Let me count the ways....

I cannot even begin to recount all of the blessings we continue to receive from the hand of God each day. I'm sure you have noticed that I don't post specific stories quite so much these days, and it is not because God things aren't happening... but more because we've moved to a different phase in our situation. We've come to the place where we are typically asking God to meet that day's needs, and then thanking him each day that He has! We cannot always point to exactly how it happens, but we still have not had our oil and flour become empty. I just wanted to take a few minutes today to share some things He has done over the last few months.

We still receive gifts of various kinds from time to time. I am so humbled by the generous and amazing people of God, who have reached out to us, loved us, supported us with gifts and prayer, blessed us with notes of encouragement, etc. Thank you to each of you for every way you have blessed us.

Our family had the flu a few weeks ago. It was just after our COBRA coverage ended, so we had some pretty expensive medicines and doctor visits to contend with. That week we received very generous gifts that helped us SO very much in meeting the needs we had. In addition, a friend of mine gave me a BIG grocery sack of soups the week before! God provided the soup before we knew we had the need!

I have a friend who has won a grocery gift card from her work THREE times now during these many months. She has passed these on to us, and they have been a true blessing.

I have been volunteering at a community clothing closet in order to get free clothing there. This has helped several times when the kids or I needed something specific... I have found almost everything I've looked for while there.

Our bread ministry continues to bless us and helps others in the community. I deliver the leftover bread to a family in need, and am almost always blessed back with something in return.

Our daughter, Hannah, doesn't have a job (she's still a little too young for one) and she has a pretty active Shepherd's Group at our church. Unfortunately, everything this little group does seems to require money. But, God has been very faithful in providing the funds Hannah needs to participate in most of these outings. Just last week, she was completely penniless and was wanting to go ice skating with her Shepherd Group. That week, she received a card with $5 inside. Not quite enough, but she was $5 closer! Then, a couple days later, she was called about a babysitting job. Turns out they needed her to babysit several hours that Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon was the Shepherd Group outing! She did the babysitting and then had plenty of money to go, thanks to God's perfectly timed provision!!

I will also say that our freezer and pantry never seems to run out of food. We are completely amazed at how this happens. God multiples what we have and sometimes brings food from unexpected sources!! Same with our bank account. Mark can tell this story better than I can, but one day he looked at our bank balance in Quicken and in seeing the scheduled payments that would go out in the next few days, he could see that we'd be in the red by the end of the week. Next time he checked, some how, some way, there was money and we were not in the red even though we had made no deposits. How? Who knows, but Mark firmly believes it was a miracle.

Well, I could go on, but this post is long enough! Just know that God's Word is true and our God is faithful!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.....
Phil. 4:6

Before I close, I want to tell you how God is answering your prayers for our business. I've asked you to pray that the work would become more consistent. Well, for the last 2 months that is exactly what has happened. Mark has had an inspection each week! He is getting wonderful feedback from Realtors and customers. Things are going well. Keep praying! We need the consistency to continue and we also need for the amount of work to increase. We are getting closer to being able to write ourselves a paycheck!