When things are down . . .

it makes you appreciate little, or big, blessings even more! It's been a tough week, as I have posted, but God is good ALL THE TIME!!! Even when things are "bad", we praise Him because of who He is. That is all that is important. I look at Job, which I have been reading lately, and all of the things that we have struggled through this week pale in comparison! While I don't always understand why things happen, I am grateful that I believe in a God who controls the universe, the big things and the little things. For whatever reason, He allowed our ministry vehicle to be covered with graffiti and did not allow us to find anything that would remove it. He allowed us to owe on our taxes, but as we studied in Crown Financial several times, "Everything in the Heavens and Earth are Yours, O Lord!" And he knew the other things that we would go through this week were going to happen, and He will use them to strengthen and stretch us as long as we allow Him to. So I continue to praise him and continue to see the good in the painful/frustrating circumstances.

I say all that, but I also want to tell you that God has blessed us immensely this week. We had set aside this week for Brent to get ready to go to Florida Sunday and for him to complete our banners as this was the last week of the free banners that we won. We were going to go ahead and have small group but then the thing with the truck happened, we were emotionally drained, so we cancelled. We spent some time that evening with our children, something they needed very much. Then Brent got busy on banners. He was up until the early hours of the morning two nights in a row trying to finish banners. Then yesterday, Brent called me while I was out with some beautiful news. The people at Group Imaging called. Our free banners are not over until June 30th. Brent won them at the National New Church Conference last year, which is what he is going to next year, so we just assumed it was over at the time of the conference, but we were wrong!!! We don't know where the June 30th date came from, but Brent was able to come to bed at the same time as me last night, we had some good conversation before drifting off to sleep and, and enjoyed our evening. Thanks to Group Imaging for the free banners. Thanks, God, for giving us something extra to smile about this week. You so didn't need to; we are not worthy. You have already done enough for us, enough that we should continue to praise You and exude the joy that comes only from knowing Jesus regardless of our circumstances. Hopefully we were doing that despite the feelings within of anxiousness, frustration and sadness!

Just wanted to share a bit of good news with everyone! Thanks for your continued prayers, especially regarding the circumstances with the truck. Please pray for the child who did it! I doubt he will be caught, but I want him to, not for the purpose of punishment, but for the purpose of help!