Let me start by saying that this is probably going to be a long post. I feel as though I would like to give a little back ground info about me before I share the story about Water is Life. So here goes, I hope you are able to stick with me:
I am a believer in Jesus Christ. I believe the Bible is God's word, that Jesus died for us and three days after his death was raised from the dead!
I grew up going to church. In fact my dad was a preacher. Yep, I was a preachers kid (PK)! I was always told that I had become a believer at about age 7, but never really remembered any of it happening. I remember seeing pictures of me getting baptized, but again never remembered the actual event.
When my family moved to Oklahoma I realized that I never felt guilty about anything I did wrong. I know that may sound weird but it is what brought me to the Lord. I am not saying this is a sure sign for everyone to know they weren't a believer, but for me this is what God used. So I was about 14 when I gave my life over to Christ.
This is when my journey began! There have been some real great days and some real not so great days. I can probably count on one hand the times I have clearly heard God speaking to me. I would now like to tell you about two of those times!
You may remember me talking about getting sick a few weeks ago (actually at this point it is probably about 7 weeks ago). I ended up going to the hospital so they could hook me up to an IV so I wouldn't get dehydrated. The only thing I could keep down was water, and even that was hard to do.
When I got home I was so thankful for water. I realized what a huge blessing it was to have water to sip on when you are sick or just thirsty in general. I prayed and thanked God for the clean drinkable water and asked if there was a way I could help those who didn't have it to show me.
I kid you not, two days later my husband and I were watching our local news and they did a story about a charity called Water is Life! They provide filtered straws to places that don't have drinkable water! Talk about God clearly speaking!!! I was so thrilled, I told Justin about how I had prayed and how I would like to look up more info on this charity and possibly give money or some how help them out. He thought it was a great idea. It turns out the guy who started it used to (or possibly still does) go to our church! I really felt good about it then.
I should have got my money out at that very moment. However, I being human, put it off. I kept thinking that I would do it and just kept not doing it.
This brings me to God speaking to me again! We had a guest speaker at church this last Sunday and one of the things they said at the end was what is your mission? (could be botching the exact wording they used, but you will get the idea) They encouraged us to find ways that we could be missionary's with out leaving the country. At that moment God laid it on my heart to use my time on Friday's looking at garage sales as a mission field. I mean you come into contact with so many people. I was pretty excited about this but wasn't sure how I was going to go about doing it.
Enter my friend Misti. She and I go to garage sales every Friday morning. We load up the kids in the van grab a bite to eat (although that might need to change because the money we spend adds up) and then head out to find some good deals. This morning was no different than any other, except that it was poring down rain. We decided to go ahead and get out and see if there were any brave garage sale hosts out there.
As we pulled up to the first one of the day Misti and I both started to share about how God told us to use this as our mission field. It was so awesome! Misti came up with the idea to ask those holding the garage sale if there was anything we could pray for them about. There it was...that is how we can make a difference! Here I wasn't sure how to do this as a mission but God new that Misti would have a great idea.
Now garage sales have become more about finding good deals, but about helping others. It is amazing how God will talk to us and how God will use others. I told Misti the Water is Life story and I was then encourage to obey God and give to them. So this afternoon after garage sales I finally gave to them. I may not be able to go to another country to hand out straws but I can give money to help others do this.
Ok, I told you this was a long post and I hope you made it through to the end. Do you have any stories of when God spoke to you? Do you have a place that you consider your mission field? I would really love to hear about it if you do.
God is so Good!
I am a believer in Jesus Christ. I believe the Bible is God's word, that Jesus died for us and three days after his death was raised from the dead!
I grew up going to church. In fact my dad was a preacher. Yep, I was a preachers kid (PK)! I was always told that I had become a believer at about age 7, but never really remembered any of it happening. I remember seeing pictures of me getting baptized, but again never remembered the actual event.
When my family moved to Oklahoma I realized that I never felt guilty about anything I did wrong. I know that may sound weird but it is what brought me to the Lord. I am not saying this is a sure sign for everyone to know they weren't a believer, but for me this is what God used. So I was about 14 when I gave my life over to Christ.
This is when my journey began! There have been some real great days and some real not so great days. I can probably count on one hand the times I have clearly heard God speaking to me. I would now like to tell you about two of those times!
You may remember me talking about getting sick a few weeks ago (actually at this point it is probably about 7 weeks ago). I ended up going to the hospital so they could hook me up to an IV so I wouldn't get dehydrated. The only thing I could keep down was water, and even that was hard to do.
When I got home I was so thankful for water. I realized what a huge blessing it was to have water to sip on when you are sick or just thirsty in general. I prayed and thanked God for the clean drinkable water and asked if there was a way I could help those who didn't have it to show me.
I kid you not, two days later my husband and I were watching our local news and they did a story about a charity called Water is Life! They provide filtered straws to places that don't have drinkable water! Talk about God clearly speaking!!! I was so thrilled, I told Justin about how I had prayed and how I would like to look up more info on this charity and possibly give money or some how help them out. He thought it was a great idea. It turns out the guy who started it used to (or possibly still does) go to our church! I really felt good about it then.
I should have got my money out at that very moment. However, I being human, put it off. I kept thinking that I would do it and just kept not doing it.
This brings me to God speaking to me again! We had a guest speaker at church this last Sunday and one of the things they said at the end was what is your mission? (could be botching the exact wording they used, but you will get the idea) They encouraged us to find ways that we could be missionary's with out leaving the country. At that moment God laid it on my heart to use my time on Friday's looking at garage sales as a mission field. I mean you come into contact with so many people. I was pretty excited about this but wasn't sure how I was going to go about doing it.
Enter my friend Misti. She and I go to garage sales every Friday morning. We load up the kids in the van grab a bite to eat (although that might need to change because the money we spend adds up) and then head out to find some good deals. This morning was no different than any other, except that it was poring down rain. We decided to go ahead and get out and see if there were any brave garage sale hosts out there.
As we pulled up to the first one of the day Misti and I both started to share about how God told us to use this as our mission field. It was so awesome! Misti came up with the idea to ask those holding the garage sale if there was anything we could pray for them about. There it was...that is how we can make a difference! Here I wasn't sure how to do this as a mission but God new that Misti would have a great idea.
Now garage sales have become more about finding good deals, but about helping others. It is amazing how God will talk to us and how God will use others. I told Misti the Water is Life story and I was then encourage to obey God and give to them. So this afternoon after garage sales I finally gave to them. I may not be able to go to another country to hand out straws but I can give money to help others do this.
Ok, I told you this was a long post and I hope you made it through to the end. Do you have any stories of when God spoke to you? Do you have a place that you consider your mission field? I would really love to hear about it if you do.
God is so Good!
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