The Large Family Limo

You'll never guess what I found sitting in my driveway yesterday when I returned home from town....

1989 Chevrolet Surburban

Has 9 seats!

What a wonderful blessing!  It was given to us freely and we are so thankful to the Lord and these people for their gift.  Just a few days ago we'd decided to put the camper back on the pickup truck bed, so that we'd have the ability to go places as a family.  In about a month, there will be a total of 9 of us!  Just the right amount of seats in that Suburban.  Isn't God good?  We can leave the camper off and utilize the truck bed after all. 

When we moved to Alaska for the second time, last September, we couldn't take our 12 passenger van (a different someone had given us that) so we gifted it to a refugee family in Oregon that had managed to flee their African country and were living homeless at a city park... it's a long story.  We met them at our church after they were invited home to stay with a family who lived next door to one of the families of our church.  They got into a rental home and people came together and helped them out. 

There were 11 total people in their family and they had lots of needs, including a place to live, furniture, vehicles, food and clothes.  It was amazing to watch people in a community surround them with love and care. 

God doesn't waste anything and is so precise in filling our needs....

I couldn't take my kitchen table and hand-painted and recovered chairs and bar stools with me to Alaska.  I couldn't take my piano either.  Do you know how many piano's I've left behind?  Neither do I, too many to count.


Our last Thanksgiving spent in Oregon surrounded by family, friends, and our lovely table.


Guess how much seating I had to go with that table?  11.  The exact number in this African family.  Who has 11 chairs and stools?  We dropped them off freely as well as our pantry food and microwave.  We were so limited on space for our trailer.  We ended up leaving a lot of things and some things we left in storage at our Auntie's in hopes that we could mail them later and or pick them up in a few years. 

Then, a few months ago, some friends who live in Delta Junction, Alaska told us they were going down to Oregon for a visit.  Guess what?  They hauled all 18 of our boxes back up with them!!! God is so good and His people are real and care.

Jesus is real, He does care and He will meet people's needs.  Just trust Him and let Him provide and you'll stand back and just be amazed all the time.  Now, it's been a long wait since He gave us a vehicle that holds all of us to replace the one we freely gave away.  It's only sweeter because of His timing... it's without a doubt His provision.  It's been an even longer wait for a piano, but it's still all in His hands.

I remember listening to Dave Ramsey talk about the ability we have as Christians to hold our hands out, palm's up, empty and just let God put in and take out as He see's fit to be blessed and to bless others.  We shouldn't hold on to anything so tightly that when He asks us to give, we do so willingly and with great joy, knowing that, in turn He will continue to provide for our needs and yes, even wants and desires at times when our attitudes are right.

If you begin to look expectantly for His work, you'll see it all over in all the small details.  There's to much detail to even write it all out, but I've seen God work in incredible ways in all sorts of people's lives. 

Won't it be fun to celebrate and worship God for the rest of eternity, just learning about all the different things He's been weaving in all our lives from Adam and Eve, plus thousands of years and peoples and groups all the way up until He returns?  It will take forever just to meet everyone and chat with one another and praise God.