MANY LESSONS - EACH DAY
BLESSINGS THAT ABOUND
Where to start? Living in Kyrgyzstan, and traveling to so many different developing and least developed countries has taught us many lessons. One is how blessed we are to have so many different resouces for things, like even storage containers! We take them for granted everywhere in North America. We have tupperware, plastic containers abound in Walmart, and we can easily pick up a container at the grocery store that is very usable over and over again and it is really meant for a one time use! We are rich with so many things we take for granted. Mixes, quick meals, self-rising flour, ground beef (the market here has had no beef for two days!), on and on. So much to consider.
I recall our first trips to Ukraine when we lived with families during our ministry time. I would see all kinds of jars being saved on their apartment balconies. I alway thought - oh my, why? Jars, containers galore of all types that had at one time been full of food purchased from the market or store, plastic, glass, paper!
Then as they years have gone by and we started actually living in Kyrgyzstan for periods of time, it all became clear! Save, keep what can be reused. DO NOT EVER TOSS OUT THOSE PLASTIC STORAGE BAGS YOU BRING FROM THE US - they are priceless here! Keep every nut jar you have brought over, and the peanut butter jars make great storage containers for left over food. Keep every grocery bag, every flat sheet of cardboard, turn paper over and use the other side, do not toss out a disposable plastic cup - wash and resuse until it cannot be used anymore!
Yet, we continue to be careless. It sometimes shames us. We take so much for granted. I pray that in 2014, that it is a different future for us. I pray that we will be cautious with our resources, with paper, fuel, plastics, containers and more! We have many lessons to learn.
One major reminder of these lessons came as we drove home from Jeremiah House after presenting small and VERY APPRECIATED Christmas gifts to our teenagers there - we drove by a home that clearly demonstrated the REAL THING! Here is the picture.
YOU SEE - EVERYTHING MATTERS
This house has been helped with a new dain spout - using what was recycled and used in a creative and innovative way!
And then the phone call: we received a call from our USA LAMb partners to let us know we had just received a large donation from a donor for the program at Jeremiah House - and the donor asked that we purchase a van for our Jeremiah House family, they would be walking no more. They will be able to travel as a family, go to church together in one vehicle, and more.
Those blessings are reminders of how He takes care of His children - the orphans, those who are fatherless. We are just honored to be hands and feet of the Most High - our Heavenly Father.
Yes, there are lessons and there are blessings. We just wanted you to know!
Happy New Year
May Your Year be Filled with Lessons and Blessings!