Seems I’m saying ‘thank you’ A LOT lately, but when I’m just so thankful what else can I say? How about grazie, gracias, asante? Same thing only different language but I don’t want my ‘thank-you’s’ to ever sound practiced or said out of obligation. When I say thank you I really do mean it and sometimes even saying it doesn’t seem enough.
A friend told us in a recent email that we couldn’t say (write) thank you in the next three emails to her! But when God continues to provide (and yes I’m talking about tangible things like funds for shoes, uniforms, washing stations etc. otherwise I’d have to say nothing else besides thank you to God for His provision of air, water, food, life, soul-saving sacrifice, friendships, family, etc.) I feel the need to express my thanks to those who were moved to help us in all the above mentioned areas and more.
Here’s the more part, we recently mentioned to a few people the need for a vehicle. We put a caveat with our request that only if the Lord stirred their hearts to help and if they believed it truly was the Lord’s will for us to have a vehicle should they even think of contributing. Chuck and I prayed about this even before telling others and had a few morning discussions over breakfast about it. The big question was “why did we want a truck?” We basically had a pros and cons list of reasons:
Pros-
We would need a truck to work at the self-sustaining projects it appears God is leading us to.
Going to Mercy orphanage would be more frequent. We have to arrange with Pauline to use their vehicle which is an inconvenience (at best) although she would never say that or even be in her thought process but that’s how we felt.
Travel to Eldama Ravine could be scheduled (same reason as above we haven’t gone yet).
Once the cow is purchased at Nice View we could haul food.
Going to Nairobi could be more frequent – only when needed of course because it’s not a fun trip.
We could do things locally in Tala which require a truck without paying someone to do them.
Cons-
The only one we could come up with is we did not want it to be from a selfish motivation for getting a vehicle, i.e. just to make our life easier.
Like I said we prayed about it then told a few others and right away we received a “matching donation” offer and quickly met that match allowing us to purchase this 2004 Nissan truck:
At the risk of repeating myself I must say THANK YOU to everyone who contributed and let you know we’ve already put the truck to good use:
Taking maize to be ground into flour, then delivering a literal TON of food to Mercy (thank you donor for your generous gift which helped feed the kids at Mercy for a month!)
Delivering firewood so Mercy orphanage could actual cook the food that was delivered!
Chuck has scouted out property (in four-wheel drive) for farming projects and is able to make the trip and take necessary items to the farm daily (such as water for workers, seed, tools and workers).
Plus it makes a pretty good shade area from the hot Kenyan sun!
Again, thank you and may God be glorified once again through His provision.