Endless Gifts

When I started my list of One Thousand Gifts last November, I thought it would take me about a year to complete my journey. This week, after only about ten months, I finished my list! I can say that this project has been life changing for me. Absolutely. Life. Changing.

God is so good. Every day. And there are so many gifts. Every day! Until I started writing them down, I was very unaware of all the good gifts that He pours into my life. This practice has made me so conscious of His goodness, His kindness, and His love for me. I can easily list twenty gifts a day now -- it used to be hard to think of just five. I am becoming more observant!

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This morning, as I was writing in my gift list, I noticed it was raining steadily. A rainy day is a gift. Water is a gift. I have seen people desperately praying during a drought, longing for a rainy day. I remember years ago when we used to have water shortages in Manila, and how tough it was when there was not a drop of water left in any of our household containers. But not today. I thanked my heavenly Father for blessing me with plenty of water today. I am grateful.

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Do I need to experience a drought to see water as a good gift? If I do, then maybe the drought is a gift too . . . because it opens my eyes! And I want to live my life with my eyes open to all that my God is doing.
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I feel that I am just beginning to get the idea. Only now, after taking note of One Thousand Gifts! I have so much more to learn. So, I have started a new list entitled, "One Thousand Gifts: Book Two" because I cannot imagine life without taking note of each day's good gifts.

The lady who started this project has changed the title to "Endless Gifts." I think she figured out, before I did, that "One Thousand Gifts" is thinking too small!

How We Joined the Pakistani Fellowship

Well, we still don't have internet at our house. So, once again this week, I am blogging from an internet shop in the mall. We have had a good week back at IGSL and are glad to be back in our ministry. It has been so good to reconnect with our dear family here.

As I thought about a subject to blog about this week that would give you a picture of our life these days, I thought about the things I am looking forward to for the coming week. One of those things is Pakistani Fellowship.

Why, you ask, am I excited about Pakistani Fellowship when I am not from Pakistan??? Well, it all started about six months ago. I was talking with the couple in this photo. They are Klamint and Romela from (you guessed it!) Pakistan.

We were chatting about the fact that we have lots of families at IGSL from India, and lots from Nepal, and lots from Myanmar, Vietnam and other countries. Each of these groups of students meets together in a monthly fellowship time to share the things they have in common, like food, and music, and language . . . in short, just to enjoy being with their own people, and of course to pray for their country. We used to have two families from Pakistan, but the other one graduated, so Klamint mentioned that they were feeling lonely. He said, "We can't even have Pakistani Fellowship any more . . . there is no one to join us."

I said, "You could invite me and James!"

Klamint was surprised! "You would come?" he said.

I checked with James, and he said, "Sure!"

So that's how we started our monthly official meetings of the IGSL Pakistani Fellowship. We always start with a meal (Pakistani food, of course) and just enjoy being together, and we end the evening by praying for "our" country. By the second monthly meeting, a couple from Nepal joined us. So now there are six of us! I am trying to convince Klamint to teach us an Urdu worship song this month. Pakistan could really use prayer these days, so we feel a real sense of urgency in praying. These friends are very dear to us, and we always look forward to our time together.

SO. . . that's what I am excited about this week!

Safely Home

We arrived home safely on Saturday morning (Philippine time) after 30 hours of traveling. We spent a few hours with Matt at the airport in Vancouver during our long layover there. Our trip was fine (uneventful). It's really good to be back!

We have felt very welcomed, both in church yesterday and at IGSL today as people greeted us with, "Wow! You're here, I missed you sooooo much!" (It's nice to feel loved.) Our only problem so far is no internet at home (broken modem) and none at IGSL either (offline)! So I am blogging (for the first time) from an internet cafe. Sorry, no photos this time!

Thanks for keeping us in your prayers.

One Thousand Gifts (again)!

This is gift number #909 -- our family of five! If you are a reader of my blog, you have been aware that for the past year I have been working on "One Thousand Gifts," a list of gifts that God has given me. This past week with our children has definitely added many more good gifts to the list. Some are big, like "realizing what a great son-in-law I have" and some are small, like "watching my kids cook supper together" . . . but they were all precious gifts I'm grateful for.