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Monday, March 29, 2010

Memorial Box Monday - Crazy Love




Over and over again God told the Isrealites to take stones and build a memorial to remember what He had done. They were to tell the stories to their children and their children's children. Why did He do that? Because He knew just how forgetful people are, and He wants us to remember that He is always loving, always protective, always providing, always caring, always and forever faithful. [taken from A Place Called Simplicity... http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/


This is my first Memorial Box monday post and i am SUPER excited to write it!! I have wanted to start doing them for a while, and am so glad i have a GREAT blessing to discuss today!! First tho ill explain briefly what a Memorial Box is... It is a box that can be placed in your home to place little "reminders" in of how God has worked in your life... preferably it is in the main part of your home and is open in the front or has glass doors so that when you have guests it gives you a great opportunity to share God's love and provision with your friends and family!!! How cool is that?? :)

So this Monday our fist Memorial Box Monday post. I want to tell you abt somthing that happened quite recently... just this past friday afternoon actually...

The day before Linny [the author of the blog mentioned above] challenged all of her blog readers to a Crazy Love challenge - which i explained in a previous blog...

Her post struck a fire in me and i wanted to be apart of it... but didnt know if i could, after all we ourselves our in a time of great need in our family! How could i help?? so i went to bed that night and all night i felt the Lord speaking to me... "Liz YOU have to do somthing... NOWWWWWWW!!!" the next day i thought abt it all some more and got caught up in the daily chores, but her post kept coming back to me... around 2pm in the afternoon i sat down to check my emails and i happened across her post again.... and as i was reading it for the second time, i felt the intense urge to ACT!!! so i went to my knees... i was praying for the Lord to tell me what he have me do... and almost immediately i knew that he wanted me to give! and then i began to pray for him to show me who i was to give to... by this time there were SO many blogs of people who were in need! How would i choose Lord?? and his anwser??? "i dont have to choose, because since they all have a need i will give to them ALL!!!"

"ummm wait a minute Lord... ALL of them???????????? WHAT??????????????? how on earth will i do that?????????" and then i realized what a dumb question that was... He is GOD, if he wants to make somthing happen HE WILL!!! so then i began to pray (admittedly terrified of his response...) "ok Lord i will give to everyone... but how much??" and his response left me very UNCOMFORTABLE, if youve read the post before this one we have great needs right now (which btw- after reading all the others needs, i realize our need really isnt that Great...thank you jesus)

He revealed to me that i was to go through ALL of the Blogs and give $5.00 to each one!!!! i will shamefully admit that i argued and stamped my feet a little.... at the time there were abt 30 posts listed... 30 x 5 = 150$... that is ALOT of money to us right now... ALOT ALOT!!! So i went to my paypal account to see what i had in there.... 122$.... "ok Lord well i will give what i can but i cant empty my account and i dont have enought to give EVERYONE 5$" then i realized that again i was limiting My HUGE AWESOME God to the means of this world... and i was extremely humbled and asked him to forgive me...

So i went back to the list... and started with the first... i read it then went to the little "donate" button and gave 5$... and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th... and so on.... Some didnt have buttons for instant donations so to those i sent a comment or an email requesting thier address to i could mail it to them...

I was going through these story and donating, and before long i was completely wrapped up in the stories and the people and the Joy i was recieving from allow the Lord to use me... Very humbling!!! suddenly i realised i was on the 20somthingth post... i paniced and thought [i dont think i have enough money in there for all of this... i wasnt sure whether paypal would let me overdrawl and charge me or whether they would just stop me when i didnt have enough... and what if i did spend every cent??? would they close my account if it were empty??? - i remembered what a pain it was to open it in the first place] i wanted to stop and go and check me account, but as if someone was yelling at me, i felt the Lord speaking through every fiber of my being... "TRUST ME!!!!" so i continued..... sending donations writing emails and sending comments... praying for these people right then and there... families who were adopting like us, some who lost thier jobs, some heading for forclosure, and some heading into the mission field... amazing people, living amazing lives!!!

i got to post 32 the last one... (yes 2 more than i had originally calculated) and worried i went and checked my account...



AND WHAT TO MY WONDERING EYES DID APPREAR?????



THE AMOUNT WAS ALMOST EXACTLY THE SAME AS BEFORE I STARTED GIVING.... foolishly i was extremely confused and went to check and see if there was a delay in processing all the donations... but nope there wasnt!! and that is when i noticed that a total of about 8 people....





HAD GIVE US OVER 100$$$$$




i feel to my knees crying... realizing that God just wanted me to trust him!! and follow his commands! over the course of the next 48 hours.... we got more donations and now the balance in my paypal account is exactly the same as before!!!!

This was a VERY eye opening exp. for me!!!! i have always tried to have GREAT FAITH!!! but sometimes its hard for my little human mind to grasp.... i now know with every single fiber of my being that NOTHING IS IMPOSIBLE WITH GOD!!!!!!!!!!!! he has shown me in a tangile way... and i am forever grateful!!!

This Crazy Love challenge has really inspired us to just give more and more... just the fact that we live in the United States makes us some of the the richest in the world!!! [yes even with our current economy *wink*] and we dont have to worry about our needs... because HE will provide for them!!! Our concern needs to be about others needs!!! and we are praying for God to show us and put us in these [uncomfortable] situations way more often and allow us to give more and more to show others chrits love through our actions!!!

WoooHoooo JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

btw- we are currently wanting to sponsor some needy children overseas, but were a little overwhelmed when looking around as there are SO many organizations... we want to make sure we pick a GOOD one that is really in it for the children and they do what they say they will do... Any Suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!!! :)


So there will be some little paper money in our memorial box to remind us of God GREAT PRovision!!! (btw- would you pray for us that God would direct us to find the right place to find the right memorial box... we have yet to find it) So friends... how have you given and served and how has God shown himself to you through your service???? please share... :D:D:D

12 comments:

  1. This is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I just about fell over when I read this because guess what the Lord started speaking to me on the drive home from the store today...to sit down with my daughter and give $5 to each person!!!!! You have encouraged like crazy! I am so excited to do it, not because of what God might do for me but what He can do with that money for others...Yahooo what an amazing God we serve!!!!

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  2. awe Shannon... YIPPEEEE!!!! woohoo i am so grateful i could give some encouragement!!! and to add to my post... i have heard back from nearly every person, and it is amazing what God is doing in thier lives... i feel SO humbled that he chose to us me :)

    God Bless you my Friend!!

    Do you have a Blog?? if sso please share, id love to read it :)

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  3. What a great story! Can't wait to see what the Crazy Love party far-reaching results will be!!!

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  4. Liz,
    I started to cry as I read your story....exactly why we call Him our Miracle-working, Mountain-moving, Awe-inspiring, Gasp-giving God....completely faithful!! Love, love, love it!! Thank you for sharing...it's got His fingerprints all over it. xo

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  5. Liz, this post made my day!! I am so glad to of "met" you through this Crazy Love, and am overjoyed that God has blessed you like myself, and I know many others, had prayed for!

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  7. wow charissa!!! thank you so much for sharing that blog with me... my hubby and i read it together and were both blown away by the conditions... :( .... we knew we wanted to sponor a child but now we are thinking we should sponsor 2!!! or God willing more!!! thanks again for sharing!!

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  8. Amazing. Our God is amazing. And wonderful.
    As far as sponsorship of a child/ren
    Try Grace-Hope at https://www.grace-hope.org/Waiting.aspx?OrphanageID=0
    They work in Ch*na placing orphans in foster care and are just super, our youngest was in a Grace Hope foster home and we now sponsor another child's care to honor her past.
    We are also following God's lead to an amazing journey- soon to travel---
    http://wwwourchinagirl.blogspot.com

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  9. Liz,

    God is SO COOL! Oh the awesome things He does for us when we trust Him completely! Your story of trust and obedience is amazing! Can't you just picture God's great big grin, as each time you made another donation, He was moving on someone else to "refill the pot"?

    I'm smiling big over this one! Great story!! Great BIG God!

    Blessings from Texas ~

    Tina

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  10. Liz, I love your story! Like the woman in the Bible whose oil never ran out. So funny that I felt led to give everyone $5, too!!! God is so good. May God continue to bless and provide for your needs as you continue to give out of obedience.

    Much Love,
    Kathie

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  11. Just got to reading Memorial Box Monday posts and you have me smiling...love how God works!!!

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  12. Beautiful post. I am a little late reading it but I wanted you to know that it really touched my heart.

    We sponsor a child at Philip Hayden Foundation in China. Our son lived there for approx 15 months prior to joining our family and had loving sponsors who made it possible. To learn more visit their site at http://www.chinaorphans.org.

    Blessings to you on your journey to building your family.

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