the faith to call him so we ended up meeting him together at his office. It wasn’t nearly as awkward as I expected it to be, and when the subject of her life-long dream of visiting Cuba, he knew just the person to make it happen… and it did!! Several times now! So I learned the lesson to have the guts to call any and everyone because you never know which one is the Lord’s sheep and what He can do through/ with them.