Spring now in the air, by the river a rush of color escaping the white blanket, hues of red, gold, green, rushing to get their chance at the warmth of sunlight dancing off the water’s edge, Home. There in my quiet place I found myself lost in thought, just two weeks to the day I was in another time zone, a whole different culture, tagalog the language still ringing in my ears. Many thoughts on my mind, smiling I thought of the joys and difficulties of the trip, combined an incredible journey through so many lives that God saw fit to put on our path, the teacher who could now teach science to his student and earn a living because his thyroid tumor was removed, the young girl just one year’s old that would not have to be ashamed of her appearance or mock by other children because of her particular large cleft palate, the fourteen year old who no longer would suffer with uncertainty because her thyroid cancer was removed, the three month old baby boy who would live a much happier life now that his ventricle hernia was repaired that by far was not an easy case one I had scrubbed in on, took us a long time to get the little guy to wake up after surgery six of us stayed with him into the night when he woke finally we placed him into the arms of his amazing older sister who I won’t forget the look on her face, the lady who had Myoma tumors the size of cantaloupes, who will no longer wonder why she was in pain. And all this I thought was just the beginning see either family or the individual patients were impacted by our Love for them because of our love for God, really it is just the beginning of stories one day we will be told in Heaven what God did in these moments. The river always helps me put into words what is on my heart, on and on the joys of what God did in the time there, encourage my soul. Joy is something God gives because it becomes the habit of our heart to walk in the will of God. Its a choice we make, takes focus and force to escape the thoughts of our cares and concerns of today and look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Joy then is the by-product of abiding in Christ. This is how my heart is now with this wonder of what God is doing all around us. Joy that is my word to hold fast to, because I know its meaning is so deep and holds the key to living a full life before Christ. These things are God’s I Corinthians 10:31, “No matter if we eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.”