Answers

I have to be honest and say that when I wrote that post about how much I want someone to invite us over for a dinner I was on the lowest since we came here. Out of nowhere it came out and hit me like a brick wall. Overall, it’s very unlike me, I have never worried about having friends. I think those things come from the enemy to tempt us, me, into thinking that God is not in control and that maybe coming here has been a mistake. But also, I have to say that reading the book “The Heavenly Man” that I threw in the suitcase in England despite the weight of the suitcases, has been God’s timing because through all of it, I knew that even though I felt that low, how I feel is just an emotion and not the truth and I chose to thank God for everything that’s going on in my life, despite how I feel.

After that post and the comments I got on it I was fine. Just as quickly as that feeling came, it passed. This morning we got up, I said “happy birthday” Neil and we headed to the church. We sat down and just before the service started, a couple, about the age of our parents, came and sat down next to us. They quickly introduced themselves to us and asked what our names are and asked how long we’ve been coming to church when we said that we came into the country just two weeks ago. Without thinking they leaned over and asked if we’d like to come over for lunch to their house. Needless to say, once again, I was biting my lip not to start bawling there. But this time from the goodness of God. Just two days ago I was sitting across from Neil and while crying my eyes out, telling him how much I just would like to go over to someone’s house for a meal (which I can’t explain myself, I don’t think it’s really like me) and today there are two people who don’t even know who we are but are inviting us over to their house for a lunch.

While all the singing was going on, I couldn’t stop thinking of how much God loves us. How much His hand is in this whole thing. How much He cares for us, how when we seek Him, He provides everything we need. And you know what the most beautiful and by far my favorite part about this is? When we are at the point where we are in need and we can’t meet it by asking for a loan, by earning it, by buying it, by getting it with our own strength, when we are finally broken and at the end of our own stick, we can finally focus on God. Finally, we can look at him without an agenda, without a “I’ll give you this if you give me that”, we can give him purely our brokenness, and that’s when the miracles start happening. So in the end, when things are bad, then they are really good. Not that I like the “things are bad” part but that’s when you really feel God, in a very real way. That’s an awesome feeling.

But you think this is the end of this story but really, it’s just the beginning. The South African guy Neil chatted with on Wednesday came and found us and told us that he’d like to meet us up for lunch at his work place because it’s really high up and you can see the city from the top, and that he’d like to treat us. He got our contact info, and already sent a text message to Neil about meeting on Wednesday.

Then we took off with Graham and Jodi, the couple, who took us to their apartment, which is next to the river, high up overlooking the city, made a wonderful lunch for us. Then drove us all over the city to show us different suburbs and places and took us to Mt. Coocatah which is high up and you can see the whole area from there. They told us about which suburbs are better to live at and said that any time we want, we should just come by and get their bikes to ride around on these awesome bike paths which run next to the river, they even drove us and showed where. They insisted that we ask them for whatever help we need and to use their address if we need a safer mailbox than our rental place. They told us of auctions where you can get new furniture for 1/3 of the price and told us that they’ll take us there if we need. And offered to drive us to places when we are ready to get a more permanent place to rent. We stopped by the homes of two of their kids who live in the city and got some ice cream. It was awesome and definitely everything we had prayed for.

I tell you. Feeling that low was all worth it just to experience all this goodness, knowing that it wasn’t a coincidence but love from our God.