God provides in big ways and small ways.

Over the years, the Lord has blessed our family in many many ways, and in recent weeks we've needed to rely on his hand even more - which has been a blessing!

Since August, we've had several large ticket items break down including our refrigerator, washer, dish washer, and furnace. Along with work travel and medical bills, we found ourselves with too much month at the end of the money.

On October 31, I had an appointment for Ben that would cost $45. I had $40 left in my wallet. I asked to Lord to provide the $5 I needed. Walked downstairs, opened a old purse I rarely carried, but had taken to a wedding the weekend before and there was $15. Thank you, Father.

About a week later, Susanna woke in the night crying. I went in to check on her and her little body was freezing. She always been a hot baby and got sweaty in fleece jammies, but obviously that was changing. I pulled a bag of clothes-to-grow-into out of her closet and we tried on about a half-dozen fleece footie jammies without any success. It seemed like the feet and zippers were bothering her. We finally settled on one, but when I got her in the morning she had unzipped them.

That morning, I thought to myself, "I'm going to have to figure out this jammie situation." I didn't ask for help. I wasn't praying. I simply put it on my priority list.

Just an hour later, I took Ben to preschool and a friend stopped me. She said, "Hold on. I have a pair of jammies for Susanna. I pulled these out for Paige, but they are too small for her. I think they'll fit Susanna perfectly."

In her hands were a pair of fleece, non-footie jammies. They are warm, two pieces so no zippers and fit perfectly.

I am humbled that God loves and sees our every need and sent us pajamas without my even asking. He just said, "Here's what you need." And it is perfect!

The last testimony is on a bigger scale. Like I said, our furnace had quit working Friday, October 18. We tried all the restarts with no luck, and didn't think it was an emergency so we waited out the weekend for a service technician to come on Monday.

He found the problem after a bit of investigation. Someone had put a small stick in the exhaust vent that goes to the outside of our house. That stick had worked it's way all the way to the furnace and somehow stopped it. (That vent happens to be about eye-level for the two youngest members of our family.)

The technician, removed the stick and the furnace was back in business. We thanked the Lord that we had heat again and that the problem had not been more serious.

Last week, our house seemed cold a couple days in a row and one morning we heard the furnace making a loud humming sound. I thought, "Oh dear, it's really broken this time."

I called the same company and they said they'd come out later that day. I talked with two people throughout the day who said that their furnace made a loud humming sound and they needed a new furnace.

Driving home, I started to pray, "Lord, you have been so good to us through these couple of rough months, thank you for providing what we need, but I don't think I can take anymore. Please spare us from replacing our furnace. Please let it be ok." (Admittedly, a pretty selfish and crummy prayer.)

I got home and Chuck said that the service person came and it wasn't making the noise. Hmm, isn't that how things go sometimes?

But then our house got warmer. One day went by and we held our breath, maybe this was just the calm before the storm. Two days went by. Three days and finally we accepted that the Lord had simply blessed us. Chuck and I really believe that the Lord healed our furnace. It sounds silly to say that God healed our furnace, but as I write this, it's 26 degrees outside. Not so silly.

Thank you, Father for blessing and healing our furnace. Thank you that we have heat tonight. Thank you that we have warm jammies. Thank you that you are always with us. Thank you for this season to of challenges so we could see your hand better and trust you rather than rely on our own strength. Thank you for being a loving Father who sees us and provides our every need!

Or what man is there among you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
Matthew 7:18-20

A Heavenly Visitor - Jackie Enderle

When my mom passed away in July of 2011, I had the responsibility of explaining to my 2-year-old son where his beloved Grammy went. I decided to keep it honest and simple.

"Grammy doesn't live with Baba Jack anymore. She went to live in heaven with Jesus. She can't come visit us or play anymore. She's busy working with Jesus now and we won't see her for a while. But she loves us and Jesus loves us. And someday we will see her again."

After a double checking that Grammy wasn't at church, Jesus' house, Ben seemed satisfied with the explanation and didn't ask to see or talk to Grammy for almost three months.

We were sending out invitations for his third birthday and I asked him who he wanted to invite. The first two people on his list, "Grammy Jesus." After that, he asked to see Grammy every single day for three weeks or more.

When he asked, I always told him that he needed to pray to God the Father and ask if Grammy could visit him. Then we'd pray together:

Dear God in Heaven,

We love you and praise you. Father, Ben misses his Grammy. Could she please visit him. We love you.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen

One Sunday morning, God answered Ben's prayer. As we walked into the sanctuary at Grain Valley, Ben pointed to the back wall and said, "Look Mama! Grammy Jesus!" He pointed to the same spot three more times, each time excitedly saying, "Look, Grammy Jesus!"

I wasn't privileged to see our heavenly visitors, but I know they were there. That was the first Sunday Ben "sat" through an entire service. (A miracle in itself.)

God is so generous. He answered my little boy's prayer to see his Grammy and gave him the added testimony of seeing Jesus too. Although Ben won't remember this experience into adulthood, what a beautiful blessing.

And what a blessing for our entire congregation to have Jesus come and worship with us on a Sunday morning. God is such a loving and generous father. Glory to God!


Psalm 150
1) Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in the firmament of his power.
2) Praise him for his mighty acts; priase him according to his excellent greatness.
3) Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery and harp.
4)Praise him with the timbrel and dance; praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
5) Praise him upon the loud cymbals; praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals.
6) Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord

Testimony Tuesday

God is good and generous and He has blessed the people of Grain Valley with many beautiful testimonies. We are instituting Testimony Tuesday where we will share a testimony from someone in the congregation (or anyone who wants to share) every Tuesday!

This is Susan Mauck's testimony of spiritual protection when it was most needed.

My relationship with my mother has always been on shaky ground for many reasons, but partly because she didn't want me to have a relationship with my father. She also loves the occult and loves darkness more than light. These two things, and many others, have always made our relationship strained.

Last summer, Mother was diagnosed with kidney cancer and I knew I had to go see her. In August, Jackie, Ben and I flew to Arizona to visit. We arrived late Thursday evening and were met with a barrage of negative comments. Mom immediately announced that she had been in the hospital with heart problems for five days and the minute she heard that my father had died, her heart stopped hurting and she hadn't had a bit of pain since.

In less than an hour, she fired comment after comment and we left feeling beat up and wondered how we were going to get through another couple of days like this. Jackie said she felt spiritually attacked and had come concerned about Benjamin's spiritual safety knowing my mother's many false Gods and the darkness she subscribes too.

That night we prayed together and God woke me up early the next morning (actually He woke Ben up, but when Ben and Jackie went back to sleep, I stayed up). As I prayed and studied, the Holy Spirit gave me specific words to pray.

1. An angel with a flaming sword would continually stand over Benjamin guarding and protecting him.
2. That Jackie and I would walk into Mom's house in humility and in the grace of Jesus Christ.
3. Angels would go before us in the strength and power of Jesus Christ.

I saw a vision before I prayed the words. As the angels went in before us, all of the demons fled to the walls and to their own strongholds and they were bound. They had no power over us while we walked in humility and grace.

For the next two days, we enjoyed peace and family fellowship - no barbs, hatefulness or hurt - it was beautiful and joyful. We left Saturday night and my niece stayed through Sunday. She said everything fell apart after we left. Everyone was shouting and railing on each other. She went into her room and shut the door and for eight hours everything was out of control. Her exact words were, "It was different after you left, Aunt Susan."

It wasn't us that made the difference, it was Jesus. We are in spiritual warfare we don't see or understand, but God is gracious and mighty to save His people. We need to remember that all things are made by and through Jesus Christ and that Jesus is all powerful. When we walk in faith and ask, we will be powerfully protected physically and spiritually. God is good!