He Redeems!

Last night I hosted a dinner/play date for a child and his mother from Benjamin's school. I was so excited and nervous. I cooked three different things and then decided spagetti would be best. Unfortunately she nor her child knew what spagetti was and seemed sceptical =) Whoopsie! Thought it was a universal meal.
The children played very well together and Micah and Ben were awesome listeners and followed directions whenever I needed to ask them to do something. My guest was impressed and asked "How do you get them to do that? You ask them one time and they listen to what you say." Then she started tearing up and I saw the feelings of a defeated parent surfacing. I admitted quickly that the behavior she was witnessing was wonderful but not always consistent and neither was my behavior. I told her how the night before I laid in bed crying because I had yelled at Benjamin two times that day and saw how it crushed him. I told her how Micah listens and is very obidient and so I therefore expect perfection from him and do not exhibit patience when he fails to listen. I told her of the behavior charts we use and how effective consistent time out is. But I failed to tell her that all the behavior charts in the world and all the time outs are not the results she is admiring in my house. What she is seeing is God's love and grace in action. She is seeing a family that prays over their decisions with parenting and children who know that God controls their home. How did I fail to mention this?! How did I dare take away from the amazing family life God has given us and instead give credit to a stupid behavior chart?! I felt so dumb and foolish after she left and prayed God would redeem my mistake.
The next morning when I dropped off Benjamin, she walked through the door. I've seen her less than five times in all the mornings I've taken Benjamin so this was not just a chance meeting. She walked out with me and asked if I would like to ride with her and I said yes. She started telling me about how wonderful last night was and asked if we could meet again next week and I quickly said yes. Then for one hour we sat in her car and talked (I guess being late to work is okay). Every question she asked was like God wrote it out and put it in her mouth and He was exalted! Pray for this relationship and for my speech to always be ready to give account for the joy I have.
"I will praise the Lord at all times, His praise will always be on my lips." Psalm 34:1

Pray for Micah

Today was a wonderful day for me as a mama but it was also a day of some mixed emotion. This morning Micah was already running late to catch the bus, but he was running around determined to find his green Bible. "Mom, me and my friends are going to start a Bible club today. I have to find my little green Bible!" I tried so hard to help him find it, as I could see in his face how important this was to him. Finally the threat of the bus leaving him was too serious and so I gave him one of our picture Bibles and he took that instead.
Today Micah got off the bus and immediately began to fill me in on the Bible club's first day. He told me that he opened his Bible and would ask other kids if they would like to read it with him. He said "Mom they laughed at me. One kid stuck his tongue out at me and another boy told me the Bible was stupid. Mom they just don't know how cool it is." I told Micah that we could pray for those kids and he gave me their names and we prayed for them tonight. When Cameron and I got home tonight from the Roma community Micah proudly held out his green Bible and said "Found it!" Micah said "Mom do we have any Bibles in Bulgarian so when they want to read it with me they can have a Bible in Bulgarian?" So he has his little stack of Bibles ready to take to school tomorrow.
Today was a very proud moment for me because, Cameron nor I ever encouraged this with Micah, it is simply something he and his two friends decided needed to happen and he was determined to see it happen. I am proud that at the age of five God is encouraging him to do something that I once did. This is where the mixed feelings come into play. When I was in sixth grade I became a Christian. Because my stepdad was a self proclaimed atheist, he challenged my beliefs constantly. I can honestly say I wouldn't be the Christian I am today without his challenges because they forced me to take my decision to follow Christ seriously. I carried my Bible to school with me every day, not necessarily for others to see it but because I wanted to read it every chance I got. This of course was not a popular idea amongst my peers and one day I found my Bible with a pencil sticking out of it. Someone decided to stab my Bible while I was out of the classroom. =) My senior year I had very clear directions from God to tell my graduating class about Him before school ended. I did NOT want to do this and I would spend a good part of my lunch break shaking in fear and praying in the restroom for God to let me off the hook. Every lunch hour I would go from table to table telling peers about God's love for them. Seven of my peers prayed to follow Christ! One day, my darkest day of high school was when I was sharing about God's love and a bread roll hit me in the back of the head. Soon after, mashed potatoes hit my hair and shortly after that water got thrown at me as I walked by the group of girls that did all of this. I see Micah and I am so proud but my stomach actually turns to knots at the thoughts of what following Christ will mean in his life. I know how bad those girls hurt me during my high school years but I also remember how God was closer than ever in my relationship with Him during that time. Today when Micah told me about the kids who laughed at him, stuck out their tongue and told him what he was doing was stupid I had to take a moment to not immediately want to protect Micah. I have to trust God to take care of Micah just like He took care of me. God never calls us to do something without knowing the details of the job in front of us. Just as we follow Christ and trust Him with our life we must also trust Him with the lives of our children. I don't ever want Micah to be hit with food by his peers like I was and to be picked on day in and day out by their malicious gossip, but I also don't want to deprive him of those moments. It was in those moments of trials that I became strengthened to follow God wherever He called and in whatever I was called to do. So please pray for Micah and his Bible club. Pray that he would not be discouraged by those who will call him names or laugh at him but that he and his two friends would do what God has told them to do. Praise God for the little ears that hear His voice and follow without hesitation!

Oops, Did I say "strong"...HELP ME!

You think I would have learned by now that my own strength and my own abilities will always fail me, but sometimes I feel the need to try it again and be reminded of my complete dependence on God! This weekend was one of those times. A little boy spitting in my face at a play center on Saturday should have been a hint that the weekend may not be as easy as I expected it to be =) But then again, I'm pretty dense. Since I had prepared very early in the week for Sunday's lesson I felt pretty confident that it would be easy and though I thought about spending time with God over needing His help, my actions displayed my over confidence. Sunday began with more children than I had expected and I began to rush to get things in order to help compensate for my lack of preparation. Once in the class room, children were very defiant and some were quite challenging. I remembered my over confidence and I realized it's just me today. At no point this week did I invite God to go before me on Sunday, at no point did I even pray about Sunday and needing His help because in my own confidence and strength I felt like "I got this" and Sunday was quickly letting me know I DID NOT. As with God's gentle nature He allowed me to have it myself as I initially desired. When the children sat down for the story I had difficulty reading it in the Bulgarian yet that week I had practiced it so confidently. The children were restless and few listened. I quickly moved on to the game I had prepared and arguing began between the children because they didn't like the team they were on. I quickly then moved onto the color activity in order to get the kids to sit quietly and calmly. As soon as we sat down and I thought, "finally things are going better" a little 3 year old decided he was a dog and began chewing my markers and growling. I attempted to take the marker from his mouth and he bit my foot and began barking at me. He then moved on and began eating everyone's art work. The calm sitting down turned into children yelling and hitting the dog boy in the head. I had lost complete control. I thought of new games to play, I thought of different activities to do and nothing worked. In my mind I thought "At least the service is only 30 minutes!" But unbeknownst to me, that day there was a guest speaker and children's church would be an hour. I wanted to cry. I felt so foolish to have taken a step in front of God and in my own strength and confidence, think my flesh could ever be strong enough for the work He has called me to do. After the children left, Cameron tried to make me happier and asked me "what do you want to do? I know you don't want to go home and cook, so do you want to go somewhere after church instead?" I thought 'Oh yes, this is perfect.' I will find my joy restored after a cheeseburger and latte from Mc Donalds. We went to Mc Donalds and I ate my cheeseburger and took a drink of my nice warm latte. I felt something in my mouth and thought it was food until I felt a "pop" It was a fly! There was a fly in my latte and it was now in my mouth! I was ready for the day to end! It's comical now but Sunday I wanted to get a tattoo that said "YOU ARE WEAK, NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!" lol, Oh the lessons we learn in the times we step in front of God. I don't think there was a fly in my latte because I didn't pray enough, but I do think that when I live in my own strength a fly in my latte will break me. My joy and my strength is from the Lord, it is not found in my own abilities, my ministry, or a cheeseburger and latte. We are to always be humble before our God and submit to Him daily and in all areas of our life His grace will be sufficient.
"Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up" James 4:10

May you be encouraged and reminded by my weekend to spend time with God today and follow a Sovereign God whose strength is always sufficient for us. He is gracious enough to allow us to step out in our own strength, only to find we will always need Him =) Guard your heart, your mind and your time and lay them at His feet.

The wrong side...

We had a meeting in Germany last week and decided to take a vacation while we were there. We made our way to Holland to visit the former home of my hero, Corrie Ten Boom. Her book "The Hiding Place" changed my life and understanding of sorrow. After losing our fifth pregnancy, a friend gave me the opportunity to read this book and read about this amazing woman who ended up in a concentration camp for hiding Jews. The thing I always remember from the book is: When Corrie was an old lady sitting in her chair, a woman asked her about life's sorrows and how sorrow could truly turn around and be something beautiful. Corrie sat in a chair and while cross stitching lifted the under side of what she was working on and said "Does this look beautiful to you?" The woman replied "Well not that side. I'm sure it's beautiful on the other side but this side doesn't show the complete picture, just threading." Corrie laid it back in her lap and said "So is the same with life sorrow, you are looking at it from the wrong side. One day we will stand next to Jesus and see the beauty of the picture. Right now you just see the threading." I take that example of her's with me always, treasured in my heart, always reminding myself that I am looking at the picture from the wrong side and one day I will be so blessed to know I was one of those threads that helped make that beautiful picture. Right now in my sweet country of Bulgaria, there are alot of threads. There are scared and hurting people. There is anger and there are angry words. There are alot of threads but I know that My Jesus is able to redeem all things for His glory. May the prayer for Bulgaria be that we can find ways to be part of the picture of beauty that is being weaved together for His glory! Our personal prayer is that we can one day look at the picture from Heaven's side and say that little insignificant piece of string right there is me =) God is an artist, a mighty creator but no one ever stands back and admires the paint jars or the unused threads, but rather the masterpiece! We can make a choice today to be left on the shelf, unused for His glory or be part of the picture. We serve a God that is so awesome to let us be a part of His work!
Please pray for our country and for our family as we work beside the Roma, equipping this people group to desire and train others to be part of the picture for God's glory.
"May God be gracious to us and bless us; look on us with favor so that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations." Psalm 67:1-2
And you may be reading this from the other side of the world but I BEG you, do not under estimate the power of prayer! You can be a mighty part of ministry taking place all over Bulgaria by praying for the Christians here who are constantly showing others the love of Christ. Be part of the picture!

When it rains??

Each week we have gone out to the Roma community on Wednesday for discipleship and life skills training. In the past when it has rained in the city it has miraculously not rained in the field we work in. One time Cameron and I decided not to go because it had been raining and we honestly just didn't feel like dealing with the weather. Our translators went out without us and reported back that it rained all around the field but never rained in the field while they were there! We were so disappointed that we missed out on seeing God's hand in such an awesome way and now try to only miss going on a Wednesday if someone is sick.
So this Wednesday it was pouring all day and we knew the car couldn't get back far in all the muddy landscape and we would need to walk part of the way. We didn't even know if they would want us to come out to the community with the weather being colder and wet. Beth and I decided to stay home with kids and only the husbands went to visit. They knew there wouldn't be an option for a time of discipleship due to size limitations being that only two adults could fit under a cardboard tent. Even though their visit was good, it made us wonder what church planting looks like in this situation, outside and vulnerable to the weather. The group has expressed a desire to meet in the field they live in for church. Outdoor churches have been done successfully and my mind takes me to groups meeting under trees in Africa. I am open with the leadership of our Pastor to plant a church where a group of believers wishes to gather but I have questions. How does an outdoor church plant meet in the snow? We sit on the ground under the best tree we can find now; do we sit on cardboard in the snow? I can't wrap my mind around what church looks like with the weather elements. I don't want church to be dependent on the weather but I don't want to doubt God either, especially after He showed Himself in control over the weather the day we decided not to go out because of rain. If you can help with experience you have had or with suggestions please post on the blog or send me an email at Jencammicah@hotmail.com Please continue to pray for us as we just take each step one at a time, going forward down the path that God illuminates. Pray also for the pastor of our church, Steve, as we will look to his leadership and guidance in this matter.

"You are real"

Every Wednesday Cameron, I and others go to the Roma community to do discipleship with the adults and life skills training and scripture memorization with the kids. Last Wednesday the community was being forced to move from the area of the field they had been squatting in and were unsure where they would move next. We were happy to find them in the same field this Wednesday when we visited. They were allowed to stay in the same field but had to move to a different location within it.
We walked through and talked to familiar faces and were shown the new area they're living. The children and I were about to leave the area to play when a woman called me to come over her tent. The woman's mother was sitting next to her with a pot of vegetables and some bread. When I approached the woman told me to sit and eat with them. I sat down and took some bread from her hand and dipped it into the vegetables and began to eat. Immediately the older woman began crying. I was completely taken off guard and asked my friend to translate for me and see if she was okay. She began talking and said "I see you all come here and you play with the kids and you smile at us but I wanted to know if you were real. And you are real! You are willing to eat from my dirty hands and eat my dirty food! God bless you sweet girl! I know you are real now. You don't look down on me!" I am crying as I type this out and relive this moment. Praise God! We had a very sweet conversation and I was able to share with her my story and how God loves us without hesitation. When Jesus sat at the tables of men, he looked past the hands that served Him and whether they were clean or dirty but rather looked at the heart of man. It's the stain of dirt from sin that Christ looked at and came to clean. Praise God for last night!

More pics of our last day!

More Pics of our last day of VBS

VBS!!!

I want to apologize because though I know many of you prayed and want to see everything, you will see only pictures from our last day. From our first month after arriving in Bulgaria we have been confronted with presumption that we will only stay here long enough to snap pictures to send home and then will be back in America in a blink of an eye. We know our heart and our dedication to be obedient to God, but others do not know us in this fashion and so for the sake of image we almost always leave our camera at home. The issue of taking a picture is not worth jeopardizing ministry opportunities, so please be patient with us as we know you desire to see what God is doing. We will always try to find a way to meet both needs; the needs of supporting churches back home and the needs of people here wanting to see someone who is genuine and not someone with a camera.

VBS was amazing! The first day was spent organizing groups and expectations before enjoying the activities that were planned. We managed to find an area of the field that had very little broken glass but the trade off was stinging bull-nettle plants! =) God answered our prayers for wonderful weather and the benefit of the field provided us the opportunity to share the stories with those who didn't come to church. God also answered our prayers for workers! There were 4 couples who helped man the group activities, pass out snacks, and help with worship time and crafts. God is faithful!
We saw two salvations during our week. One was a 14 year old boy who is an "adult" in their culture and the other was a 68 year old man who always seemed stand offish but was drawn in by a merciful Savior.
On Saturday we will have a family movie night to watch the Jesus film. At this time we will have adults ready with translators to help those desiring to follow Christ understand their commitment. We approach salvation slowly because we are very committed to giving the clear Gospel message and in seeing real transformations come from authentic relationships with Jesus Christ. Those who decided to follow Christ will be involved in discipleship training on Wednesdays at 6:30. Please pray for Saturday, we feel it will be a great time of harvest after much work!

It's a God thing!

I can't explain all that is happening in this Roma community but all I can say is it's simply and ONLY God! This Sunday was our first split service where Bulgarians came first and Roma attended in the afternoon. I will say Sundays will be an exhausting day for the families of the church who are dedicated to ministering in both services. Please pray for the children of our families because the Roma service starts at 1 and for alot of us, we have children who are spent by that point and need naps. God is good and He will allow us all to adjust to the needs of His church, but you can pray for our families. In addition, alot of these same families work at a church plant in the evenings and for us it meant waking up Ben during his nap and going again. With limited rest, you can imagine the sweet sounds of whinning that grace our ears all day. So pray for the workers to not grow weary and that we would see Sunday as just one day in a week that requires all of us to press ourselves a little further for the good of the body of believers and seekers. Pray also that co-labors would rise up with a heart for ministry and we can hand off some of these tasks.

Each Sunday more and more Roma come and each Sunday more accept Christ. Yesterday 5 adults accepted Christ, one being an elderly man =) Thursday of that previous week a woman who came to disipleship class accepted Christ. We are excited to see adults looking at Jesus, not as their children's God, but as their own Savior and friend.
Like the description of this blog states, it is absolutely nothing our pastor, our refreshments, our workers are doing, but is only God alone drawing people to Himself! We are just all honored to see it happening before our eyes. The neat thing is hearing testimony and seeing that the work we labor over and see no result of, can be witnessed by others years later. The Roma Christian leader who invests so much reading of scripture and evangelizing in the field during the week, became a Christian when he was introduced to Christ by a Bulgarian believer years ago in a different town. Your labor will always yield glory to God even when you do not get to witness the harvest for yourself.
Children's church is growing by leaps and bounds! Everytime we plan for a certain amount of children, twice as much show up. Every Sunday about 25 children show up for children's church. Saturday I went and purchased paint supplies for 25 kids, Sunday morning 41 children were anxious to paint! lol Our church is blessed to have people who have a heart for children helping in this ministry! I can not express how thankful I am that we are a team filled with love for kids coming to know their Savior.
On Thursdays we have discipleship for adults who have recently accepted Christ and who are seeking to know more about Jesus. Cameron and our Pastor have been faithful to meet each week, but our Pastor will be leaving for the states soon. Please pray that someone will rise up to help translate these discipleship classes with Cameron.

My Lord's Blessings

Since our first children's church it did not take long for opposition to begin. There are a few things you have to understand before I begin to update you on our last three weeks. First of all, Bulgarians are different and it would be wrong to assume based on this blog that they all act like the few I will mention. Second, these problems of racism still exist in America and in American churches so it will be wise not to cast judgement on the few who will be represented in this blog. The most important thing we can all do as Christ following Christians is to continue to have a willingness to check our own hearts with the Word of God and to reach out to all people, all nations and all tongues with the gift of eternal life.
So the second Sunday of children's church was just as wonderful of an experience as the first except this time I was made aware that some issues were beginning to stir regarding the amount of Roma attending the services. That evening, I was told that in two weeks the services would be divided, one for Roma at 9:30 and one for Bulgarians at 10:30. Though I had mixed feelings, I knew this decision wouldn't change anything for me, I would just have one more extra children's church. Unfortunately some approached the pastor for a meeting at the next service and proposed that Roma not be allowed in the church at all. This information resulted in prayer and fasting by some of you reading this blog and by some of us here in Bulgaria. I was heart broken by the information. A meeting was held last Wednesday and despite really poor arguments why Roma shouldn't be allowed in church a decision was made to have Bulgarians attend the first service and Roma attend the second so the Bulgarians do not come behind the Roma and catch their germs, lice and diseases. =( With this being the case, I don't know that we would have felt comfortable following John the Baptist who was a filthy wilderness dweller or Jesus who touched VERY contagious people with leporsy, spitting, foaming demon possesed individuals, a woman caught in adultry or a woman with a blood disease. Oh the depth of scriptures that flood to mind right now! With just a small reading of scripture we find evidence of God's love testifying to the contrary of this fear to love the unlovable! May we see people with eternal vision and see their lostness and not their dirt!

Well speaking of dirt, dirt and more dirt. We went to the Roma community last Wednesday. Those sweet woman were continually wiping dirt from my knees and off of my children. It was okay for them to be filthy but they continually served us by making sure we weren't! Unfortunately their attempts were lost on our two boys! The children who live in that field day in and day out were 10 times cleaner than our boys by the time we left!! The bath tub water was BLACK! lol Though we tried, we just could not clean their shoes and have dedicated them to be the shoes they wear when we go out to visit their community.
The picture above is of dirty hands holding life in them! You know, if you could have seen the dirty heart God had to take in His hands to bring me life when He touched me, then how could I ever attempt to keep my hands clean after that! I did not deserve a HOLY PURE God to get His hands dirty to save me and bring me eternal life, so how can I now expect to keep my hands clean? May I enter His gates one day with filthy hands and feet! I will serve Him even if it's hard and dirty because it will never compare to what He did to bring me life!
Since the short period of time the Roma have been attending, two men accepted Christ last Sunday and tonight a woman who came to the discipleship training accepted Christ! God is so amazing!

Two added to the Kingdom!!!

One of my requests from the Lord has been to get a children’s church started here. I hadn’t found my place in church here and I really wanted to work with children. Last week our Pastor asked Cameron if he would ask me to do a children’s church this Sunday. OF COURSE was my answer and I have been excited for this day all week. I prepared and got my supplies and brought enough stuff for ten kids. When I walked into church I saw about 25 kids that would be coming to the first children’s church! Whoopsi!! =D Today at church 26 Roma attended the service and when we went into the room for children’s church the Roma sat on one wall and the other children sat opposite of them. I began reading our story of Elisha being fed by the ravens in 1 Kings 17. We learned about King Ahab and the rain not falling due to their worship of false gods and then each child participated in acting out each character in the story. It was amazing to see the children interact and see their laughter overcoming cultural barriers of race. Oh how I love how children can make love the simplicity it is meant to be. Afterwards we divided into discussion groups and the older kids dug deeper into the Word. We talked about Matthew 6 and how God will provide and knows what we need and our need not to worry. Teaching on Matthew 6 was a huge reality check for me because most of the children I was teaching spend time with their parents digging in dumpsters to make ends meet. There was a weight of responsibility teaching something so relevant that I had to check my own self and ask “Do I really believe this?” because I’ve never had to rely on this scripture like the children I am teaching do. Despite that, I could teach Matthew 6 in confidence because I know when we seek God first all of our needs are met!
At the end of our service, the translator was speaking with a boy who was very attentive during all of the teaching. She brought him to me and said “This boy wants to know God and believes in Him. He wants to be saved.” After speaking with the boy and gauging his understanding of what he said he wanted, he and another boy accepted Christ. They made a commitment to study the Word and be discipled and so this Tuesday they will meet with Cameron and begin to study.
Tonight we had our first children’s church at a church plant across town and it too went amazingly well! Only due to the glory of God because He has truly stripped me of anything I was ever confident in! Both churches desire to continue the children’s church and in the next month or two I will start classes for women who want to be trained to take over this ministry so that I can fade out and hand it over to them. The church we attend will begin a Roma service at 9:30 and a Bulgarian service at 10:30. Though this idea still seems foreign to me and I would love to see them all together worshipping as one body, I know that I am the foreigner who has no understanding of culture and will trust God to change hearts in His time and will focus on just simply loving all and following in obedience my One True Amazing God!

Please pray for the two boys who accepted Christ today. They live in a tent community in a field with their family and other Roma. Praise God for the Roma believer amongst them that brings them to church! (FORGIVE me! I have too many names swimming in my head and I am not going to write down names that I’m not sure of! I can’t remember their names right now)

Please pray for their spiritual growth to be strong as they study the Word with Cameron.

Pray for all the other kiddos who are attending children’s church in the morning and at the church plant in the evenings.

Please pray for God to put desires in the hearts of His people to take over this children’s ministry so that it can prosper under their leadership and under the sweetness of their cultural knowledge and language ability that I will never be able to fulfill.

Please pray that each door God opens, we will walk through with discernment, wisdom and NO confidence in ourselves!

Can you say APPROVED!!!

A quick update to let you all know that God answered our prayers and our visas were approved! They will put the final stamp in them next Wednesday! There were interesting events taking place as we headed to hear we were approved....on our path to the visa office a huge riot broke out clear in the middle of town. Rocks, eggs and all sorts of non-sense were being thrown and clearly hate filled the air. God placed a stamp of approval on our visa and satan was forced to create his trouble elsewhere! Praise God that our visas were approved but also praise God that our children and us were kept safe during this horribly sad day. Pray for those who are so filled with hate that they attack people in their rage.

A thank you and tears

Today was like any other, I had language class. It was a walk to my bus and metro like any other and like always I was hungry. I was thinking about lunch and I had 10leva in my pocket and this was my lunch allowance for the next two weeks so I was hanging on tight to it. I decided to go home and eat. Like any other day a beggar was on the sidewalk as I made my way to the bus. Unlike any other day I didn't have extra money with me for beggars ONLY my allowance that I didn't want to use! Of course if you know me, you know I couldn't just walk by even though today I really wanted to. I went to a store and fresh baked bread had just been put out! It smelled wonderful and even more than before I was struggling not to just buy it for me! Instead I purchased only one and some water and returned to the lady. Everything about my day was like any other, except the lady was about to turn it all upside down.
God has given me a heart that refuses to overlook people in society that normally get overlooked. I love these people with a passion. With this heart comes a lot of disappointment when you know you just got taken advantage of. When the beggar turns down the food you just bought them and ask for only money or like one guy who told me "Umm I only eat organic" HA! But I will never stand before Christ one day and have Him tell me "I was hungry but you didn't feed me, I was thirsty but you didn't give me a drink, I was the least of these but you didn't offer or do anything unto me" So disappointment or not, taken advantage of or not, I won't pass an opportunity to show love to the least of these.
As I returned to the woman who was dressed nicely and somewhat out of the ordinary looking for a typical beggar, I figured I was about to continue my ordinary day and she would take the food and it wouldn't really matter to her. As I gave her the food she began tearing up and say thank you to me over and over. I kissed her cheeks and hugged her but her tears squeezed my heart. I had a hard time swallowing the guilt of my selfishness that wanted to walk past her and not look back. The guilt of wanting to feed my own hunger and eat the bread I bought her. The guilt of wanting to hold on to money in my pocket and miss the biggest blessing of my day.
Praise be to God who didn't overlook this woman when I wanted to. Praise be to God who released my selfish grip on 10 Leva. Praise be to God that in my life someone always stopped to feed me, yet I sometimes find it inconvenient to show that same blessing to others. Praise be to God that I have the bread of life and I pray that she will one day have it too!

The indoor adventure of Ben and Trike...

While Cameron and Micah went to church this morning, Ben and I stayed home to do some breathing treatments and try to move forward from this lingering cold. I gave him permission to ride his bike, "I just wub my new bike mommy" he would keep saying.
He packed the back of the bike with his blankie and superman chocolate milk and he was off doing laps around the house.
Every now and then he would get cold and warm up by "Ben's heater" and then he would be off again.
The snow is gone and now with spring the ants have arrived. I have a feeling ants won't stand a chance with Ben and his new trike! The ant guard is holding his ground with his new ant killing bike! If they try to run away, he will get off his bike and pull them out into the bike killing zone.
It was comical when he saw a few ants high on the wall while using his 'hand Binoculars' and was seriously considering how to run them over with his bike. I reminded him that our bike won't fly despite his little attempt yesterday to make it do so! Enjoy the pics!