Carmen has a fever today and is coughing some. We completely stopped giving her Robinul to control secretions and switched over to the Scop patch. She is peeing more but oftentimes will not pee for hours and hours and then a deluge happens! She continues to have daily diarrhea. We have no idea why.
Good news! A new nurse will come in for orientation Monday night. She was a NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) nurse in Pennsylvania and just moved here. We are praying that she is good and a wonderful fit for our family.
This summer I read quite a few books thanks to my friend Lori. I have always loved to read and find it a wonderful distraction from my hectic life. I have been thinking of doing “book reviews” on here occasionally. I decided to start with my top 5 books. I’ll start with #1, just in case I don’t get to all 5 in a reasonable amount of time (like 10 years!).
God’ Smuggler by Brother Andrew (May 11, 1928- )
. God’s Smuggler is the story of Brother Andrew’s incredible efforts to transport Bibles across closed borders and the miraculous ways in which God provided for him every step of the way. This book is filled with hair-raising examples of God’s provision. Brother Andrew did not start off with the amazing faith he came to possess. God showed Himself faithful in the “small” things and Brother Andrew believed.
As a young man, Brother Andrew felt God’s call to mission work. So, he enrolled in Worldwide Evangelization Crusade Missionary Training College in Glasgow. This was no ordinary training. The focus was on learning to trust God for EVERYTHING. In one exercise in trust, 5 students including Brother Andrew were to go on a missionary tour of Scotland. The students were each given a one pound banknote (which they were expected to pay back at the end of the tour) and had to pay all of their expenses themselves, but were to never, never ask for money. My favorite story happened when the group was holding meetings in Edinburgh. They decided to hold tea for a group of young people. But, they had no tea, no cake, no bread and butter and only 5 cups. The young people volunteered to bring everything but the cake. So, the young missionaries in training had no cake for their tea. The following is an excerpt of what happened:
“So that night in our evening prayer time, we put the matter before the Lord. ‘Lord, we’ve got ourselves into a spot. From somewhere we’ve got to get a cake. Will You help us?’
That night as we rolled up in our blankets on the floor of the hall, we played guessing games: How was God going to give us that cake? Among the five of us, we guesed everything imaginable- or so we thought.
Morning arrived. We half expected a heavenly messenger to come to our door bearing a cake. But no one came. The morning mail arrived. We ripped open two letters, hoping for money. There was none. A woman from a nearby church came by to see if she could help. ‘Cake,’ was on the tip of all of our tongues, but we swallowed the word and shook our heads.
‘Everything,’ we assured her, ‘is in God’s hands.’
The tea had been announced for four o’clock in the afternoon. At three the tables were set, but still we had no cake. Three-thirty came. We put on water to boil. Three-forty-five.
And then the doorbell rang.
All of us ran together to the big front entrance, and there was the postman. In his hands was a large box.
‘Hello, lads,’ said the postman. ‘Got something for you that feels like a food package.’ He handed the box to one of the boys. ‘The delivery day is over, actually,’ he said, ‘but I hate to leave a perishable package overnight.’
We thanked him profusely, and the minute he closed the door the boy solemnly handed me the box. ‘It’s for you, Andrew. From Mrs. William Hopkins in London.’
I took the package and carefully unwrapped it. Off came the twine. Off came the brown outside paper. Inside, there was no note- only a large white box. Deep in my soul I knew that I could afford the drama of lifting the lid slowly. As I did, there, in perfect condition, to be admired by five sets of wondering eyes, was an enormous, glistening, moist, chocolate cake.”
And thus began a life of trust. Brother Andrew learned to trust God for every provision he ever needed, big or “small”. He trusted God when he took Bibles across hostile borders. He did not live in the lap of luxury by any means. But, his many, many stories of God’s miraculous provisions are worth far more than gold!
When I read this about 20 years ago, I was struck by two things. 1) When we are following God’s leading, He can be trusted to provide everything we need in His perfect timing. 2) God knows exactly what we need and He is perfectly capable of leading other people to provide our needs.
I know it is very tempting to share our needs as prayer requests or struggles. I am very guilty of this very thing. But, when we allow God to supply our needs, without anyone else knowing ahead of time, our faith grows leaps and bounds as we see God work! (There are times when God leads us to share our needs…I am just saying that in general, watching God work without our “help” is so much more rewarding!)
You can find this book most anywhere: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christian bookstores, etc. Read it. You will love it and think about it for the rest of your life!
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