Miscellaneous update

Some neat things happening around here. I am starting to see the Holy Spirit working in our son, and that is very, very exciting for me. He is starting to think outside of himself, and to think of ways to make other people happy. It has been a long uphill journey to get to this point, but I am so excited about it! I think a lot of it is due to Adam and I being on the same page now too...both committed to raising our children to know God and to seek His wisdom in their lives.

I wrote about cleaning and organizing my scrap room. A very neat thing happened. I was driving home one day when God make His wishes known to me. I guess you could say God spoke to me. I didn't hear his voice, but His plan was instantly very clear to me...He spoke to my heart.

I had acquired so many supplies in a desperate attempt to buy happiness (which, of course, doesn't work). Six months ago, my neighbor mentioned a woman who is a missionary on a Native American reservation in far northern Canada. My neighbor mentioned that this woman (Nancee) uses scrapbooking in her ministry and would probably welcome any donations. My thought at that time was that I couldn't afford to donate...I needed to sell these things to make back some of the money I'd spent.

But on that drive home recently, God instructed me to give my scrapbooking supplies to Nancee. At the time, I didn't know her name. I just knew that He wanted my supplies to go to the Native American missionary. So when I got home, I called our neighbor and asked her about the missionary. Her response? "Oh! You mean Nancee! You aren't going to believe this...She's actually here! She very rarely comes back, but she's here right now for the next few days!"

So I called Nancee, who said she'd come right over. When she came over and saw my scrap room, she got tears in her eyes. She told me that they had just completely run out of supplies and hadn't known what they were going to do. Donations had dried up b/c the economy is so bad. She'd been praying that God would help her to continue her ministry. And what happened? God answered her prayers and helped me to erase 5.5 years' worth of guilt in the process!!!

Another neat thing: Nancee took one box back to where she was staying, just to go through. When she came back the next day to pick up some more boxes, she told me the coolest story. She and her daughter had gone to Walmart a couple of months ago. You have to understand that the town nearest to the reservation is several hours away, so going to Walmart is a very, very big deal. She and her daughter had each picked out a treat: Nancee had selected an eyelet-setting tool, and her daughter had picked out a package of fancy eyelets. When they finished shopping, they realized that they just did not have the money for those items, so they put them back (missionaries, of course, survive on donations, and those are very tight right now). But when she opened that first box of scrapping supplies, guess what items were on the top? That's right - - the very eyelet setting tool and eyelets that they had not been able to afford!!!! How awesome is our God???!!!!!!

So, about 75-80% of my scrapping supplies headed north for the very best possible use...as an instrument in leading people to God. And I am so very grateful to God for allowing me to see His work in progress. So often, His work is behind the scenes, or I am too unobservant to notice. But He showed so much grace by allowing me to see His work, by "creating beauty from ashes," as Nancee said. What had weighed down my heart and soul with guilt became a possible source of life and light for others. I am so, so grateful to Him!!

But wrapping this back around to our son, he blew me away the other day. Adam and the kids came home on a Saturday afternoon with a surprise for me. They had bought me a huge pad of scrapbooking paper at Hobby Lobby. Why? Ryan cited something he'd learned at church. (sidenote: neither Adam nor I are certain of the exact citation, as we can't find exactly what DS said, but we think it's Luke 6:38.) As Ryan stated, "to those who give much, much will be given."

That really floored me. The son with whom I've been struggling to get him to think outside of himself, coming up with that idea, with the addition of biblical support to back up his thinking. I'm hard-pressed to think of a prouder moment in my life to date. :-)

So that's the news here. I've got to sign off, as the young Napolean sitting behind me insists on visiting the Noggin site, and she's been quite patient up to now. May God bless you and keep you.

Sarah