God S.T.O.P.

My mom and Dave got me the Beth Moore "Believing God" Bible study for Christmas, and let me just say that it is already rockin' my world. I just started it on Monday, and it's challenging my thinking and my faith so much in just a few short days. One of my favorite parts about the study is that it is designed for you to do part of it first thing in the morning, and then finish it right before you go to bed. This has really helped me to focus my thoughts all day long. The part that you do before bed is called a God S.T.O.P. This stands for moments in the day when you were able to Savor The Observable Presence of God. It's designed to make you more aware of the times that God answers prayers or reveals his presence to us in small or big ways throughout the day. It's been really good for me lately to be looking for those times from God, and it's made me more thankful for just how active he is in my life. I wanted to share a couple God S.T.O.P's from my day today. The first one is kind of a long story, but stick with me. I think it will be worth it for the goosebumps that it will give you at the end.

So when Jessica was here we spent a day in our friend Trueman's village. Trueman's only male goat had been stolen the day before, and Trueman was pretty upset about it. We even spent some time driving around the village looking for it. When Jessica was leaving last Friday, she gave me some money to give to Trueman to help him buy another goat. I called Trueman on Monday to let him know and low and behold, he had found his goat. So I sent Jess an email and let her know that need was taken care of, and let her know of some other needs that we could possibly use that money for. She emailed me back just this morning to tell me to use the money wherever I saw fit.

Fast forward to this afternoon. We had a meeting with some of the youth from church, and afterwards our friend Nicholas (whose village we also visited with Jessica) asked us if he could talk to us. Now when people here ask if they can talk to you and kind of make it secretive while pulling you off to the side, that usually means they are going to be asking for money, so we saw this coming. Nicholas told us that his mom had given him some money for school fees the other day and when he was in town he had lost his wallet. He had begged another man at church for some money, but he could only cover some of it. Nicholas' mom was really upset at him for losing this money, and Nicholas was obviously upset as well.

Goosebumps spread all over my body when Nicholas told us that the amount of money that he had lost and still needed was the exact amount of money that I had in my wallet from Jessica for a special need that might arise. Nicholas was asking for a loan, but thank God that I was able to reach into my wallet, pull out the money, and give it to him as a gift that he doesn't have to repay. I explained the situation and explained that God was obviously at work here. It was even more special that Jessica was able to fill that need as Nicholas was one who opened his home to her while she was here. God is awesome, and I'm thankful for this time to savor his sweet presence today.

We came home from our youth meeting to find Gigi, our worker, hard at work in the kitchen, and our friend Florence there as well. Florence is the Gage's worker, but since they're in America, she has some extra time on her hands so she was helping Gigi with her work today. Now Gigi and Florence are both in their fifties, and they're two of the funniest people I've ever met. Put them in a room together and all you do is laugh. Florence is hilarious and still claims that she is 14 years old. Gigi calls her a liar whenever she says that. Here's an example of how hilarious they are. We gave Gigi a loaf of banana bread that we made last night and told her to share some with Florence. To this Florence responded, "Oh she will. Don't worry. If she doesn't, I will take her outside and finish her off, and then I'll finish off the bread." Yes, hilarious.

We hung out with them for about two hours, long after they were finished cooking. They talked about how they're going to miss us when we're gone, and Gigi kept talking about how she prays for God to send us good men to be our husbands (I think she's a tad concerned about our singleness :) I busted out some of my Starbuck's for them and introduced them to my favorite coffee. I think Florence's response to it was, "Oh it is very very very very fine," and of course I enjoyed sharing coffee with someone for once since D-rae hates it. We shared funny stories, and I laughed until I was crying. Then I sat there and felt God's spirit in the room and fought back tears of thankfulness for the life I'm living right now and the ways that God shows himself to me daily. I'm so thankful that we have a God who is so big and so mighty, yet small enough to make himself known to his children. The cool thing is that there are several more moments just like these that I could tell you about just from today. God is always there, but sometimes we don't take the time to look for him. I pray that today you have some God S.T.O.P's of your own. Stop and savor the observable presence.