If you ever wonder if God truly loves you...if you ever wonder if God really cares about the little things you care about....then quit wondering...the answer is a resounding YES!!!
God has shown me time and time again how much He desires to show His children His love. The reason I'm excited, is that He did it for the 3rd time this summer. Actually, He probably showed me thousands of times this summer how much He loves me, and, I'm ashamed to admit, I likely missed many of them in my focus on "life" and not seeing the blessings in the midst of "life." But, what brings me to post this time, is that I am awed and tickled at how God can use US to show someone else how incredibly MUCH He loves them....
I won't go into the other 2 stories, but TODAY God did it again.
It's a bit of a long story, but I totally want you to see that God was all in it. It has nothing to do with me at all...I was mearly the one God chose to use to bless someone far away in a country called Bolivia.
To backtrack...there are 2 precious sisters in Bolivia who are in their early 20's. They live at home with their dad (a Bolivian pastor) their precious mom and 2 sweet, younger sisters. These 2 girls could choose to do anything with their lives, but Sara and Eva spend a good portion of their lives in ministry. They minister to poor children in Bolivia. They minister to mothers who are trying to save or earn money to help feed their children as poverty is rampant there.
I found out about Sara and Eva though a ministry that our great friends run called HEARTS OF HOPE.
Hearts of Hope is an amazing ministry that reaches out to help the poor in many countries around the world. I will have to blog just about the ministry in the future cause it is our favorite!
Anyway, I was wanting to build a relationship with Sara and Eva so I asked our friends (and the girls as well) what sort of things might bless them to send them from the US that they can't get in Bolivia.
One thing was mentioned that their father had wanted a brass colored offering plate like he saw in the US when he came a few years back. He loved the shine of it and how nice it was to collect the Lord's money in.
I heard about this need a year ago. I searched and searched and the prices for one of those are ridiculous (to my frugal mine perhaps, but still.)
I kept checking ebay, but they usually had "Buy it now" auctions for $40-60. I just didn't feel right spending that much money. I didn't have a peace. Finally, in May...a year after I first started looking, an auction came up with the brass colored offering plate.....and a communion plate....and a brass bell....and a set of candlestick holders.
The auction was for $9.99 and with shipping was right around $20. BINGO.
I was thinking "What in the world will they do with a bell and candlestick holders?" I didn't have a use for them, so I felt led to send the whole set to them along with some cloth that my mother in love bought, as they had also requested material for sewing.
I received an email from them today, and had to laugh out loud at God's goodness. See, I had no clue that they really NEEDED candlestick holders...but God, who loves a beautiful, Bolivian family on the other side of the world, worked it out to have them receive the candlesticks they needed! It may as well have been me that He lavished His blessings on because, you know, being blessed by God and used by God seem to bring the same, great joy!!
God keeps doing this! He keeps showing me and using me to bless others when I have NO CLUE that what I'm doing is really that big of a deal. I LOVE that because I can't get prideful about it when it wasn't my idea, that I had no clue what I was doing and that HE so totally orchestrated the whole thing. See, when God shows me how much He is crazy and passionately in love with a Bolivian family, He is showing me that I'm his daughter too and His love doesn't stop at the South American border.
In case you missed it...God loves YOU just as much too! He WANTS to tickle you with small ways to show His love. It may be with a brass candlestick set, or an unexpected letter or check, it may be in an amazing sunset or a gorgous bird on your porch. It may be that you just need to look into your husband's eyes or watch the children sitting around your table to realize your blessings.
And I dare you...if you don't have a relationship with God where you just enjoy His presence in your life, where you don't just thrill at serving Him and being His child, then invite Him to take over your life. Seek to bring God glory in everything you do....and you will discover that you cannot enjoy life fully until you are in a relationship where God is where your joy comes from. Where just thinking about the cross of Christ and what He has done brings a lump in your throat. Where something so small as a candlestick or a flower makes you overwhelmed by the love of God that because something is important to you, it is important to Him...your Daddy God.
Here is the email that blessed my heart today:
Dear friends,
Once again thank you for your love, it was a surprise we receive the box, we annex the pictures to this mail. Our Parents are very happy for this wonderful gift and they feel very dear. Every time that a baby is consecrated in our Church, our mom and we take charge of fixing the Church with candles and flowers, but the things that sustain the candles they always broke because they were made of mud and when we seeing those supporters of candles gold, truly it was a joy. We wait that soon we can use them in baby's consecrated, we are sure that the brothers and sisters in our Church will also be surprised.
Mom is also happy for the cloth that we receive, she will be made a dress and also new shirts for the children of the choir. We also receive the book of games it is a challenge for us because it is in English, but we understand very well some and they are very amusing to carry out them with the children.
Thank you to all, we are very blessed when we calling you brothers and sisters
With love
The family Mamani
