revival

We had a revival at our church this past week. Let me tell you......God did some wonderful things in my life! I will briefly, or as briefly as this wordy girl can, tell you about it. It started out with prayer cottage meetings. We met several times in different people's homes the month before the revival just to pray. With school starting, it sometimes became a harder choice to go to these meetings, but I enjoyed getting to pray with people and know people more. One meeting, however, we took the girls. Children usually don't go to these, and I was a little nervous to take them. I don't know why I worry about these things, but we gave them the huge lecture before we walked in the house. It went something like this: Don't touch things in their house, don't be noisy, don't jump into people's lap, don't ask questions, don't breathe.....well, I didn't say don't breathe, but I might as well have. We walked into a sweet older couple's home, and the people were so sweet to the girls, asking them about school, and so on. The girls had minor fussing about where they say, but nothing major. After a little chit chat, we began to pray. The floor was open to whoever wanted to pray. The girls were quiet and still. Every time there was silence, A looked at us and mouthed, "I want to pray". We mouthed back to go ahead, but she was scared. Finally, after everyone had prayed, the leader asked if anyone else wanted to pray. A stuck her hand up in the air, which was great except that every one's eyes were closed and didn't see her. Then, our brave 6 year old voiced a sweet, sincere prayer. She prayed for sick people, prayed that our church would be well again, and prayed that people would come to church. H followed suit and prayed too. I was so proud! I think how intimidating it would be for a child to speak up with all of those adults to pray...and they did it!

So then revival began. Sunday morning was great and people were excited. We came home from lunch and went down for our Sunday nap. During our nap, H came running into our room saying, "Mr. O is at our door!" You see, Mr. O is a man we met...we aren't sure if he knows the Lord, and a few weeks ago his dad went to his house to see him and Mr. O was unconscious. He was in a coma and really not doing well for several days. He was totally out of it in ICU. We don't know this man really , but we prayed for him. One day (look at my post "One of those Days") we went to the city to one task, but that did not work out, so we went to the hospital and visited Mr. O. He was out of it, didn't know we were there, and we honestly didn't think he would make it. Each girl prayed for him in his room. Well, Mr. O came to our door. Not long after our visit, the Lord did a miracle in him. Praise to the Lord....the ONLY one who can do miracles like that! The girls went and told him that they prayed for him, and that God did a miracle. He agreed with them, and he was in a church that morning! They invited him to revival. He did not come to revival, but I am glad we invited him and I am just thrilled that the Lord healed him!
I can't go into every detail in what I learned and the cool things that happened, but it was a fun week. One more story: There is a wonderful older woman in our church named Miss Ruth. Miss Ruth is also a nurse, and earlier in the year, she talked to our AWANA kids about the flu bug and washing your hands and so on. A talks about flu bugs all the time. She thinks about flu bugs now....thanks Miss Ruth! A also LOVES Miss Ruth. She goes and hugs her at church, which totally makes her day. Well, on Tuesday night of revival, we were sitting in service, and A crawled on my lap in tears. She wasn't just whining, she was in tears. "What's wrong?"
"I don't want Miss Ruth to die!" She thinks about the oddest things. She is fascinated with the aging process....which makes for very embarrassing questions or statements to people. (We just secretly hope their hearing is bad and maybe they don't understand her) She thought about Miss Ruth the whole service. Of course Miss Ruth wasn't there, so she was so worried that she was sick or had died....so we called Miss Ruth as soon as the service was over. As the phone rang, I prayed she would answer, or it would be a horribly long night for the poor girl! Luckily she did answer, and luckily she has a tender heart and understanding and I don't think she was offended. She loves the girls and I think she was surprised someone missed her that much at church! Well......guess who showed up the next night at church.......yep, Miss Ruth and her husband AND they sat right by us! A was delighted!
Oh, and one more.........H has been in tumbling the last few years. It was great for her....it improved her coordination, confidence, and so on. However, at the end of last year, we just decided that we weren't going to put her back into tumbling this year. The girls have been in different things: M did horse riding, A did art, and S isn't in anything yet. H is so creative and loves to create things with scrapbook paper. She also loves to help cook, well really she loves to bake and she LOVES all of those cake decorating shows. Her dream is to open her own bakery. She also loves to design, and she is really good at it! When she draws, she will draw different outfits, and some of them are really cute! I would buy her clothes for sure! Anyway, with all of this in mind, we were praying for a lady that H connects with that might spend some time with her and cook with her or sew with her. Well, in the Lord's awesome style, He answered our prayers. A week or so back, we were at a church service, and a friend of ours sat in front of us and was talking with us. She was visiting with the girls and found out that her first and middle names are the same as H's two middle names! They instantly connected with that discovery. Well, H and J have seen each other a few times and they talk about various things. I'm not sure exactly how it came up, but one night before the revival service started, H came and told me that J said they could decorate cupcakes together! I am telling you....H BEAMED!!!!! She just could not contain her excitement. She sat down and wrote her a note telling her how happy she was about making cupcakes....H was praising the Lord for this answer to prayer. Now, I am not so sure that J knows what she is getting into, and I don't know that she knows she really committed, and I keep trying to tell H that, but she is so excited. She has been working extra hard at her chores and doing extra chores to make more money so she can pay J to teach her to decorate cupcakes! H has it pictured......she knows exactly who she will give cupcakes to first....I really think the girl might explode from excitement! And.....she is so pretty anyway, but when she is excited, her eyes just sparkle and are the most beautiful things ever.......SO PRETTY!

So these are just a few things the Lord has done for us lately! Thank you Lord for your blessings! Thank you for the way you bless us in the little details of life!