Happy Week, Family! 🙏🏽
This week, we praise God for:
💟 Vasthi praised His faithfulness, His blessings and the fact that He allows things to happen in our lives but then proves that He never leaves us or forsakes us. She also expressed her gratitude to God for the Lighthouse...and the fact that we are always there for one another.
💟 Angy thanked God for answered prayers and also for the hardships and difficulties which have allowed her family to grow closer.
💟 Doris requested prayer for all of our children: in our church and out in the community; especially that they be protected from Covid. Please also pray for the teachers and staff as they are exposed daily.
💟 Nelson thanked God for His faithfulness towards Gilbert; that his surgery went well and that He is home recovering and getting stronger. Let's keep praying for Gilbert!!!🙏🏽
We are also praying for:
🛐 Astrid asked the church to pray for her aunt, Anicia, who is battling lung cancer which has spread to get lungs. She's in a lot of pain and Astrid is asking the Lord for mercy. Astrid also asked for prayer for her aunt's husband, who is paralyzed. Her aunt used to be able to take care of him, but now is unable. Astrid is asking that the Lord help them find a solution.
🛐 Each and every silent prayer request lifted.
🛐 ALL of the children connected by love to The Lighthouse as they attend school with the added worries and stress associated with Covid. May God grant them a year filled with PROTECTION, good health, learning, friendships, memories and new MERCIES, available to them each and every morning! 🌅
🛐 Alex Edmond. Amel requested that we pray for Alex as he not only started college, but also got a job and will be very busy. May God guide and protect him - especially from Covid, as he will be interacting with many people on a daily basis.
🛐 Carole and her family, as they are in great need of prayer
🛐 Catheryn, Connor and growing Baby Llibre. May the Lord watch over and protect them, their new home and their future plans as they continue to walk with Him.
🛐 Protection and intervention on Elijah's behalf while he is in Florida. May God grant him and his family resolution on his custody case, that he might return to his family soon.
🛐 Our Bible Study groups on Sabbath morning and our Prayer Ports during the week. May they lead to stronger and healthier relationships with Jesus.
💟 Angy's nephew, Jordan, as he deals with a health crisis. May God lead him to the right medical team, and may He then lead the team!
🛐 Matthew, as he deals with the pressures of the academy. May God strengthen and protect him as he continues to pursue his dreams in law enforcement.
Acts 4:32
All the believers were ONE...united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.
There's a children's story that has been on my mind lately. It shows the power of what happens when a community comes together. When I was in the classroom, this became one of the students' favorite books for me to read with them.
There were once a few weary soldiers heading home from a war. Those with families hurried to their homes, but one soldier didn't have any family left, so he chose to stop in the first village he happened upon because he was so tired and hungry.He decided to ask the people in the village to spare him some food.
At the first house, the people sadly tell him they barely have enough to eat themselves. Same thing at the second house and the third. And so on and so on. All the villagers send him away hungry.
The hungry soldier eventually come up with a plan. He asked someone if he could borrow a large cauldron, filled it with some water from the well and placed it atop the community fire pit, then started searching the ground. Passersby stopped to watch and wonder what the soldier was looking for. Before long, villagers come out of their homes to get a closer look at what the soldier was doing.
To their great amazement, the soldier started to pick up stones and plop them in the cauldron. PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! Then THUD! THUD! THUD!as they made it to the bottom of the cauldron. As the villagers got closer, they asked the soldier, “What are you doing?” He got some very confused and dumbfounded looks as they wondered if maybe he had lost his mind while at war.
The soldier stopped for a moment and then answered, “I am making some delicious stone soup. Want to help?”
Some people laughed. Some stared. Others began to say something, but changed their minds. The soldier keeps storing and takes a whiff of the Stone Soup. "Mmmmm...I think it needs a pinch of salt and pepper!" Two women ran home - one to get salt, while yelling for the other to get pepper. The soldier took in s deeper whiff...so did the villagers.
"Oh...if I only had a few carrots, then it would really be extra delicious!" Three villagers returned, each with a carrot or two from their gardens. In they went.
This time the soldier lifted the giant spoon someone had handed him and tasted. "Oh, how an onion would make this super savory!", he lamented. Suddenly, everyone began to make suggestions and provide them! A turnip, some celery, some green beans, parsley, beets, broccoli and peas. The ingredients were thrown in the pot as he stirred and stirred.
"I think some potatoes would thicken this soup so that it's extra hearty and thick!" Off went the villagers to find a potato or two from their yards.
Soon, a savory aroma filled the entire village and mouths began to water! The soldier took one more taste and said, "Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm! Now it's perfect! We need only ONE MORE THING!”
"WHAT????" sang the village in unison. The soldier smiled, "We need bowls and spoons so we can all eat!"
The villagers excitedly obliged and he excitedly filled bowl after bowl. Then together, they sat down for the best meal they had ever had in the history of the village! Funny thing. Not one of them chipped a tooth on any stones!
The soldier never left that village...they became his family. And Stone Soup became so well known in nearby villages, that people came from all over to purchase a bowl!
And soon the poor little village became a bustling town of plenty, where people also wanted to purchase these special vegetables that made the soup so delicious. Those small, little garden patches became rolling farms with large barns to store the abundance of special vegetables. Still, ously kept coming back for Stone Soup. It tasted best when eaten in that community filled with love.
Some nights, even to this day, the people living in the town where it all happened remembers and retells what they learned about COMMUNITY that night. It changed their village, it changed their future...it changed their very lives.
Amazing things happen when we come together with the little we have and turn it into abundance.