Fridays.

Every Friday, and often Thursday night as well, both my parents and my only older sibling are gone. This leaves me "in charge" of my grandma who has Alzheimer's, and my three younger siblings. I have sort of come to dread this day as it can be rather stressful and hectic.

I told this to Miss CJ, who greatly encouraged me and offered to pray for me.

Guess what..? This Friday has been the best yet! It's my little brother's birthday, so I made a cake for the party tomorrow. And by God's grace and through Him alone, I didn't get frustrated with my grandma at all. :) Which... if you've ever helped someone with Alzheimer's... it takes a ton of patience. ;)

On top of that, my little siblings had bunches of fun watching a military exercise that had helicopters flying very low right over our house, and dropping men who parachuted into the lake across the street. This went on for several hours, with two copters containing 6 parachuters each coming and dropping about every ten minutes. So that added a special fun twist to the day which kept my siblings occupied and happy... when they weren't decorating the house with paper snowflakes and snowmen cut out from Christmas wrapping paper. :D (I'll let you guess whose idea that was)

Anyways, I am ever so thankful to God for answering my prayers and giving me a happy day. ;)

Contentment

This is something I've been praying for for a long time - specifically contentment in my current life situation. It's so easy for me to get caught up in the "what-if"s and the "I can't wait until"s and to become dissatisfied with where I am in life now. It has been a gradual process and it is still a continuing battle, but God has been granting me more and more contentment. It's a great feeling to simply do what God has set before you in the present - and feel excited about it! :-)

~Mac

My prayers have finally been answered :D :D

After much contemplation and prayer over how to raise funds to buy a newer ultrasound machine for our Center, God placed one right in front of us FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!!! Our ultrasound is almost as old as me- that says a lot! All we wanted was a newer one, not a 2011, just a newer one. If you've ever read up on prices for ultrasound machines, you'll understand how expensive they are. Well, we need not look any further! We're getting a free 2004 ultrasound machine!!! God has been blessing the Center so greatly in so many ways, I'm sure 90% of my prayer request posts will be about it! Praise and thanks be unto God!

Before they call I will answer . . .

Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.
(Isa 65:24 ESV)

That verse sums up my answered "prayer request." Not sure I can exactly call it a prayer request as I didn't even begin to pray, and it was already answered! You see, where I work at, a pregnancy center, our Ultrasound Technician staff is decreasing because one of our Technicians is pregnant and soon to deliver. This worried me as I knew we'd be short on Technicians and doing Ultrasounds for free is a great need there at the Center. We'd be down to just one technician! Even before I started to actually pray for another volunteer Technician, lo and behold, one of our former Technicians came back! She is undergoing training again to get the hang of things, and Lord willing, we won't be underhanded! Plus, I found out we have a backup Ultrasound Technician too! Praise God for knowing our needs and answering even before we can utter words!

HHHUUURRRAAAAHHHHH!!

Ok, so I've been under the misunderstanding that my cousin accepted Christ several weeks (maybe a couple months) ago.  But, I have been under the correct understanding that my uncle has not done so.

But does it matter?

NOPE! *insert big grin here*

This morning (before I replied to Mac's comment, sorry) my Mom was able to talk with my uncle about Christ a little more.  And both he and my cousin prayed and accepted Christ as their Saviour!!!!! Praise God!! :D

We'd been worried about my uncle, because we didn't want to present the Gospel in a manner that he would reject. And we really wanted to do it when he was ready and not push him.

The cool part? My uncle was "ready" and open about a week ago. He was just confused about Baptism and "praying the prayer".  He thought you had to be baptized to be saved. He'd even asked to be baptized in America! (which, btw I'll record). But you can't blame him for not knowing, because my Mom only had been telling him bits here and there, hoping to give a thorough presentation when the opportunity came.

It came this morning. I don't know the details, but after my uncle prayed, Mom said he was silent for such a long time and suddenly began weeping, he was so touched.  Oh how I wish I was on a 3-way call, then.

It's so wonderful how God has been working in my relatives' hearts. We've all been waiting to see this happen for over a decade... and it FINALLY HAS!! :D

And God's timing is always perfect.  My uncle and were just considering whether or not to let my cousin into some Youth Communist organization.  It's not to say you can't be a Christian then, but it's so much harder if you're bound by that.  Little to say, we're relieved my cousin came to Christ before going into their hands. God is so good. Can I get an amen?! :D

Soli Deo Gloria,
CJ

P.s. I'm gonna send contributor invites to all the followers of this blog (that I have email addresses of), so yeah - heads up. :)

Guidance for the Future

I know I already posted a bit about this, but something else happened yesterday that was so neat I want to post on this topic again! I have been praying about the future and that God would show me what I should do for my career and for my ministry. I have talents in music and audio recording and production that I know God has given me to use. I was just having trouble figuring out exactly how I would get into such a competitive industry, and how I would attract clients. I didn't have a sense of whether He wants me to use them as a ministry, as a part-time job, or as a full-time job.

This is where the answered prayer comes in. :-)

A few months ago I scored a movie for some friends of ours and they were very impressed with it. They've been talking about me and my work to a lot of people :blush: and they heard about a couple who work for a ministry that uses media to reach people in other countries and in the US with the Gospel. They invited me to a presentation that these people were doing. As they presented their ministry and the work they were doing, I got very excited - I could see the vision and also how my God-given skills could be used to minister to others! I talked with the husband, who is an executive producer, and he mentioned several jobs in the ministry that match my abilities (and my Life Purpose Statement! :-) ). He also said that they offer internships, and gave me the info that I need to follow up. I'm going to keep praying about it, but God is definitely showing me that He has a purpose for my talents and that He has a plan to use them for His glory and work! Very encouraging and exciting :-)

~Mac

Visas

The U.S. does not want Chinese people to enter their territories. There are several reasons, most of which I don't know. If it's because they don't want to be over-populated, they should have some mercy on China and let their people in.

Anyways - my uncle, aunt, and cousin (the same mentioned in the School post) have wanted to visit America for longer period of time to improve my cousin's English. What better way than total immersion? 8-) One of the bigger problems, excluding costs, was the visa application. Even though my uncle is my mom's brother, it's pretty impossible for relatives to get even tourist visas, unless they're your spouse.  And if you're rejected by the US Embassy, bye bye. You are not gonna get another chance at visiting the Land of Opportunity.

The scary part: you know the ambassador interviewing you and investigating your application? Your chances are completely in his hands (Please, don't accuse me of blasphemy! I know God is holding the ambassador in His hands). If he's grumpy, you're shot. If he had some nice coffee in the morning, congratulations, you're in.  Just like that. It's such a delicate balance. They're watching you too. Anything hinting you're not telling the whole truth, bloating about salaries, status, social networking, etc. and the like, completely negates your attempts.

The session itself is 4 hours and very grueling. I won't go into detail about how my mother and I quintuply checked all my relatives information in their visa applications online (which had numerous bugs driving me up the wall!) before the actual session. I knew my cousin's family was nervous. My immediate family was nervous (I don't think my Mom, sisters, or I slept), which was wrong, because we had prayed and given up the situation into God's hands.

You don't have to guess. My relatives were accepted!! Everything went smoothly. The interview itself was only 30 minutes long, in which my uncle answered several strange questions (like how many cars his company sold in one week :-/). I know it increased my aunt and cousin's faith. And my uncle is definitely beginning to think there might be a God up there.  And He is :) . Praise God for working a miracle!

The tickets are bought and they're coming in ten days!! I'm so so so so excited. :D

Soli Deo Gloria,
~CJ

In a Rut...

I know no one has posted here in quite a few days... But just about every day, and sometimes more than once a day, I try to think of what I could post here. What prayers has God answered for me recently?

Sometimes it seems like we're stuck in a rut, a daily routine of praying for something, but it doesn't seem to help, and God seems to have gone on a vacation from listening to us. It might even become hard to feel His presence in our lives at times, just like He's gone away, out of site. But even if we can't seem to see Him or feel Him or reach Him... we can know... We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is there! Why? How? Because He promised us so.

But why would God ever allow us to feel that way, like He's far away? In many cases, I would suggest that He's testing our faith through it. There have been times in my life where the world seemed to be crashing down around me and it was trying to bring me down with it, and to top it all, God seemed far away. But ALWAYS... Every single time in situations like that... When I ran to my Father and poured out my heart to Him and pleaded with Him to help me draw closer to Him that He might draw closer to me... Always - He answered. This doesn't mean He would always perform a miracle and fix whatever situation I was in right away... But He would assure me that He is the Father who gives only good and perfect gifts (James 1:17), and that He had a plan for all this which would be far better than anything I could fathom.

Yes, I know this blog is mainly for posting specific answers to prayer... But I just wanted to encourage you all... and myself... and put out one of those reminders that at least I seem to need waaayy too often: God is good. He lets us fall in ruts for our good. And He has and does and always will answer prayers.

God Bless,

Essie