so here it is…
Hi everyone,
Greetings from the Republic of South Africa!
How are you? How is life at home? Are you being challenged to grow and stretch in your lives? That is one of my prayers for each of you. I also pray your relationships with the Lord are transforming your lives and if you don’t have a relationship with Him; that he is softening your hearts to know him – you all know into which category you fit into! I pray that each of you will have and has a growing desire and passion for His word and that the Holy Spirit reveals to you personally what the Lord almighty wants to say to YOU through it!
God says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” When I think of all of you in my life and how each of you got there, or how broken my life once was, or what a miraculous journey I’m on now helping the vulnerable and needy in a far off land, and more often than not experiencing a “peace that surpasses all understanding;” I think to myself, how did I get here? When did I become so blessed? How did I get such a caring and loving family? How did I get the amazing and loving friends that I have in my life, how come I was entrusted with various special roles to care for children in my life? The answer is simple – He says, “ I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you….’You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” And how did this happen? “ I trusted the Lord with all [my] heart, with all [my] mind, and with all [my] strength and he has kept his promise!
Is life as a Christian always easy? No! In fact, it is often hard because in difficult situations I am called to stretch and be more like Jesus and not respond to hurt, denunciation, gossip, invisibility or rejection with like attitude, but to love others including those that make life difficult! As a very dear psychiatrist sais to me more than once “find peoples innocence, and than you can find a way to forgive, understand and love them!” Or as God puts it, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” I’m called not to worry; although I try, it is hard not to - I do worry…I worry about you all forgetting me, I worry about enough donations, I worry about my aging Mother, I worry about how long I’m called to leave everything and everyone I love behind, I worry about becoming a grandmother and not being there, I worry about how I’m perceived by people which so often different from my heart, I worry about the milestones I’m missing in my loved ones lives, I worry about those that I love that don’t know the Lord yet! But yet God says, “Trust in me and lean not on your own understanding.” So I do! With all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength!
I don’t know exactly what brought on this outpouring of emotions to surface in this email. Maybe, it is because today I am feeling extremely humbled by all that God has done for me; the way He has prepared the way before me, how He has forgiven me my sins and wrongdoings, how He gives me the strength to stand up to my persecutors and how He brought each of you into my life: who push me, love me, encourage me, challenge me, support me, stretch me and pray for me! I know that the best thing God ever did for me was to answer my prayer to die and allow me to be reborn in Christ! I hope that each and every one of you know that I love you from the bottom of my heart and miss you terribly! Having said that, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world right now, in this moment, because I know I am where the Lord of my life wants me to be and when I go to sleep at night I am filled with joy for having been in His will and continue to seek His will each and every day!
I know there will be a time for me to return home, but for now that will only be for visits in June/July. I hope in the process of me fulfilling my calling you will still have room for me in your lives. I await your emails, comments and letters expectantly and receive them with delight!
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all! 2 Cor. 13:13
Your friend, bestfriend, daughter, sister, mother, godmother, aunt, aunty &, leila! ♥ ♥Love and hugs!!!!
♥ Carol xoxoxox
P.S. A slight testimony to go with this blog since I’ve received a whole gamut of responses from the above email…Hee, hee
Before I wrote the email above I had prayed and asked God to give me an email that I could send to everyone. Hmmm, when I finished writing it, and then read it I through, I thought, “I can’t send this email; for sure everyone (my non-Christian/agnostic friends and family) will think I’ve gone over the deep end into ‘bible thumping world!’ So, I started going through my address book and picking out the preferred few that would receive this God-given email. Well, the Holy Spirit prompted my next thought which was “ oh sure, you ask God for an email you can send everyone, but you don’t like what He gave you so now you’re going to pick a chosen few?????” Soooooo I put my finger over the send button and voila there have it…literally! I sent it to everyone in my address book (I hope I remembered to use BCC when I did it?). And that my friends is not the whole story… a few (3 to be exact), of the emails I got back were to tell me that my email came at a time of deep personal need for reasons I’m not at liberty to share with you all, but wanted you to know. One of these people I had not heard from in a very long time!
Please let me remind you with the love of a Sister in Christ - Sometimes we need to be reminded of "WHO" is REALLY in control. He is omniscient and omnipresent and He knows what we need before we do! He uses us to be there for each other and when we listen to Him the results are God ordained!!!!!! If for no other reason than for my couple of friends whom were blessed by the above letter, I am truly grateful for the inspired email from God.
Doesn’t it make you think that if little nobody Carol could get a word from the Lord for her little group of friends when they’re in need that the disciples and authors of the Bible could get the words from the Lord that would “teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteuosness,” so that His children would be cared for and be able to build relationship with Him! Just a thought…
There you have it!!! God loves you and so do I!!!!
Carol XOX
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