Blessings

Today we were able to experience the blessings of the Lord.
I have mentioned several times before how we are not allowed to witness at all while we are living here. I was very disheartened by this, as I know we are under God's command to preach the gospel. I have prayed that the Lord will still use our family to win souls and to be a witness to others. Since the Lord's desire is also to win the lost, I knew he would answer my prayers; I just didn't know how he would do it. However, it is becoming more and more evident what the Lord is doing. Consistently since we've been here, people have come up to my husband asking about our church. Keep in mind, neither of us has mentioned our church.....but a light cannot be hidden, and they have been drawn to it. This morning we had 3 visitors to church --- all of whom asked US to come! Praise the Lord!!
The message the preacher gave was wonderful. He knew that our visitors were lost, and so he preached a message on salvation. At one point, the preacher literally had to wipe a tear off of his cheek. It was easy to see the compassion he felt for these poor, lost souls. It was a good message too, and very appropriate for who they were. I know the Lord placed just the right message on his heart. No decisions were made this morning, but a good seed was planted, and God's word will not return void.
After the services, we stayed behind to have lunch with the family who had invited us last week. There was so much food!! The lady who did all of the cooking worked so hard to make all of it, as each dish was very labor intensive. There was tabbouleh, which was a very light and fresh "salad" that is very popular here. I can't remember the Arabic names of the other dishes, so I'll just explain what they were. One dish had small zucchini that had been hollowed out (a LOT of work), and then stuffed with meat and rice. This meat and rice mixture was also rolled up into grape leaves, something we had never tried before. Both of these were cooked together in a pressure cooker. Honestly, this dish did not look appealing at all; but looks can be deceiving! It was very delicious!! Our kids loved it too, and our son even asked for seconds! There were also small meat "pies"....they looked like tiny pizzas with a meat and veggie mixture on top. They were also very tasty. We felt very blessed to have such loving brothers and sisters in Christ......they truly put a lot of effort into this meal for us.
We had a wonderful time of fellowship with this family after our meal. Lots of laughing and story telling. It was during this time of fellowship that another blessing of the Lord was revealed to us. The Lord truly knows the desires of our hearts; whether we make them known to him through prayer or not. This sounds almost silly to talk about, but sometimes the small things can reveal the largest blessings. Being here, we have really started to miss some of the foods that we have been accustomed to most of our lives. Cheese here does not taste very flavorful, and it can be quite expensive, and then there is our total lack of pork products - something I didn't think I would miss as much as I do. I never once thought of praying, "Lord, please provide us with sharp cheddar and bacon." But, as I said, the Lord knows our desires. Today we discovered the occupation of one of the preachers in our church. He sells meat and cheeses to many of the grocery stores in Jerusalem! Next week he is going to bring us 3 pounds of cheddar cheese, a slab of bacon, and wants to give us pork chops as a gift! God is so good to us -- so much better than we could ever deserve. How blessed it is to know that he knows us so well; to provide us with the very things that we have longed for.....without us ever asking for them. What a loving and generous Lord we serve!
On a funny note..........my husband answered the phone tonight and politely listened as the woman on the other end tried to gain his business in a new dental clinic that was being opened in the area. Upon asking if he would be interested in becoming a patient, my husband replied, "I don't have any teeth." The lady politely said, "Oh, okay", and as my husband was hanging up the phone he could hear her say, "wait, what?" Too funny.