DO YOU EVER LIMIT GOD?


I do. I forget how much he wants to bless us and how much he wants us to prosper. How he wants only the best for us. Sometimes I am only looking and thanking him for one star instead of seeing the whole night sky twinkling with his glory.

So I was praying for the Manna Project. We only have three paid employees and it is just not enough. We need more help but at the same time we need more money to pay for more help. So I have been praying for enough money to hire another person.

Terry had his December trip. The group came over to the house for New Years Eve. I was sitting and talking to a man I had not met before this trip, Greg. He was asking about the kitchen, well if you get me started.......

So anyways I was talking about our volunteers, we have three women who have been volunteering everyday for months. They are always there. They do any job that needs done. They stay until it is finished and the don't make a penny. They eat at the kitchen. That's it a whole days work for a meal. They never ask to be paid and they never complain. Veronica, a sister in the church is pregnate with her fourth child. She is kind and sweet and takes home the scrap food for her chickens. Xiomara is 21 and has a young son, if you saw her you would guess 30. Life has been hard. Katie is 14 and has a 9 month old baby girl. Just a baby. They ask for the scrap food from the plates for their dogs, I think that it is for themselves. It is so heart breaking to watch a little girl pick through trash with a baby on her hip to find food. Well I told Greg all about the ladies and how when we finally raise the funds it will be hard to chose who to hire. He said he would mention it to his home congregation.

The group left and we were sad to see them go. I miss everyone when they leave.

Sunday morning at Church was busy and wonderful. Leo and Sebastian have been hard at work in the community and there was a lot of joy in the air. The singing was wonderful. Sunday school class was fun and busy and the best part came when one of our young men decided to be baptized. Delmar is an out going young guy. He is 12 years old. He was in our class for quite a while.(his mom is Veronica from the kitchen) He is the first person from our Sunday morning class to be baptized, and I am so thrilled. I will miss him in class but I know that it is time for him to receive more meat and I am hoping to watch him grow into a leader in this church and this community. Well to say Sunday was a good is a bit of an understatement.

I was still pretty fired up when I got home so I went to work on some of my Sunday school lessons. I decided to check my e-mail and there was a nice thank you note from Greg. The group had eaten breakfast everyday and a couple of dinners here because the kitchen was closed at the mission house. We loved it. But anyway in the note he said that his church wanted to help, not by paying the monthly salary for one woman, but for all three!!

I was blown away. I read the letter and the ran down stairs and woke Jen up to share the news. I came back to e-mail Greg and lost the Internet for 4 days.

Okay so I was only asking God for one. He said you need three, why do I only seek the least when he wants my cup to run over?

So we told the ladies, we told them that we were sorry that we couldn't pay them, Katie said it wasn't important. Then we told them the rest of the story. Veronica was so quiet, do you still want me even though I am pregnant?

Yes! Delmar came to me and thank us for hiring his mother and said he would be there to help. Katie was bouncing up and down in her seat and clapping her hands like a 14 year old girl. Xiomara was crying, she had been kicked out of her home that very day, she has a young son, and no job. Gods perfect timing.

So I thank God for my cup running over. I thank him for people like Greg who listen and see and are not afraid to ask, and for the members of his church who didn't place a limit on God but is letting him freely use them.

I have been blessed beyond measure...

Christmas Day 2006

The day of the tamales. Hundreds of tamales.

Okay here is what happened, the ladies ask if we were having anything special on Christmas,

well our budget has no room for anything extra but we could see what we could do. Jen got on

the phone to her grandmother and talked with her and found out that her ladies group wanted to pay for the dinner. A special thank you to all who helped.

Well tamales are the traditional Christmas dinner here so the ladies made tamales on Friday night until nine o'clock. We gave them the day off on Monday to be with their families. We baked on Sunday night two hundred cupcakes. So there is the menu. Tamales and cupcakes. The tamales were stuffed with rice, chicken, raisins, olives, cornmeal and some other stuff and then wrapped in a banana leaf to cook. The cupcakes, not so hard.

Well Christmas morning comes, Alora, Katrina, Randy, Brandy and myself all head to Mololoa. We start warming up the tamales and frosting the cupcakes. Brandy was in charge of the gummy bears but needed a little guidance. She couldn't get the fact that I like having one of each color not all of the same color of bears on each cupcake. I tell you good help is hard to find (love you Brandy). The day started slow, most people stay up extremely late on the 24th and sleep half the day away. The children enjoyed the special treats. The afternoon picked up and by the time the day was over we were really pooped but we still had food. So we loaded up the back of the truck and set out to make a few special deliveries. We found hungry children on the streets. We would give them a cupcake or tamale and their little face lit up like a Christmas tree. We stopped at dumpster and gave food to people digging in the trash, we felt somewhat like Santa Clause just making random stops through out the city. By the time it was over we were done for. We came home showered and I had a bowl of cereal for Christmas dinner. I tell you what it was the best Christmas dinner I think I have ever had.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

For God so loVed the world,
That He gAve
His onLy
BegottEn
SoN
That whosoever
Believeth In Him
Should Not perish,
But have Everlasting life."
John 3:16