The Lord delights us
"You have tested my heart, searched it in the night…Show your wonderful love, you who deliver with your right arm those who seek refuge.”
Psalm 17: 3 & 7
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| Ben kissing the ground as we arrived in General Cepeda, Mexico Our Mission Team - 3 families, each with babies due in the spring |
The first
morning after we arrived back at Big Woods (the formation house for Family Missions
Company in Louisiana), I woke up from a restless night sleep. I was suffering from a bad sinus infection,
couldn’t breathe half the night, blowing my nose like a train, getting water
for my dry mouth several times and sleeping in a twin bed with my 2 year old
and husband. I woke up on the wrong side
of the bed. That morning we rushed
through breakfast, which I couldn’t eat much because of a 1 hour glucose test,
and headed off to the doctors for the blood test and baby appointment.
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| The 'Big House' at Family Missions Company headquarters, Abbeville, Lousiana |
In the beat
up blue Suburban the car was dirty, the heat took forever to warm up and the
motor ran hard with several concerning noises…Praise the Lord! Between the rough night, stressful morning,
and subpar car, for me it was quite the rude awakening back to missionary life
from the weeks we had spent comfortably with our families in Colorado. I was missing the brand new car our in-laws
let us borrow with heated seats that nuked your tush within in minutes!
Raeleigh, as
joyful as ever, is in the back singing praise songs to Jesus…what a holy girl
she is becoming. One of our fellow new
missionaries had made up a song for his kids:
Where do you
get your happiness from?
(and the
kids respond) Jesus!
Do you get
your happiness from money?
No!
Do you get
your happiness from your friends?
No!
Where do you
get your happiness from?
Jesus!
So mama
decides to sing with her precious girl…
Mama: Raeleigh
do you get your happiness from being healthy?
Raeleigh: (with
finger waving and brow furrowed): No!
M: Do you
get your happiness from having your belly full?
R: No!
M: Do you
get your happiness from having a nice car with seat warmers?
R: No!
M: Where do
you get your happiness from?
R: JESUS!
Ben: Natalia,
do you get your happiness from those things?
The song
proved a simple method to remind me that in fact, our happiness does not come
from being well rested, well fed, warm, or even excited about the day’s
activities. My happiness needed to come
from Jesus.
In the midst
of being reminded that Jesus is the fulfillment of our happiness, Ben and I
were also begging the Lord for a car.
Our mission post in General Cepeda, Mexico is about a 12 hour drive from
Abbeville, LA (at least that’s how long Google says it will take you, not
including kids, potty breaks or food & gas stops). So in order to get to our mission post we
needed the Lord to provide a car for us…hopefully one we could afford!
After the
blood work, doctors visit, figuring out lunch and visiting the newest
missionary to FMC (a baby boy born less than 24 hours before), we got back to
the Big House in Abbeville and gratefully, Mama was in a better mood J We were not in the house, but 5 minutes
before the aforementioned songwriter missionary Taylor came in to share with us
what him and his wife, Katie, had been praying about in the days we were
visiting our family. Taylor, Katie and
the kids (4 + 2 brand new twin girls) are stationed in Peru for the next year
and felt the Lord asking them to sell their CAR! For a price we could afford, about ½ what
they had paid for it!
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| Katie & Natalia smiling as we prepare for Lord's Day |
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| Katie & Taylor and 4 of their 6 kids...twins in utero |
In minutes,
we were before the Blessed Sacrament on our knees as a family praying through
the purchase and thanking the Lord for providing so quickly for us! While we were at home we received a gift of a
large sum of cash from a generous and dear friend of ours. We had brought it down to Louisiana to see
how the Lord intended for us to use it in our mission…and it just so happens
that it served as a wonderful first payment for the car.
When we
dropped off the cash at Taylor and Katie’s later that night, Katie casually
mentioned that you have to be careful getting in the passenger seat. Sometimes she was accidentally hit the button
on the side of the seat and it would turn on the HEATED SEATS! AAAHHHHHH, I just about died crying and
laughing (at the same time) on the floor…did the Lord really hear my unspoken
and childish desire for heated seats?
Yes he did…and not only did he hear it, he DELIGHTED me with heated
seats!
This long
blog post only to share with you the our God is a faithful Father, who wants to
delight your heart! May you be blessed
today and every day by your God who loves you deeply!
O Lord, how
well you know us. How dear a Father you
are to each of us…how tender your heart, how compassionate to our weak souls,
how you treasure us and our childish desires.
You are a wonderful Father, providing for us in ways big and small. Delight the hearts of those who are reading
this today…hear their unspoken prayers, listen to their hearts pleas, and
shower your love upon them in many small and unexpected ways. May we always keep our eyes open for the ways
you love us!
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