Just an update...

Just an update…

My pre-homesickness has turned into a crazy excitement… great things are happening at Grace Orphan Home in India!  They are currently in the middle of the construction of a brand new orphan home - at the moment the sleeping area and the mess hall are in different buildings, which causes quite a few complications… the new building will be a meeting hall/orphan home/mess hall. They were forced to make this change after discovering the foundation of the old mess hall was inhabited by a nest of snakes… scary stuff;  the Cobra’s had burrowed in and through the foundation making it structurally dangerous. I’ve already been shown something very valuable from this construction - Vijay has started building with the money he has, but he does not have all the money required … that seems a little foolish, you can’t just do that… right? Because for us, money is our “confirmation for God’s plan;” if God wants you to start something, you have the money there to do it. For the Church in India, something else is the confirmation- a close connection with God’s will… Romans 12:2 comes to mind “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Obviously I’m floored. I can’t wait to take my feeble faith and my conformed mind into this awesome situation. This is off topic, but I need to make it clear that I know the church over there is not perfect, of course not… sin is everywhere, and conformity is everywhere - in a world full of sin how could it not be? However I think they have reached a point that Hudson Taylor describes in “Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret” when he reached a point where he realized that believers can’t remain in Christ by their own strength …

“When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus: “But how to get strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting in the Faithful One.” As I read it, I saw it all! “If we believe not, he abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh joy flowed!) that He had said, “I will never leave thee.” “Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in him. I’ll strive no more…” (180).

Galatians 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.”

Please pray for the work that God will do in me and through me as I travel to India… finally I have a nailed down, set in stone date- February 2^nd whether I am financially okay or not, I’m going to leave on this date, and trust in the Lord to take care of me. So many verses are flooding to my mind right now… but I feel if I paste them all this might look to daunting to read… Romans 3:10-12 about our inability to follow Christ, and Mathew 6:25-34 about not worrying about tomorrow. To be honest the price of the flight and the insurance scared the heck out of me yesterday… but how stupid am I to think that money has any hold on the Lord … if this is His will, He will carry me through- and I was wrong to worry… to doubt His great power… How Gracious is our great God, to take the insults I throw at Him daily, and respond with His love, provision, and mercy.

Please keep Grace Orphan home in your prayers as they erect a new Orphan home.  Pray for the safety of the builders - and praise God for the amazing “Ivy League” education in faith that the 60 kids at the Orphan home are receiving.