AMAZING! for Amanda

I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY!!  I am so proud to see you work.  At God’s Table might offer daily “thinking” bread, but the real meal is the compassion you show for each other.  As a result of your decisions to involve yourselves in the lives of this community, we have helped Amanda in significant ways.  YOU are wonderful people and I am just overjoyed to be part of a real community that works!  Thank you.

We sent Amanda more than $10,000.  We lifted her burdens.  We will continue to do so with help for jobs, prayers for her children and contacts for encouragement.

THANK YOU, one and all.

If you wish to send her encouragement, or just make a new friend, she has given permission to contact her

amanda@raisingwarriors.us

But it’s not just the financial help for Amanda.  There are some crucial lessons for all of us here.

First – if Amanda had not been willing to speak out about her struggles, we would have never known and consequently never experienced the blessing of compassion and assistance.  She never asked.  She just spoke her heart.  As a direct result of her suffering, every one of us have been blessed.  God used her and her trials to allow each of you to perform a mitzvah.  She wondered what God was doing.  Now we know that at least part of what He was doing was using her to bless us.

Second – we learned that those who are committed to real community can find help.  But you have to open your heart.  Express your concerns.  Let yourself be vulnerable.  We can find you if we know where to look.  And we learned that we are not alone.  That God loves you and me through the lives of others.  We learned that being afraid to share where we really are is a function of being in communities that never really cared for us.  But now we know God uses those who are willing.

Third – those of us who gave in any way at all experienced the joy of knowing we were part of making a very BIG difference to this family.  Perhaps you held back thinking that your piece didn’t really make a difference.  Now you know otherwise for the next time the opportunity comes along.

Finally – we can all pray for Amanda.  Her trials are not over.  But we should also thank the Lord for Amanda.  She has blessed us and we are grateful.

Please go to the blog site and read all that happened over the last few days by looking at “Why We Are Here”