Last weekend Mark did an outreach with some military guys (our military movement is called Valor for those of you who aren't familiar). He took them out in the desert and played paintball - it's always a huge win. He was exhausted when he left here at 7 a.m. on Saturday, but hopeful. He came home with a great report (4 guys who had never heard the gospel got to hear it for the first time) and felt really encouraged! That's always great. The Valor movement has been slowing picking up speed over the past few years as we've seen some really key leaders surface.
The next day, Mark took Jack and two other guys (one student and one graduate - Jake) up to the mountains to get firewood. He's got this deal with Jack who wants to buy a lego x-wing fighter. He has to go on a certain number of woodcutting adventures and also stack wood at home to save up and earn enough to buy it. He's VERY motivated. In fact, our neighbor has said that he will hire him as well. They have it all figured out, how much he has to save in order to tithe, and then have enough to pay tax and buy the legos he wants. It's been interesting to talk him through his purchases...he's had some things in hand at Target and then reconsidered when I reminded him what he's saving for...and that Darth Vador umbrella is probably not really what he wants.
Well, this last week I think I realized that I CANNOT do it all. I can't play taxi all day long, make lunch, pack lunch to eat in the car on the way to pick someone up and drop someone off, wake my napping baby twice a day to do all this, have dinner on the table and homemade snacks for Bible study, all with a smile on my face and a clean bathroom. I'm not sure what has to give (well, the clean bathroom is really just a pipe dream anyway)...maybe the Bible study snacks? Thank goodness my kids love peanut butter sandwiches.
Over the past year, God has blessed me out of the blue two times with heaven sent snacks for Bible study. Each week Mark has several college guys come over and they meet in our garage for small group. I used to love making them treats, they're so appreciative and I love to bake. One week Mark even made a lesson out of making bread and had me show them my method, then they got to eat fresh homemade bread as their snack. They still talk about it now, after two years! Well, I will never forget one day last year when I was feeling particularly UNmotivated to make them a treat...I was standing in the kitchen pondering what I had in the cupboards to throw together-quickly-becuase they were going to be here in about an hour. Then the doorbell rang, I remember being kind of annoyed since I didn't have the time to answer the door!! But, as I opened the door, there was our next door neighbor holding a perfectly beautiful chocolate cake (the double layer kind with truffle frosting-yum!) and a smile on his face. He had just taught a cake making class at the gourmet cooking store he worked at (as a chef instructor) and had this leftover...would I like it? Hm...let's see...WOULD I??! To this day, I wonder at how God can use my athiest neighbor to show me He loves me!
Well, I tell you all this just to set up yesterday's scenario. As you can guess..something very similar happened. I was sitting in my dining room writing my grocery list and thinking about what I was going to make for dinner and Bible study snack later that evening as my friend pulled up and ran up to the front door with a lovely coffee cake in hand...for no apparent reason. She said she just felt compelled to buy it for me at the local bakery! It makes me laugh out loud at how God cares for such trivial details in my life (and it reminds me of how important those Bible study snacks really are...), things like cake for heaven's sake. So cool! Oh, and in case you're wondering, the boys thought it was a giant doughnut....the Bible study guys loved it and this is all that's left.
