Sunday: The Lord Gives, and Takes Away, but Blessed be the Name of the Lord

The book of Job shows that there are dark spiritual forces trying to rob us of joy, and trying to put a wedge between us and God, and between marriages, between family, and between friendships.

The beautiful song called "blessed be your name" has the words from Job, "you give and take away, you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, blessed be Your Name". 

This week we endured some disheartening news that our friends Dao and VJ had to close the coffee shop.  Today we endured some sad news that the ice cream shop owner and her husband have decided to close shop and take away the furniture and ice cream refrigerator.  Our patio is now bare.  Bummer.  I have no hesitation to say that this was part of warfare trying to steal away good things that God has blessed us with as we serve Him.  Many seeds of faith have been shared through the context of both the coffee shop and the ice cream shop?  How did this all happen?

For Dao and VJ, the owner of the building decided to hike up the rent to a point they could no longer do business with him.  So they are having to move on.
For the ice cream shop owner, their are some emotional things going on in her personal life that were caused by ungodly things, and her husband who has the vision of the ice cream shop, has decided to close everything up.

But the Lord allows trials to come by.  But God's grace is there to meet us on the other end of it.  Today even w/o the furniture on the patio, there were many that came by not for ice cream but to watch the christian video i had on, as we carted the tv and dvd out there. 

Tammy helped throw this really fun surprise baby shower party.  all the ladies loved the games tammy taught them, and there was so much joy and laughter.  They were all very thankful for tammy, and that we can share the house for them. 

Boiy came to church today, and sang along with the songs.  he was able to get discipled with many thai in the morning.  I would have loved to have him over at our place for our bible study, but to be honest, it is best he's with the other thai, and being taught with a strong group of thai speaking believers around him. 

We went to the mall afterwards to bless one of our students Ploy.  We brought Elder Whoot's 2 kids, with Whoot.  We had a great time pigging out eating pizza.  Then we walked around and saw a comedy movie.  Please pray for those 3.  the comedy / love story was all in fun, and it was a touching story, but some things can give the wrong message for these teens.  So i spoke with the dad, and I'll tell Pastor Tae that it would be good for the parents to check in with their kids to see what their thoughts are on the movie. 

Praise God that Boiy and Suchia came.  Praise God for Sathaporn, another man we shared the Gospel with from the english class (an engineer) showed up at the pizza place and sat nearby us with his family (a God moment?!) and praise God that my family back home is fundraising and is sending a huge love offering (financial) to help bless the water factory we are going to build!  Wow!  just in time , and walking by faith.... Our deadline to move forward with everything (remember timing is important, because i'm on a schedule here) was oct 10. 

God bless!!!!

Alex