More Godwinks!

I wasn't planning on blogging this week. Fourteen days of it was getting pretty tiresome. But there have been some pretty amazing Godwinks the past two days, so I think He really wants me to share. So as I've posted the past two Sundays, the sermon has alluded to many of the topics that we had planned to discuss or were on our hearts, but this week's sermon took the cake. The preacher, Brother Gibbs, was the third one we had in three weeks. His sermon was pretty much about how the family is the basis for society, and without a complete family unit, society will struggle to exist in the way that God had intended. But wait....there's more!! He went on to quote some scripture. Yup, the trip's verse for the week. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6. All the adults looked at each other in amazement that he would have chosen this topic and this verse to share. Then this afternoon after a day of work painting and then hiding from the rain, we returned to the hotel. I noticed someone waiting for a taxi that looked familiar. It was an old co-worker of mine from my summer camp days. He and his wife and friends were on a cruise and had gone out on a excursion. They were waiting to return to the ship, but were getting kind of nervous because the taxi was late. We struck up a conversation and he shared that he was a youth group leader at his church in Downingtown, maybe thinking about going into the seminary. He shared a little about how he came to Christ, but the story was short because I was getting ready to head to the beach with the family. Then I thought about the opportunity that God was placing in front of me. I needed to take my friends to the harbor and share my story about how we came to this beautiful island. We talked for the 20 minute ride about how we both came to Christ, how he was looking for something on this vacation from God and that this meeting was exactly what he needed. He asked that I share with him all the information about Karazim ministries and what we do here. This is huge because Karazim continues to struggle with getting groups here. It is a forgotten missionary location, unlike Haiti and the DR which seem to attract so many (not that anyone should ever feel bad about people serving Him anywhere). The number of groups was extremely low this year and Raoul and Karen have been working very hard to get word out about their ministry, so hopefully this will be the start of another possible group. Also, today was a great day for Karazim since they were able to get a new short school bus on the island. This one came all the way from Ohio, brought by some new friends of ours, Travis, Brian, and Emily. Karen was able to use some of our leftover supply money to offset the $3000 it cost to import the bus, and today the group from Titusville became the first to get a ride on the 20 seat, air conditioned bus. Finally, the family trip has gotten off to a great start. We have had three great evenings of family devotions and games, two awesome work days at the feeding center and the blue house we started painting last Thursday (it rained today so we had to cut the village work short), and lots of great food from Karen!! The kids are enjoying getting down and dirty, but also have been great sharing, praying, and praising God!! If things keep going like this I'll be blogging a few more times!!