Thank You

Dear Sister in Christ....
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
We are blessed.

Gifts

I cannot even know where to begin in sharing this week's struggles and blessings. We are finding amazing ways to save on the costs of the wedding... for many things, having no cost or very little cost. Yet, there are still financial strains because there are expenses that cannot be "got around". But with that added financial strain, God has increased the blessings these last few days to make up the difference! It is just so unbelievable.

We received some beautiful notes from fellow believers, encouraging us and holding us up in prayer. Thank you for the gift of prayer! We need them more than we can say... please continue to remember us in your prayers!! We received some gifts in the mail and some at church... all providing exactly what we needed at the exact time it was needed. He is never late... sometimes just on time, but never late! Earlier this week, I was going to Costco to get some things with my stomach in knots because I wasn't sure how much was left on a gift card and whether I could get everything I needed. I stopped at the mailbox on my way to the car and... gifts were waiting for me there... just what I needed. Thank you, fellow believers... you know who you are!

God keeps bringing to mind Elijah and the assurance.... "your flour and oil will remain unempty". And, He has been so very faithful to that.

freezer

My husband reminded me that I neglected to share our freezer story. I guess it is kind of cool when you have so many blessings that you forget one! A couple of weeks ago, our freezer's alarm went off... that means the temperature has dropped and something was wrong. The freezer door wasn't open (which is why the alarm has sounded in the past), but when I looked at the things inside, they were showing signs of starting to thaw... so something was wrong. I moved what food I could to the small freezer on our refrigerator, but could only do that with a small portion. I was pretty upset. I have stored our free bread in the freezer and some garden produce my mom gave me and other food I just thought we really needed! When Mark got home later, I told him about the freezer, we went down and checked and the warning light was still flashing. We decided to call the family together to pray over the freezer. Later on that night we checked the freezer and the light had stopped flashing. Checked again in the morning... it was still okay! We were so relieved and said our thanks to God. And, yes, it is still working!

He Cares About Cakes, Too

It had been several days since I posted, and now here I am, twice in one day. It is just one of those days that God redeemed out of the pit!

I'm making my son's wedding cake and the wedding is in a couple of weeks. I needed some plates and pillars for the cake and so I sent out an email to some of my friends asking if anyone had any Michael's coupons they weren't going to be using. 40% off could really help with the cost of making the cake. Some dear friends brought me coupons Wednesday which was a tremendous blessing. Then, another friend contacted someone she knew who is a cake decorator to see if she could loan me some things. She agreed to do that, so I got in touch with her today. Turns out she only lives one street away from me and had all of the non-consumable things that I needed. The "icing on the cake" is that she is so experienced in cake decorating, she gave me lots of tips that will make things easier and also pointers that may save me from disaster! I cannot even begin to tell you how helpful it was! Now, I can I use those Michael's coupons for some consumable items I need for the cake, like clear vanilla, at a greatly reduced price.

Thank you, God!

Tough Day / Good Day

It has been a tough day for Mark.... frustrations mounting with a fruitless job search and paying bills from dwindling funds.... It is hard not to worry sometimes.

This afternoon I needed to go to the grocery store, which, in itself can be kind of stressful for me... just trying to find the best way to stretch our food dollar (I pray my way through the store!). When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a couple from church getting into their car. I waved hello, and as we got out of the car, the gentleman came walking over to us. He had just bought us a gift card in the grocery store! And here, we pull up just as they are leaving.... is that a God-thing, or what?

God definitely has a way of reassuring you just when you need it the most. When things like this happen, I find myself not only marveling at God, but also at other believers who must get a nudging from God to do something and respond immediatley to that call. That is probably one of the biggest lessons I'm learning in this process.... to listen and respond to God immediately. I wonder how many opportunities I've missed to bless someone because I questioned whether what I was hearing was God, or didn't respond quickly and forgot. I'm not going to let that happen anymore!

Bread today

This seems like a little thing, but I thought it was still a God thing... so I'm sharing it with you! This week, my family has been asking if we have any "normal" bread because all I had left in the freezer was Bread Company bread. Not that it is a bad thing... just that sour dough bread or assagio cheese bread, etc. for peanut butter and jelly doesn't work so well! When I went to get free bread today, they had loads of regular Aldi bread! Someone asked if they were going to be getting bread from a different source now and they said it was just a "fluke". So, anyway, we were thankful for the fluke and I now have a store of regular bread in my freezer!

He Cares for Our Needs

My daughter and son have been trying to get some odd jobs to do to raise money for a mission trip they are leaving for on Saturday. They put some fliers up around, but haven't had any luck getting any jobs. My daughter came to me yesterday, upset and saying "We don't have any meal money for World Changers. What are we going to do?" I answered, "Don't worry, pray about it. God will provide." I believed it, but it was still a little scary saying it!

So, this morning a friend from church called saying that she was going to stop by. When she came in, she brought some fun things she knew we wouldn't spend money on right now... like donuts, cookies and popcorn. She also brought a couple of things that I was running out of like laundry and dish detergent! Then she handed me an envelope and said, "Use this however you want to." After my friend left, we looked in the envelope and I teared up. God had provided a way for us to give the kids some meal money for the trip! We quickly said thank you to God.

I never thought I'd say it, but I'm now also thankful that my children are experiencing this trial because it will help to build their faith.

I should also mention that someone paid the balance for my children's mission trips at church.... we had been able to pay only about half of the cost before Mark lost his job. It is wonderful that people are being Jesus' hands and feet.... we never would've been able to allow the kids to go on these trips without someone's generosity.

Keeping Our Oil and Flour from Being Empty

On Saturday we received two Costco cards in the mail, a gift from fellow believers. My husband was very emotional about receiving them, saying that he'd been praying for some reassurance from the Lord that He would take care of us. And, we were at the point where we needed some meat and milk... and Costco is the store where I always purchase those things!

I commented that these are the kinds of things that keep our "oil and flour" from becoming empty. God is good. Very, very good.