A Glimpse of Bursting Joy #1

I find myself, more so than ever, cognitively aware of how blessed we are and how much joy the Lord has surrounded us with if only we observed, listened and served a little more. I experience these minuscule moments that make my heart jump and a creeping smile suddenly appear on my face. I was thinking this afternoon that I should add these to the blog. My hope is to encourage you to go to bed every night with a list of these moments on your mind and most importantly . . . to thank the Lord for His everlasting, omnipotent, merciful and gracious love and promise.

These moments I share with you may be very impactful or maybe just simple, brief examples of what brings my heart joy :)

1. Sunday when we went down the long, narrow and bumpy dirt road to the homestead where we met the two old men, I was instantly fearful of our surroundings. We had drove onto someones land, two men were walking up to us, one carrying a machete, and they did not speak my language. We also were battling getting stuck in the mud. Oh and I can't forget to mention that we are in  . . .Africa! As Matt began to speak what he knew in Spanish, I just observed a possibly dangerously tense situation turn into a friendly interaction with two elders. Like I described in a previous post, one of the men used the machete to try and help the truck turn into 4 wheel drive while the other was at our window talking. They were both so frail with tattered clothes and probably past 70 years old, yet still working the land. I could only imagine who they were, what stories they had to tell and how many young adults like us they had ever interacted with. Once we decided it was too dangerous to get to the beach, we watched as the other truck gave the man a sandwich. He came back to us and kindly asked if we had anything. We had a half eaten pringles can that we gave to him. He reached for them with his frail hand and gave us the sweetest missing tooth smile. As we shared our, "tenga un buen dias," I watched him look into his hands at the food several times, smile and wave at us. We passed there very small home where we noticed an old woman sitting in a chair on the porch with a can of flowers on her table. Although we all briefly talked about how we wished we were able to go to the beach and that the two men were very nice, I left that moment feeling fearless and very blessed to have experienced it. Although when we left I felt we probably could have given over more, I realized that I can not underestimate how even the smallest things can bring a smile to someone who has so little, and maybe that is all the Lord intended. 

Family and friends we miss you dearly!