Just a month this week being back in the States, since being home I was blessed to go on a short vacation with my family. It is rare these days to get everyone together, the moments though that we can are perhaps one of the greatest blessing to my heart. Watching all my siblings grow up and seeing the routes God is taking them towards is exciting. My Dad told me when I was just 12 years old that if I wanted to be a missionary well my ministry started then with the little ones that came after and goodness theres a slew of personalities. Yet I will say this without that time of training I would be at a lost there is a great deal of learning and growing done when your own family is the ones in need of salvation. Up close and personal. Today God has created so many incredible relationships within that family unit of like mindedness in Him.  Also on that note God has been bringing incredible likeminded Christians into my life which has been in a word Encouraging beyond compare.

Some pressing thoughts in the last month I have been thinking and praying on.  As the young people in my generation seem to be worried with nothing more than the newest trending TV shows or how many raises or promotions they have acquired in their careers. Such things are fading and perhaps the Lord has put people in my life like that right now so I can see how empty it all is even more as an encouragement to keep on pursuing Him with a greater devotion. Working in the valley God has put so many young people in my path, one young lady at work just eighteen years old, hit me with question after question for almost two hours a couple weeks ago. She asked questions I have heard before. “Why if God is God can He let bad things happen to good people?” “If God is there then how can I know how He wants me to live?” In response I asked a question, how can they ask such questions when they choose who they like and dislike, who gave them the right to love or hate? How can finite minds determine what the infinite Creator should and shouldn’t do. By what code of morality can they determine these are good people where did that understanding originate? Who is the author of their discernment? Who Created good and evil? A slew of questions as you can imagine followed, at the end of our chat she seemed lost in thought having a bright mind. I told her God would be glorified in her salvation or in her damnation this may come off a bit too blunt to the reader yet in that moment of her softening I knew it was what the Lord would have me say. (When we as devout Christians are giving the opportunity to share the Gospel let us not be afraid to state the truth when the door is opened with power and sound mind because of what God has enlightened us with. We know how Christ’s thinks on these matters we have the thoughts and wisdom of God written down for us.) She thought awhile on this and said thank you for being honest with me and answering my questions, I want to understand.  Pray please for this young lady I am praying that God will allow us to meet again perhaps near Christmas as she is heading off to school. This is just one of the many encounters I have had since being back! Through these moments God is distilling in my heart and soul  a greater passion for ministry and the work He has called me to. This is all the work of the Holy Spirit and because of it I feel at home however short or  long my stay is in any location.