Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Amazing Grace

Amazing grace is not just a song or a religious feeling. Amazing grace is real because God's love is real and still reaches down to very hard situations here on planet earth.

For example, in our Project Lost Sheep group,  a missionary who had worked with us in camp had a God sized problem with her Grandmother's house that was in a trust. The house had not been improved in many years and beyond this the drains outside had not been repaired so that there was a huge problem of decay and smell in the house. The furniture had been invested, the rugs, and drapes etc. plus there was no money to fix this problem..or so it was thought.

We came together around this missionary to pray and to start a Christian Makeover of the house. It was a tough case. D's Dad was in a wheelchair, another missionary who rented a room was about to move out. But beyond this, their ministry work was affected by the very dark situation in the home.

We prayed and started to work in summer of '06.  The kitchen was dark. Lights not working. Dishwasher not working. The linoeleum was warped from broken pipe.  We addressed the smell problem with a dehumidifyer but started to paint in the kitchen. As we came together in community..some gave hours of labor, some gave money...we knew that we needed much more than we could give alone. But, Amazing Grace was with us and continued to unblock the impossible. Money was "found" that had been set aside for repairs in the house that was put their by the deceased grandmother. Money was found for  a new dishwasher and floor. D. found the best buy on blinds for the kitchen-family area.

A decorator on our team contacted her carpet man who gave carpet for the living room, dining room and  hall at cost. A local painting company did the living room and dining room at no cost and then won the bid for the exterior of the house.

In the meantime Amazing Grace was working on the house next door and the people decided to do extensive drainage. Since this house was above the house we were working on it meant that much of the water coming down the hill was going out the street and not under D's house.

On the second Christmas we were able to throw out all of the old furniture...sofa, chairs etc as the carpet was going to come in.  There were many blessings of "items" needed for storage found for nothing or next to nothing.

A woman on our Project Lost Sheep team was moving out of her apartment and graciously

gave to us: her sofa, lamps, a table and chairs plus kitchen ware ..all in excellent condition.

This will give you some idea of the joy we experienced as we sat last week on the sofa in the painted living room and sang Christmas carols.

A little girl present put it in a nutshell. THANK YOU GOD,  she prayed.  WE LOVE YOU. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that all who believe in him should not perish but have everylasting life.

May you find Amazing Grace in your life .....