Missionary blessings: where to begin... the people!

I've written about some missionary struggles. They are not unique to missionaries, but will give you some ideas for how to pray for your missionaries.

Now, the blessings... but WHERE to start? The blessings of obeying God are infinite and beyond our imagination...

Being a missionary is about bringing people to God. It's not about a project, although there can be projects. It's not about numbers, goals, or accomplishments. It's about people and relationships and, ultimately, relationship with God.

So, I start with the people - these are the biggest blessing, for sure.

Josh's days are spent pouring into those that God has put under his leadership. He has the privilege of equipping Ugandans to lead the ministries and lead their churches. These men encourage Josh tremendously with their hunger for God and for the TRUTH of GOD's word. I'm blessed to be able to serve them cookies and coffee when they meet at our home!

We get to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ in a different language and a different style - worship our same Father God in a different culture. The first time it struck me so deeply was when we worship with the Masaai in a bush church... talk about different culture! WOW! Their gutteral throaty singing was to worship our same Father!

God demonstrates his love to us through people like this sweet friend who loves on Gracie - even kneeling in the dirt to be at eye level with her, talk to her, love on her, and let Gracie show her love to her!

Our sphere of influence is HUGE (frighteningly!) and it is such a privilege to have the opportunity to live and preach the Gospel to so many children, families, pastors, lay leaders, etc., etc.!

And, of course, our Home of Love children are a blessing. 63+ vulnerable lives... I could write forever on the blessing and privilege of being in these children's lives!

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Check out this progress!

A year ago, my friend Rachel http://josiecomehome.blogspot.com/ emailed a photo of her beautiful son standing on his own... I've since dreamed of having a photo to post of Gracie doing the same thing. It was always one of those wild-don't-think-it'll-ever-happen kind of dreams, a romantic, fairy tale type of dream. But this week, Gracie made another leap in development and muscle tone. It started when I leaned her up against the wall and planted her feet a shoulder-width apart. For the first time, she didn't lunge for the safety of my arms or hands, but rather, she allowed herself to stand steadily on her own two feet and she kept her center of gravity centered over her feet instead of wildly in front of her or to one side or the other. She even quickly figured out that she couldn't lurch around in excitement while standing on her own two feet with no support but a wall behind her back, but rather had to express her excitement over this new development with a gentl

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d

Amazing girls!

Gracie and Ana have taken to walking around the church together - Ana pushes Gracie's gait trainer as Gracie walks along. Between the two of them, they make a pretty efficient team (except for the steering part!). They love it and could do it for hours! Gracie has made amazing strides (no pun intended) in standing up - we'll get some video up soon of her standing, supporting herself ONLY with her right hand (her otherwise useless hand) - it's amazing! We didn't dream that we'd see her looking this strong and steady. Plus, now she's smiling and her little heart isn't pounding out of her chest with stress at the thought of standing up without human contact - God is SO good! Gracie went to music camp this summer at the Y which was somewhat fun for her, but definitely good to have her around other kids.

Rattins living Coram Deo

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