Easter... and more

This last week was wonderful! Temperatures finally hit the 70s; the sun was out; and I was well enough to ride my bike! I spent more time in the Word than I have been doing; and also a fair amount of time talking to friends, and family. My family is great. They actually drove 13 hours just to come see me for 2 days for Easter. Yet, here I was, whining about how crowded my home would be... just as I opened a letter from my sponsored child, describing how 4 people live in a hut the size of 10x10 feet. Okay, so, that introduced some perspective. Needless to say, the whining stopped, and praises started.
My friend is currently in Brazil on a mission trip; and God kindly reminded me to pray for her when we went to the zoo on Saturday. It just seemed so logical, seeing all those poisonous snakes and spiders...
And then there was this amazing hailstorm, with just the most glorious display of lightning, last Thursday night (when I meant to be at church, but ended up having coffee with a friend... now, THAT was random). Yet this morning, on the day when we remember Christ as the risen LORD, we had nothing but cold rain. Lots and lots of it. So much, that the lightning struck the transformer and the church had no light. No light, other than THE light, the light of the world. It was kind of neat to worship without electricity. No mics, no electric piano, just a few acoustic instruments, and many worshippers.
And in the evening, I caught up with 2 of my best friends on the phone.

But the real reason I'm up here typing tonight, is to again share a story of God's faithfulness to me: Back in March, I was devastated because research is so slow. I really wanted to have data, to write up an abstract, so I could present at this meeting in July. But, no data, no presentation, no meeting. So, disappointed, I resigned myself to staying home. I came to the conclusion that God has always sent me to the right places and at the right times; so I figured I needed to just trust Him that this meeting was not a good thing for me to attend this year. Yet, a colleague, surprised me, and said: "Silke, but God loves you. You'll go to the meeting." And I thought, yeah, whatever.
After my little operation, I couldn't stay home very long (home is much more boring than work). So, I went in, just for half a day, and I checked my e-mail. Now, get this: The first e-mail to check on my list was marked as "spam," but I opened it anyway. Turns out, before any of my colleagues will find out whether their abstracts got accepted, God basically confirmed that I need to go to that meeting; and to His glory, He gave me more than I would have asked for (which was to go to the meeting): an award. Okay, now that knocked me off my feet. What little faith I have, yet how faithful God is. And what a way to confirm that He has chosen my career for me; something I'd known for a long time, but needed to hear again. Now my only prayer is, that I will go to that conference, for HIS glory, and not for mine, and that many, many people would see HIM there. It's just too cool a story to keep to myself.

Happy Easter!

Silke