In All Things

  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
   God has everything working for you, though at the moment it may seem to be going against you. Just because we can't see it is no sign that He is not doing it. "If God be for us, who can be against us." God works in "all things" - not just isolated incidents - for our good. God is able to turn every circumstance, even the bad ones, around for our good. God is not working to make us happy, but He is working to fulfill His purpose. But I can tell you, there is no greater joy except for those who are being obedient to God's word and fulfilling their purpose in Him. Where is your joy today? I pray that you "see" God's hand at work in your life today, in all things. God Bless you, J.H.

When Barbara and I went out to a farm and chose the Goat for our fundraising purposes, I think we both believed that we were not acting on impulse, but rather we were being guided by the Spirit and that this was indeed the goat God had for us.
Soon after we got him home it became very apparent that this was not a goat like God gave us last spring. There was just nothing sweet about him and we decided rather quickly that we must have made a mistake and we should save ourselves the embarassment of using this stinky, ornery little goat for fundraising and just dispose of him quietly.
 We advertised him, but we just didn't have alot of interest...and I had plans to take him to the Rare and Exotic sale...but as it happened, even tho I very rarely need to work saturday, the saturday before the sale my boss asked me to work so I wasn't able to get the goat to the auction!
  In the mean time I kept hearing about using what God gives you and moving forward in faith...so finally, after discussing it with the girls, that is what we did.
I think our Goat Raffle has been a huge success. We raised some money for Barbara's mission to Zimbabwe and for Marianna's mission to Zambia, but even more we really raised awareness about Teen Missions International and the teams the girls will be on. We even got some coverage in the local paper...and we had some fun!

  It isn't about the goat, it isn't about myself or even Barbara's or Marianna's desire to serve in Africa. It is really about God...and our God is not lacking, if we are willing and obedient it really doesn't matter how much our goat stinks God will do great things!