Those who hopefully wait for Me....

I apologize for the length of time between posts. We've had illnesses and all kinds of busyness going on here! A bit slower tonight so I made an effort to get on here and share a little bit. One thing I wanted to share is that we were very hopeful God would bring us "rain" these last few weeks. As you can imagine we're kind of like thirsty people who've been on a long trek across a desert... parched and dying for water. And, because we're so thirsty it is hard to be patient for that first drink and hard to wish for anything less than drenching rains! But, through a scripture in II Kings I felt God was telling me that rain WAS coming, but until then, He would continue to provide and none in our house would "go thirsty". There have been other scriptures I could share, I'm trying not to be too lengthy... I'll skip ahead to this week when I was praying.... "Lord, we are waiting and waiting and everyone knows we are waiting and are expectantly watching to see what You will do! Isn't it time??"
The Lord gave me this scripture:

"...you will know that I am the LORD;
Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame." Isiah 49:23

God will move in His time and everyone WILL know that HE is LORD.
I read the same verse in The Message, which puts it this way:
"No one who hopes in Me ever regrets it."

So we continue to wait and we will not lose hope!

It is hard to be brief when God has done so much! Mark and I had been concerned about our money situation and the fact that we were hadn't had any business yet. We used retirement savings for startup costs for the business and it seemed to increase the pressure and stress level for us. But, as we prayed... God supplied:

1) A generous gift from a friend will take care of many of our needs this month.
2) Mark finally got paid for a real estate transaction that I mentioned previously.
3) A dear friend sent money saying, "Please use ALL of this for your son's birthday!" I wasn't going to get Paul a birthday gift and was praying about whether to do a party at our house. I like to do a party for our kid's 18th birthdays because it could be the last one they spend at home with us. Turns out that the money my friend sent was exactly the amount we needed to do what we wanted to do for him.... half went for a gift for him, half for food and cake to celebrate at our house with his friends. I don't think she even knew exactly when his birthday was, but her gift arrived the DAY BEFORE! To top it off... I went and spent $10 of it at the Dollar store on cups/plates/etc. Then, I sent Mark to Costco with the list of food items I wanted him to get there for the party... the total came to just a few cents less than what we had left to spend!!
4) Another friend gave us some groceries and a book I had been wanting to read! What a luxury!
5) We met with Pastor about starting a bread ministry... we're having more and more people with job losses at our church... I'm burdened about that. Pastor was very receptive to the idea!
6) Several of us have needed doctor visits the last few weeks, and our mysterious "credit" there paid for them all.

I've saved the best for last. Mark got his first inspection today! We'd been praying that would happen this week!! Of course, he did a lot of inspections in Ohio, but this is the first one through our own business here.

Keep praying that that rains come!
They are over the horizon, I hear them coming!!