Peeling away the layers...

God has so wrecked me this week - in a good way. There has been drama here causing us great pain and anger. I have been in a state of unrest since my last post. I have found it very hard to paint. I knew in my heart that a new thing was about to begin, but I impatiently ran way ahead of the Lord and the art that come out of me was awful. But He is so good. So, so caring. He revealed though Diana and Robb what I could not see by myself and I am again excited about this part of the mission. Yea God!

That said, my heart is has been burdened after so many days of staring into the eyes of the hopeless when ministering. Too many times I have heard the words: "I don't know why I am alive" or "I don't have any reason to live." Praise Him for giving me words of hope and encouragement for them. But dealing with all to real life and death situations wears very heavy on me and I have felt so uncovered and alone here.

The hardest part of the week though, the single most thing that threw us into a tailspin is that the very validity of our mission here and our ability to carry out that mission was challenged and under attack from the last people in our lives that we could have ever expected and that shattered us. It is not right for me to go into details - it would be gossip - but I feel it is important that we share our pain; that we can share that even with the best of intentions, that even as laid down lovers of Christ, we can speak death on each other. That has to stop.

But God used even this to bring me closer to Him. We cried out for help and He answered. What touched us the most is how He sent His kids to our aid. So many dear friends reached out to us, confirmed the value of the work here, encouraged us, blessed us, spoke truth to us and just loved on us without judgement.

But much still needs to be healed, so much work needs to be done, so please continue to pray.

Gwen