Mercies flow!

2:58 p.m. Today's project was to visit with Steve before and during his lunchtime. I visit daily, and vary the times so I can see how he's enjoying the many activities as well as the quiet times when the memory care residents listen to music or catch the local news after they help set up their tables for lunch. Steve particularly enjoys this "Helping Hands" activity. It brings to mind his tearful comment last year when he was still able to talk, that "Everyone else is working but me. All I want to do is help people."  Now he is being made to feel useful. Even though he would have a broom or rake placed in his hands, by the caregivers here at home, he mainly stood next to them while they did tasks and talked with him. Praise God from whom all mercies flow!

Already today, I felt a lightness of heart despite the major trials I've been allowed to go through and the responsibilities the Lord has apportioned to me. My visit with my dad yesterday afternoon was positive, and even this early morning's phone call with his hospice case manager to discuss some options for keeping my dad safe was serious but encouraging. Praise God! I also took a quick minute to text one of my customers who hosts foreign students to ask her the name of her contact at University of California Riverside. I very much enjoyed our Korean guest from UCR last January, and with an empty house now, could use both the company and the income. Other major prayer swas to receive our Wyoming rental check early, and to generate additional product sales.

As I walked out to put Daddy's Secure Horizons bill payment in the mail box, I grabbed a half sheet of paper rubber banded to the doorknob. "Another lawn, tree trimming or cleaning service," I dismissively thought. Then I looked at it. Whoa! It was nothing of the kind. It was an answer to prayer. The first lines of the flyer said,

Open your heart and home to one

or two International Foreign

Exchange students.

 

Share our culture with others; learn

about theirs.

 

Contact and income information followed. Unbelievable, truly. I had just been journalling about my needs on all fronts, especially paying the first month's move-in fee to Raincross this week, with no evidence of money to cover that in any of my accounts...yet today, by 8 a.m., not even having had the chance to get Cara's and my Wednesday prayers going, God's mercy was flowing, giving me hope, a realistic, viable source of both income and interaction! (I enjoy the darling dogs, but their conversation is limited)! Jesus knows I'm a people person who especially enjoys young people!

 

Psalm 6:9 says, and He has proved it over and over again,

 

The LORD has heard my supplication;

The Lord will receive my prayer.

I quickly contacted the Homestay program, they received my Word document application, and after I returned from having lunch with Steve, two  administrators came to inspect the house and the room a student would stay in. I was also offered the oppportunity to do some paid English tutoring if my student decides to have it, beyond their daily classes. Hoping there is a student waiting to move in--and come to know the Lord while they are here!

About 3 p.m., I got the mail, and there was an exceptionally pretty envelope from Cara, and this is what the notecard read:

This is a prayer for you, Dana: :)

God, thank You that you have not given Dana a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Blessed be You ,the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort that You have comforted us with! Do NOT let Dana be dismayed, for You are her God. Strengthen her. Yes, You will uphold her with Your righteous right hand! Amen! Cara

Of course, I burst into tears of happiness at receiving that prayer, knowing that God put it on my friend's heart to write and send it. As I looked back on our prayer time this morning, and telling her about the Homestay notice, she asked, "was this an answer to prayer?" And indeed it was. Then I looked at the postmark--September 11th, so she had written this prayer just before God answered on several issues!

My own faith may get a little quivery in a fiery trial, but it's God's steady flow of mercy that gives me the support of godly, praying friends who will stand in and stand up for me, and me for them when their trial comes. Lamentations 3:22-23 (KJV):

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;