Can I BE A Witness?

As opposed to..."get" a witness. YES, I can.  Today, I witnessed GOD working in a few different ways.  We opened the Parma Church for service and we had quite a few new families visit. We have between 30-40 people from Village Hope Church helping to start the Parma Church, but the count for this morning was 84...GOD IS GREAT!

The little picture says -For nothing is impossible with GOD.  Luke 1:37-

Then, at Village Hope, Jackson....we were able to share that our loan for phase II of our building project was finally approved this week (after much delay and red tape) and we can move forward with completion on our first building.....the old bowling alley off Cooper St.

The girls got a chance to ring the church bell for the first time :)  I did too....I couldn't resist....I have been wanting to ring it ever since I knew the church had a bell, but if I would have been ringing it every time I went to work there...that could have been very confusing for the residents of Parma :P  This was the appropriate time.

It is always a privilege to be a witness to what GOD is doing and to enter into that plan as a TRUE WITNESS....with feet on my faith.  

My left leg/foot/ankle have had a difficult week :)....it started with a new scar on my leg....then I took Danielle to a birthday party (it was an ice skating party) and she stepped on my big toe with the blade of her skate and sliced it a little bit....OUCH!.....then, today, I pulled up to the Parma church early for a music practice...took one step out of my van and rolled my ankle on that same foot....I made it through both services, but it swelled this afternoon, SO I am currently icing it :P  Just an opportunity for contemplation and rejoicing, right?...the ICING on my cake :)

Satan will definitely try to trip us up....I am not saying he is the cause of my current ordeal because I think I had a lot to do with that..."my middle name is not Grace" (I actually said that to someone today...that is important for something that I just learned ).  BUT, he doesn't want our faith feet walking anywhere and sharing what GOD has done.  He will give us so many excuses not to share it.  We need to share it anyway!

I just received an email from a dear friend and sister in Christ who is a missionary with her family.  She just gave birth to her little baby girl (at 14 weeks) on September 5th and had to bury her the same day.  She thought she might be in the process of miscarrying and found out her baby was no longer growing...and probably had not been for a couple weeks... Elizabeth Grace (the name they chose for her) was only  1 1/4 inches.  During the procedure, the surgeon actually located the baby and gave her body to Levi for burial.  They said it was so amazing to actually see how perfectly formed she was even though she was soooooo tiny.  They are grieving right now, but they know GOD has blessed them.  Robyn wrote that while she was undergoing the procedure and was completely sedated and in a dream-state....she remembers singing.

Blessed be HIS name!  He gives and takes away, still my heart will choose to say, Blessed be HIS name, JESUS!"

It is only by HIS GRACE that A TRUE WITNESS can sing at a time like this.

If you feel led, please pray for the Lenz family as they grieve the loss of Elizabeth Grace and for them to experience all the beauty involved in letting GOD draw them closer to HIM through their suffering.

PART 2

I missed the 6pm Parma Church dedication service....due to icing and elevating my ankle and grieving for the Lenz family, but Brad said the service was AWESOME!  About 120 people came and there was a part of the service that was open for testimonies.  Our VHC team members weren't even the ones that started the testimonies....it began with brand new people from the community....GOTTA LOVE THAT!  Anyway, one story that really blessed me tonight as Brad was retelling what happened was that there was an older gentleman from the area who grinds stumps as a job.  He was telling about how he went to a resident's house this week and offered to give her a discount to grind the stumps in her front yard, but she did not have the money to pay him even at a discount, so he offered to do it for free and he talked to her about Jesus paying a debt for him that he could not pay.  He said he is planning to take care of that job soon and he wondered if there was anyone from our church that would help him carry the wood chips away from where he was planning to grind the stumps.

On Wednesday this past week we had gone out to meet people from the neighborhood and we took invitations and passed them out.  While we were walking around, we met some boys who were out riding their bikes...one of them had a funny shirt on that said he was God's favorite so we joked with him about that a lot and Brad invited them to youth group (which will begin at the Parma Church on Sunday night starting next week)....anyway, two of the boys we met showed up tonight and they brought two friends :)  While the older gentleman was talking about what he was going to do....grinding the stumps....and asked if anyone would be able to help....those boys kept nudging each other :)  The boy with the fun t-shirt actually stood up and shared his testimony :) ....but, at the end of the service tonight they met up with the older man and set up a time to help him in this ministry.

I LOVE IT WHEN GOD'S PLAN COMES TOGETHER!