Sing with me, How Great is Our God!!!
Hi! This is Tricia! This morning at church I was just completely overwhelmed with how much the Lord has done for us. I was thinking of a couple teammates who are in the support-raising phase of their journey to Zambia right now and thinking about how hard that is and how far we Huckabys have come with the help of our mighty God!!!
So I decided I just need to take a little time to praise and thank Jesus today. For those of you who read our blog who do not love and follow Jesus, can I just please ask you to really consider that again. I know that he loves you so much, and even died so that you can find forgiveness of sins. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son!!! Giving my life over to Christ was and is the best choice I ever made. So whether you are a Christian or not would you just praise God with me today for all that he has done!!!
1. God sustained Kelly and I through around 18 months of support raising while we lived in our friends' basement. (And he sustained them somehow through that time too, which is saying a lot)
2. He provided all the money we needed to move to Lusaka, Zambia. He provided us with enough monthly donors and regular donors to cover our monthly needs well enough to live here as volunteers. Did you know that we have around 75 families/donors that give some each month for us to be here? It's amazing!
3. God protected us through our travel here, settling into a whole new culture, moving to and living in a little hut for a year with our three crazy kids, and then raising the money for and building a $60,000 coordinators' house for Ciyanjano which we are now living in. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!! Thank you, God, for your great mercy toward us!!!
4. He has already given us many, many, many wonderful opportunities to encourage pastors and their wives who are ministering to people in the slums here in Lusaka. And he has made Ciyanjano to grow and thrive despite glitches and hold-ups.
5. God has made my garden grow and has given me plenty of food to share with workers, neighbors and friends. Because of God's generosity and the generosity of our brothers and sisters back home, Kelly and I are able to be generous to the people around us... helping people with food, school fees, clothing and more. I just thank God that he has given us an abundance of ways to help people out.
6. We have three wonderful kids!!!! One has done an incredible job, by the grace of God, getting through transition after transition and being a wonderful brother. Two of them were added to our family just simply because of the love of God. God sustained us all through the adoption process, which was not easy, and the process of becoming a family. Again, He is amazing. And somehow he is helping Kelly and I each day to parent these kids.
7. People, can you just sing with me... How great is our God??!!! He has done all of these things and so much more in just a few years.
8. Nobody on this property has been bitten by a snake or spit on by a snake since we've been here. No really giant bugs have crawled in our beds or under our skin or in our ears.
9. So far, we haven't gotten malaria or anything super bad. Even the very rotten staph infection I had, well, it could have been a lot worse. And we've even seen a friend of ours healed miraculously just this week. God is the great physician.
10. We've had hard times and we've been afraid. We've had days where we wanted to go back to the States. We've had to say many times, "Without your help God, there's no way we can go on." But during those times, we've cried out to the Lord and he has heard us. He picked us up again and put our feet on the Rock. I lift my eyes up to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
11. God has given us amazing teammates who have been faithful in teaching us, encouraging us, and praying for us. He's also given us brothers and sisters who are local and also who are from all around the world to work with us and encourage us and pray for us when we needed it. Sure we miss family and friends from home, but we are so thankful for each person that God has brought into our lives here. God really can give you family wherever you go and whatever you are going through.
12. God has given us his Word. I can't tell you how often I'm amazed at the way that God's word answers the questions on my mind or helps me in figuring out a problem. Again and again God has used his Word to show Kelly and I how we should live each day.
13. We have eyes to see God's creation with, we have ears to enjoy the music of the world with, we have legs to run with and hands to work with. And most of all we have voices to praise God with!!!!! And even blogs to praise God with, so here I am praising you with this blog, God!!!!
14. God has given us his Spirit. I don't know exactly how the Holy Spirit works and the Bible says "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” I want to praise God for his mysterious and wonderful Spirit and the way his Holy Spirit guides us and comforts us, brings us to repentance and teaches us how we should go.
15. I could go on and on because our Lord has been so good to us. But I want to say that we love and praise the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father that sent him, not because he gives us cash or clothes or food, not because of the good gifts he gives us, not because of the good health we've had or the children he gives us. Of course we are thankful but that is not why we love the Lord. We love the Lord because he first loved us, he made us, the Father sent the Son to die for us, he redeemed us so that we could find forgiveness for our sins and spend eternity with God. We love God and follow God because he is GOD. Thank you God for who you are. We worship you for who you are. Only a God like you would be worthy of our praise, and all our hope and faith.
So I decided I just need to take a little time to praise and thank Jesus today. For those of you who read our blog who do not love and follow Jesus, can I just please ask you to really consider that again. I know that he loves you so much, and even died so that you can find forgiveness of sins. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son!!! Giving my life over to Christ was and is the best choice I ever made. So whether you are a Christian or not would you just praise God with me today for all that he has done!!!
1. God sustained Kelly and I through around 18 months of support raising while we lived in our friends' basement. (And he sustained them somehow through that time too, which is saying a lot)
2. He provided all the money we needed to move to Lusaka, Zambia. He provided us with enough monthly donors and regular donors to cover our monthly needs well enough to live here as volunteers. Did you know that we have around 75 families/donors that give some each month for us to be here? It's amazing!
3. God protected us through our travel here, settling into a whole new culture, moving to and living in a little hut for a year with our three crazy kids, and then raising the money for and building a $60,000 coordinators' house for Ciyanjano which we are now living in. Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!! Thank you, God, for your great mercy toward us!!!
4. He has already given us many, many, many wonderful opportunities to encourage pastors and their wives who are ministering to people in the slums here in Lusaka. And he has made Ciyanjano to grow and thrive despite glitches and hold-ups.
5. God has made my garden grow and has given me plenty of food to share with workers, neighbors and friends. Because of God's generosity and the generosity of our brothers and sisters back home, Kelly and I are able to be generous to the people around us... helping people with food, school fees, clothing and more. I just thank God that he has given us an abundance of ways to help people out.
6. We have three wonderful kids!!!! One has done an incredible job, by the grace of God, getting through transition after transition and being a wonderful brother. Two of them were added to our family just simply because of the love of God. God sustained us all through the adoption process, which was not easy, and the process of becoming a family. Again, He is amazing. And somehow he is helping Kelly and I each day to parent these kids.
7. People, can you just sing with me... How great is our God??!!! He has done all of these things and so much more in just a few years.
8. Nobody on this property has been bitten by a snake or spit on by a snake since we've been here. No really giant bugs have crawled in our beds or under our skin or in our ears.
9. So far, we haven't gotten malaria or anything super bad. Even the very rotten staph infection I had, well, it could have been a lot worse. And we've even seen a friend of ours healed miraculously just this week. God is the great physician.
10. We've had hard times and we've been afraid. We've had days where we wanted to go back to the States. We've had to say many times, "Without your help God, there's no way we can go on." But during those times, we've cried out to the Lord and he has heard us. He picked us up again and put our feet on the Rock. I lift my eyes up to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
11. God has given us amazing teammates who have been faithful in teaching us, encouraging us, and praying for us. He's also given us brothers and sisters who are local and also who are from all around the world to work with us and encourage us and pray for us when we needed it. Sure we miss family and friends from home, but we are so thankful for each person that God has brought into our lives here. God really can give you family wherever you go and whatever you are going through.
12. God has given us his Word. I can't tell you how often I'm amazed at the way that God's word answers the questions on my mind or helps me in figuring out a problem. Again and again God has used his Word to show Kelly and I how we should live each day.
13. We have eyes to see God's creation with, we have ears to enjoy the music of the world with, we have legs to run with and hands to work with. And most of all we have voices to praise God with!!!!! And even blogs to praise God with, so here I am praising you with this blog, God!!!!
14. God has given us his Spirit. I don't know exactly how the Holy Spirit works and the Bible says "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” I want to praise God for his mysterious and wonderful Spirit and the way his Holy Spirit guides us and comforts us, brings us to repentance and teaches us how we should go.
15. I could go on and on because our Lord has been so good to us. But I want to say that we love and praise the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father that sent him, not because he gives us cash or clothes or food, not because of the good gifts he gives us, not because of the good health we've had or the children he gives us. Of course we are thankful but that is not why we love the Lord. We love the Lord because he first loved us, he made us, the Father sent the Son to die for us, he redeemed us so that we could find forgiveness for our sins and spend eternity with God. We love God and follow God because he is GOD. Thank you God for who you are. We worship you for who you are. Only a God like you would be worthy of our praise, and all our hope and faith.
Comments
I am so thrilled that you and Kelly are doing this...and hearing about all the both of you with the Lord are doing is a blessing.
Love and hugs
Carol