at work!

From emails and blogs and letters around the globe, it is obvious that life is eternally busy for all of us! We're not alone...God's been doing a lot, too!

We have a dear friend that is working in South Africa, a field that has been continually plagued by violence, racism and fear. His life as a missionary there has often been in danger, but he and his family have spent years working to train national leaders to start and disciple churches.

This past week, he emailed us with very exciting news! "God is doing many things here!" he told us. For many years, they have been working to evangelize a particularly lost village. The village's name itself spoke of the character of the village: "The place where Satan lives."

After being evangelized over and over and over, it was a village they thought had no hope. Three weeks ago, our friend told us, in ONE DAY, the ENTIRE VILLAGE unexpectedly accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord. They were so excited and passionate about finally living in the Light, that they renamed the village: "The place where Jesus is the gift."

I don't know about you, but our joy over this is HUGE.
Reading in Luke this morning about the feeding of the 5000, and I was blown away all over again about the magnitude of this story. There were FIVE THOUSAND people. and not enough food to mention. First, to have been there that day! To have sat and listened for hours on end to what Jesus shared! And THEN, to watch him take a little bread, a little fish, literally, NOTHING, and turn it into MORE than they all could possibly eat.

This is how we feel! God is taking such very little things...so little that they might as well be nothing, and turning them into HUGE things. A village with so very little hope...transformed, changed, alive! A country poor as Haiti, with so very little good, so little that it sometimes seems not worth talking about. And then you watch lives change in our classrooms, hear of lives changed in their churches...hear of healings and miraculous provision and dreams...

We must feel some of the awe that those 5000 felt that day, some of the awe that this village in South Africa is feeling...

Our God is at work we're just blown away that He can possibly use any of us to accomplish anything for the kingdom...and yet He does. He lets us, no, commands us, to be involved, and our life continues to be transformed because of it.

What a mighty God we serve!

(pictured: Matt standing with two of his students and their wives and children, following a wonderful service at their church, in which they quickly told the congregation about Matt and I: "These are not guest. They have no differences. They love the Lord and have earned our love. This is your brother and sister."...There was not a dry eye between our families!)