A little miracle today

The past few weeks we have been pretty busy with traveling, celebrating birthday's, getting ready for birthday's and weddings.  In the midst of the busyness it is easy to loose track of things.  Things like your camera. 

On Saturday evening Isabella drew a picture, one that really touched my heart. I wanted to take a picture of it, it was a pretty powerful picture..... I wanted to capture the moment of the picture.  As I went to get my camera, I could not find it.  It was not in either of the two places I normally keep it. It is either in my purse or in my desk drawer.  I searched everywhere for it and it was no where to be found.  I even called Mark, wondering if he had it, nope he did not have it.  I was REALLY discouraged.  There were a few reasons for the discouragement.  It was my birthday gift from Mark last year.  In the past Mark and I had always shared a camera and most of the time when he was out, he carried the camera with him.  Therefore when I wanted to capture special Isabella moments, take pictures of homeschooling stuff, my garden, stuff that I was cooking.....  I didn't have a camera available to capture the moments.  The camera was really nice, plus we really did not have the money to replace the camera.  Over the past few days I had been really discouraged about the loss of my camera. 

As I had been replaying things in my mind, I knew it had been in my purse and was certain I did not take it out of my purse at home after our last trip to Albania last weekend.  For some reason I felt I had left it somewhere in Prishtina.  I felt that I must of been digging around in my purse to either get my wallet or my ITouch or something and felt that I left it somewhere.  To be honest, I felt that I would never see my camera again.  Mark encouraged me to go back to the places I had been last week to see if it would come up.  This afternoon I went to a few place to inquire and it wasn't there.  This evening, after dinner Mark and I decided to go the restaurant we went to last Tuesday as soon as we had arrived back to Prishtina.  When we asked the waiter about it, he asked what time of day we had come in and he walked to counter and handed me my camera!  I was beside myself.  I felt that if I had left it at a restaurant that either a customer would of seen it and taken it.  Or it would of been taken by an employee.  As we left the restaurant we were thanking the Lord for the honesty of the people at the restaurant.  Thank you Jesus.

One outing, two contrasting conversations

Wow, what a very interesting outing I had this afternoon!  On Monday's Mark takes Isabella out in the late morning to have a special daddy/Isabella date.  This frees me up to have some time for myself.  Yesterday evening a friend had messaged me on facebook asking if I would have time to meet for a coffee.  We had made tentative plans to met.  This morning I realized I did not have credit on my phone to call her with the time and the place to meet, so I messaged her on facebook with the time and location that would be convenient for me, hoping she would see the message and be free at the time.    As I spent time reflecting on the events of the afternoon I am able to see how the Lord directed my steps this afternoon to open my eyes to the good as well as the evil that is taking place in the society that I am a part of.

Before my meeting I thought it would be nice to go and have a nice lunch by myself at a cafe I had not been to in awhile (I enjoy getting out for some quality alone time to read, pray and reflect).   As I walked in, I notice the cafe was crowded, however there was a table close to two young people who were speaking English.  To give you an idea of how close I was to these people, my back was almost touching the young man's back.  Although, I would not intentionally eavesdrop on a conversation (actually I was trying to read), I could hear what they were saying.  They were talking about Jesus!  The conversation was very edify.  From what it seemed like, they were a part of a short term outreach team.  The young man has a desire to be a pastor and the young lady has a desire to work with human trafficking.  Because I did want this people to think I was intentionally listening to them (really I wasn't), I didn't not speak to them.  I just left edified.  As I left the cafe on my way to another restaurant to meet my friend, I was just thanking the Lord for the wonderful time I had just experienced

As I .approached the restaurant I found a table to sit out that would be easy to spot my friend if she showed up, I wasn't too sure if she would show up as we had not made concrete  plans.  This table was very close to another young lady and man.  However the conversation that was taking place was ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!  I really was not trying to listen, actually at one point I wanted to find another table simply because I found the language that the young lady was using was offensive.  Every other word that was coming out of the young lady's mouth was a swear word and she was speaking loud.  As they were talking I was really trying to concentrate on my book.   About half way into the conversation the young lady started talking about a relationship that she recently ended.  It turns out the young lady is a lesbian, she was sharing with this young man why she broke it off with her "girlfriend." The details that had taken place in her life were just not good.  I was trying not to listen, however the young lady was talking really loud and I am sure many others heard what she was taking about.  As I was sitting there reading and waiting for my friend, my heart just started to break for these young people at the next table.

My friend did not show up, however I felt the Lord had other plans for me.  As I left the restaurant I felt led to find a bench in front of the place to just sit and intercede  for the young people I was sitting next to at the restaurant.  As I was reflecting on what I had just heard, I felt the  Lord gave me a small glimpse of the ugliness that takes place in the homosexual lifestyle.  As I thought back to the conversation I heard earlier, two young people on fire for Jesus, desiring to seek Him and serve Him with there life, then hearing what I just heard I could help but think about the spiritual battle we are in, good fighting evil.  I felt that the Lord used this experience to open my eyes to what is going on in the spiritual world, there are people seeking Him to do His work, but yet the enemy is out to steal kill and destroy.  Although I did not enjoy hearing some of the things that were said in the second conversation, I am glad I heard them.  Why? You may ask..... Because the Lord loves those caught up in the homosexual lifestyle.  The Lord needed me to see these two young people because He wants to people to be praying for them.  I am thankful that I was able to get a good look at there faces that I will be able to remember them in prayer often.  I am also thankful that the Lord used this to give me a glimpse of what the people go through who are caught up in this lifestyle.   

Now I am sure after this post you all are going to think that I eavesdrop on every conversation, really I don't at all.  I believe the Lord just wanted me to hear some things.