Jesus is coming again

Marissa captured this picture of me buying vegetables from the side of the road.

There are days I definitely think the world has entered the "end times". In Mark 13:5 Jesus gives the signs that it is approaching:

"Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

You must be on your guard."

These scriptures do not cause me to fear the future, instead it prepares me to not be surprised with the news headlines. The passage of scripture right before these "Signs of end times" is the widow's offering. Jesus pointed out to His disciples,

"Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything- all she had to live on." Mark 12:43-44

This gives me perspectives to know what I need to be doing each day with the knowledge that Jesus is coming for the 2nd time. Like the widow's example, I am to give what I have and all I have. 

When I first arrived on the mission field I really didn't know what I had to offer. In time I discovered certain giftings that God has given me and that I delight in. One is baking, first of all because I have a sweet tooth and enjoy partaking in dessert, and I realized that others do as well. It is so easy to bake two loaves of bread- keeping one for my family and one to give away. I have been going  to the same fruit and vegetable stand for many years. I often like to bring the lady I buy from- banana bread from the ones I bought from her. There are so many varieties that can be made, regular, with walnuts, with chocolate chips, and my favorite double chocolate- basically cake at this point. This lady will in turn give us free mangoes or extra produce as a thank you. This is one way I can give from what I have. 

Another gifting God has entrusted to me is one that uses arts and crafts to show love to "my neighbors". I have written before that it is my joy to bring crafts for the children that come to clinic day at the farm. It provides a way to communicate without using many words. Lately homeschooling is taking much of my time during the weekday so my girls and I haven't been going to serve on clinic day. 

We have befriended a family in town, who are descendants from the middle East. Righteous can practice her Arabic with them and they are always sending charts and sentences to help her learn. We have been invited to go over to their house for an "hour long visit" which is doable for us. We bring games, play dough with toys, and our cutouts from the Carnival birthday party. My friend makes her own facial and body scrubs from all natural products and tells me these are the traditional beauty treatments for the women in Yemen. It is fascinating to learn more about her culture. She recently gave Righteous a "motivational speech" about striving hard into her studies and resisting the ways of the world. At the end she told us this was the same speech she has given her younger siblings, neices and nephews. I was humbled that she counted us in as family and surely cares for us so deeply. 

As we continue to live life here the Lord often brings visitors that encourage us and push ministry even further. We recently had some visitors from Tennessee come to the farm for a day. They are planning to return in May with a big team and complete building projects as well as have medical professionals serve in the village. They are coming from the same church that had purchased our first water pump for the farm and tractor. To say that they are generous is putting it lightly. During their time in Kenya they bought a cement mixer in Nairobi and it arrived at the farm when they were visiting us.  This will make house building for the farm workers so much easier. I have to admit I had to walk away when the machine was coming out of the truck. It looked dangerous to me and I could not watch. Thankfully no one was injured and it is stored at the farm to be used whenever needed.

God is constantly blessing us so we want bless people in the big things and the little things so that we obey God and people will know Jesus is Lord!

The vegetable lady is sitting down on the right. She is quite old and has lots of body aches nonetheless I will always get a warm greeting and smile from her.

At our friends house for a visit.

I am in the background teaching the game of Scrabble (was my Mom's favorite game)

These are the beauty products I got from my friend. The clear bottle contains rose water which I am to mix with the other containers. One has coffee in it, one has turmeric, and the other different green herbs. The small vile is homemade perfume. 

Me and Grace following the visitors

 

The visitors from Tennessee walking around the farm

Jason up in the truck

The brand new cement mixer unloading off of the truck

We brought the bad mitton game to the farm