Answered Prayers

Answers to prayers come in many shapes and forms – sick people are healed, loneliness is alleviated, jobs are secured, those in harm’s way are protected, etc.  More often than not, God uses people to deliver these answers – doctors administer treatments, new friends enter our lives, others come to our rescue, etc.

Occasionally, we are granted the privilege of embodying the answers to another’s prayers by acting as a tool in the Maker’s hand – we get to deliver the cold cup of water, we get to set the captives free, we get to be the friend to the lonely.

Later this week, we (finally) leave for Uganda.  Our family’s prayer is that we will clearly see the opportunities we are presented to be the answer to the prayers of those we visit in prison and in orphanages, and otherwise encounter.

The Gash family is currently in Cancun, Mexico vacationing with five of our answered prayers – our Twin Family from Oklahoma about whom we have posted previously.  Their family is eerily similar to ours and they will also be spending six months in Uganda, arriving exactly one week after we do, and living right below us at our apartment complex in Uganda.

A couple months ago, they invited us to join them on their mid-January Cancun family vacation.  We leapt at the opportunity to spend some time getting to know them in relative comfort before sharing our lives together in a developing country.

This vacation has gone even better than we could have hoped.  Our kids immediately bonded and have been inseparable for the four days we have been together.  They have become as close as cousins and we are confident they will become lifelong friends after our time together in Africa.  Joline and I instantly connected with Jill and Jay, and look forward to traveling this journey together as brothers and sisters.  Their family website is cleverly titled due unto others.  When we first met, we each presented the others with t-shirts we had brought – they gave us “due unto others” t-shirts, and we gave them Pepperdine Law t-shirts.

This morning, we gathered in their room (they are Vacation Club members and have a sweet suite) to start our Sunday by worshiping the One we serve and who brought our families together.  It was a special time of singing, praying, and communing (it was Jennifer’s first communion after her immersion one week ago today).

We are grateful for the continuing prayers so many of you have lifted up on our behalf.