Trust anyway . . .

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Psalms 62:8

Do you ever have to just resolve to have faith and trust. To trust anyway. Even when your in a stormy situation.

Do you think of the words to Praise you in the storm? I love that song. We listened to it this morning in worship. Well some listened I sang. I didn't sing loud but I sang. Not because I was Praising in a storm. But because I was simply praising.

The other day I got an email. The subject line read Dear Sherrie. I spell my name Sherry. I ignored it for a couple of days thinking it was spam but I didn't delete it intending to open it on my phone just in case. Today I opened it on my phone. Here's what it said . . .

I'm not sure if you remember me or not, but my name is ______. I worked with you for a while making up community service hours almost three years ago (wow, I'm getting old!). I was thinking about my times at Mission Makeover and really wishing I could be back there helping and volunteering, not on terms of making up community service hours! I wanted to share with you that I have come to Christ, and I am now attending Gateway Church in Southlake. Currently, I am living in Chicago, but I'm moving back home for a semester before I transfer off to Texas State University in the fall. So anyway, I was searching volunteer opportunities on Gateway's website and came across Mission Makeover and was reading through and thinking how familiar it sounded! I had forgotten what your service was called, but then I saw the catch line, "Mending lives one stitch at a time," and it suddenly hit me that it was you! Ha-ha. I kind of forgot how to sew, but I know I could pick it up quickly again. I was just wondering if I could come back and help out every now and then with Mission Makeover when I move home. I'd really love to experience it from the side of truly volunteering.

Thank you so much and God Bless,

Talk about making my day. I opened the email on my phone while we were driving to the boys prison facility where we volunteer. Reading that email was bittersweet. It was a huge blessing to read the words to learn that she has accepted Christ. Bittersweet because we no longer do the ministry that she is referring to.

Our ministry is 6 years old today. It has changed and evolved over the years. Only God knows the why. The how all centers on finances. There is just no funding.

When I read emails like this one it breaks my heart that we no longer have the opportunity to work with local teens. To share God's love and plant seeds. To hopefully help them make better decisions so that we won't be working with them in either of the two prison units where we work now.

So for now because the unit is 10 minutes from our house and because God has opened many doors we worship with 10 or 12 boys every week. We began a few weeks ago with a Bible and a message. The second week were blessed with music provided by a group from a local church. Unfortunately they are not able to come every week. So we began using our lap top and a jam box which btw only had a cassette player. No c.d. But today we were Blessed because we now have our own complete sound system with speakers, mic. and it is so loud the staff asked us to turn it down! It als has a bunch of bells and whistles I don't understand! All because a group of people that volunteer at Texas Motor Speedway took up a donation and bought it for us.

I hope that you are still with me. I know this is a really, really long post but then if your still here you understand. God is blessing.

Sometimes I wonder why we aren't doing what we did before. And I pray almost daily that he will open the doors again. But I know that he has a plan and that; it is like one of the boys asked today... 'that God will show me the road he wants me/us to go down right now. '

And so I will trust him anyway. And I pray that every once in a while he will remind me that it is the way he wants it to be 'right now'.

BTW your wondering about the photo. It is freeeeezinnng here and that photo looked warm!

Merry Christmas