We are now the excited owners of
a restaurant in our tiny village in Illinois. We originally intended to sell
our Florida home and buy the property to use as an outreach restaurant and
ministry tool to introduce people to salvation in Jesus Christ.
We realize now that if we had
done this, people may have interpreted it as an act of self-sacrifice and given
all the glory to us. However, God allowed hurricane Irma to destroy much of our
Florida home, and this vision died in the aftermath of this devastating storm.
Hearing what happened from
relatives, a visitor to our little church felt called by God to donate the
money to purchase the property with the understanding that it would be deeded
to the church when we could no longer personally use it for a ministry outreach.
The day that the title company
transacted the sale of the land and restaurant, we started the process of
assessing our needs, discovering the pitfalls we inherited, and cleaning of the
building and its scant contents.
I document this event to let you
know the wonderful power of God's will in spite of Satan's attempt to destroy
the vision through the whirlwind in Florida. I also want to let you know in
advance that due to this extra responsibility, I may not always post on my blog
as regularly as I previously did.
My time is now full of cleaning
two "homes" and reaching out into our community with my husband to
serve up good food, fun, fellowship, laughter and pleasant smiles along with the
love and nurture of Christ.
I look forward to practicing
"true religion" (James 1:27) in our community and to witnessing God
changing lives through His love, peace and joy that are forever ours when we
surrender our life to His watch-care.
Prayer:
Father God, I am so glad that
Your ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9); and that Christ in us is
greater than the devil and his minions who reign in dominion of our earth at
this span of time, by Your will, and in Your spiritual economy (1 John 4:4; 2
Corinthians 4:4). We give You all the glory for this event, and we thank You
for giving us Your wisdom and guidance and for continuing to provide for all of
our needs according to Your glorious riches (Philippians 4:19).
We count it an honor to be part
of Your desire to use us to further Your Kingdom in our world, and we trust in
You to give us the spiritual fruit of our labors. We desire to impact every
life that enters the doors of our little restaurant; and we vow to use every
penny of our actual profit to reach out to our community at every age level and
in any way that You inspire us to minister.
Thought for the Day:
The devil may attempt to derail
the vision and plans that God gives you; but be encouraged by this testimony
and realize that God will accomplish His plans in such supernatural ways that He
will blow your mind.
