When we landed in the US, an extremely generous friend of my Florida family offered for us to use their home for almost a week while they were away. My parents helped with all the details and we had a comfortable place to stay with a pool to swim in and a dock so my dad could take the kids out tubing on his boat. It was the perfect place to rest and recover from our travel and jet lag.
When we needed to travel north to Georgia, we were able to rent two vehicles since there wasn’t one available that could hold all of our people and luggage. And we actually found it to be significantly cheaper to rent two cars than it would have to rent one larger vehicle. This is another small example of God’s provision. We are now staying in a missionary guesthouse here in Georgia for the month of July. It is such a beautiful, peaceful place and familiar as we have stayed here before.
As we arrived here in Georgia, three different friends offered for us to borrow a vehicle for a whole month! It is so encouraging to see God’s provision through so many generous people! And being here with our American church family has been a gift.
During our time in Georgia we also try check in with our doctors here. I had been having some areas of irritation on my tongue over the past several months which I was concerned about. I was able to get in to follow up with a doctor at Emory where I had my tongue surgery over 8 years ago. When I heard that everything looked normal I was very relieved. The combination of the stress of transition and my anxiety about the possible recurrence of abnormal cells was weighing heavily on me. I feel a huge sense of relief and thankfulness!
While there are still lots of challenges, I have been reminded of God’s faithful love in the midst of these challenges. On Sunday our friend Steven preached a very encouraging sermon reminding us that God’s love for us is not usually shown by the absence of challenges, but in his faithful care for us in the midst of the challenges. Steven said that we often in our pride think we know better than God what we need. That is what the prosperity gospel says. But Luke 12:30 reminds us that God knows what we need. That is why we do not need to be anxious. His loving care for us sometimes looks like a clean bill of health and sometimes it is cancer. But He is faithfully loving us and caring for us in the midst of it all. If you need encouragement here is a link to his sermon https://youtu.be/SytO1hHrq0s?list=PLzsobD2E7jPU0ONAM3xVM0kPEFnypbu0h
As I experience the ups and downs of life, I want to cling to the promises of God’s faithful loving care for me and for my family. I want to depend on Him more than I do on my own strength and ability to handle or control circumstances. He is God. I am not. Today I want to remember that.
