Kitchen Blessing

Jen Here. How are you? No photos of our apartment yet. We want to get things arranged and decorated...then we'll show the world. :)

Yesterday we got some furniture delivered to our apartment. Props for Roy, who helped carry the stuff up our tiny staircases. We now have a bed on which to sleep...and the bed has the coolest storage underneath it...maybe I'll put it in a photo later. :)

While Roy was teaching a chess class and moving furniture into our apartment, I was relaxing in an air-conditioned building on the other side of HK Island listening to a Beth Moore Conference. The women of our church gathered to watch it...and it was pretty sweet. Beth did it as a simul-cast on August 29th, so it felt like we were involved in the real simul-cast. We walked through Psalm 37, learning about delighting in God and the heart of our desires. It was funny to hear little southern Beth Moore relating to HK women (of course a decent # of our women are from elsewhere)...but it worked. We're all women...regardless of nationality, of one blood as Paul says in Acts 17.

I met a range of people. A fun-spirited group of 20-something women who's full time jobs are to smuggle Bibles into China. Sweet. A group of southern-accented 20-somethings who uprooted from Auburn University in Alabama and are rooting down in HK to start campus ministries on college campuses that have NO Christian ministries. Katie told me Auburn had about 10 campus ministries. So much more need here. Awesome. A few middle aged women with grown-up kids (if my age is grown up!) who moved to HK with their husbands 20+ years ago. God is faithful...giving me courage to introduce myself to people, rather than to wait for them to make the first step.

What a blessing it would be to have women approach me, eager to know me and to be sure I am known and loved in the body of Christ. So far, the older women are beating the younger women at this: 1 middle aged woman has introduced herself to me. 0 women of any other age.

Next time you see someone at church you don't know, go up to them and introduce yourself!

God is faithful and is providing, as He always does. It is humbling, but good. A woman named Donna has been tremendously friendly and generous toward me. Wonderful. Today after lunch after church, she invited me over to her home to go through her kitchen stuff and have whatever she has extras of. WHAT? Yep, that's right.

When we walked in the skyscraper she lived in, I didn't know what to expect. She is established, been here with her ishi for 26 years. Their home felt like a home! It felt like a house...except looking out the windows I didn't see a lawn and mountains, I saw the HK skyline. Wow. It smelled like a home. They had a dog. Can you tell I am amazed? When we first arrived in HK I really longed to just set foot in a "home". Not an hotel. A home. And here I was. Thank you Jesus.

You know how kitchen stuff is. After enough years, you end up with 2-3 sets of plates, 5 loaf pans, an extra set of pots, 4 pie pans, multiple glass bowls, 6 cute country jar glasses you don't use...so she gave me her extras, as much as I wanted of them. Awesome.

The ways that God provides...He has done this for us continually. After Roy and I married, God worked through people's generosity to pay my tuition, stock our freezer with pork sausage (which was really lean ground pork--delicious!), provide Roy with work, etc. He is faithful and is active. Sweet!

God continuing in his faithfulness, he provides Donna and her husband David. I think Donna and I will become friends. I enjoy chatting with her...and I love knowing older women. They've lived life, you know?

We still have a few things to get for the kitchen, but much of it is covered. And, I really did get 6 country jar-glasses. My parents have the same glasses at home. :) They make me smile, reminding me of splitting a Coke with one of my siblings back in the day. Ahh...

Life is good, God is great. Praying for direction...not sure what to commit to as far as my time goes. I have many interests, but what does God want me to focus on?

We love to hear from people, so feel free to e-mail or comment on the blog. Pray for protection from sickness, especially with Roy working in the schools. The swine flu is a bit more prevalent here than in Seattle...but then again there are tons more people here. :) Bye!