All of our lives are filled with tests and trials that come across our path.  Often these tests and trials all come at the same time.  The enemy is seeking whom He can devour and if you look at the news today, it is easy to see how there can be a sense of discouragement or despair.

-       The economy is sluggish and people are without jobs.

-       The oil spill on the Gulf continues to get worse.

-       Our political leaders are more divided than ever and there is no sense of a common vision to move our country forward.

These same kinds of trials and tests could be listed for every person individually as well.  When obstacles come, these are some things the Lord has led me to do to help make it through.

1. Remember the enemy is seeking to block your view of Jesus.  He stacks up your obstacles to build a wall of despair.
2. Take each issue one at a time and cast that care on Jesus and He will care for you.  In essence, surrender it to Him and don’t focus on the problem, but on Jesus and His promises from the Word.
3. Seek to serve others in your time of need.  Ask God to see the hurts of others and you will see how truly blessed you are.
4. Remember God’s character and His faithfulness in the past when you have come through difficult times.
5. Journal God’s daily provision and presence that sustained you so that when the next trial comes, you can remind yourself of God’s faithfulness and that He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
6. Thank Him that He has entrusted this to you to grow you and bring Him glory.

As you experience His sustaining grace, you will be growing in your dependence on God and His word.  Remember God’s Word trumps the words of men.  He is able and He is working in miraculous and mysterious ways through your tests and trials.  I am reminded of Corrie ten Boom’s book, “The Hiding Place”, when she and her sister were in the Nazi’s concentration camps and their barracks were the only ones with ticks and lice and how they complained about this horrible condition, which actually kept the guards out of their barracks in the evenings when they would have their way with the women.  Remember God is faithful and He loves you and will never leave you.

Please let me know if there is something you are struggling with that I and our BridgeBuilders prayer team can pray for.  Thank you for your believing prayers.

This past Saturday we celebrated the graduation of 8 students who completed their employment training in our Optical Lab.  So often in our walk with God we miss the miracles because we don’t see with His eyes and more importantly, love with His love. 

1 John 3:16-19 “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.  But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?  Little children let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Joni Whitehead, Director of Employment Services for our ministry, went on a poverty simulation weekend hosted by her church, Valley Ranch Baptist and Cornerstone Church, in downtown Dallas, where you live for 48 hours like a homeless person.  The last day of this eye opening experience, she saw a young lady named Crystal who lived at the Bridge, a Dallas homeless shelter. 

Joni said she couldn’t get Crystal out of her mind.  She went back to the Bridge the following Thursday but could not find her.  The Lord continued to place Crystal on her heart and she and her friend, Debbie, drove to the Bridge from Coppell at 5:30 on a Sunday morning to look for Crystal.  They found her and told her that she was coming home with them.  She left the Bridge with all her worldly possessions in 2 white trash bags.  Joni and her husband prayed about this and decided Crystal should live with them.  Their only child was at college and therefore they had room in their home for Crystal. 

Crystal lived with them for 4 months and they took her to all her appointments as well as to her employment training in our BridgeBuilders optical training class.  She was paired with a mentor from our ministry and several weeks into the process she prayed to receive Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior with her mentor.  She now has a job, through our Employment Placement Services, with Luxottica Lens Manufacturing and has her own apartment.  The church watched Joni and Debbie adopt this wonderful young lady and bring her to church with them each Sunday and blessed her with everything she needed for her new apartment. 

Truly, this is the love of Christ, when we see the needs of others, it should change the way we live.  Remember Jesus left heaven to come to earth so that we, who were homeless and without hope, may have a home with Him forever and the hope of glory.  This love is not from Joni, but from God, who is within her working through her for His glory.  We give God all the glory for this miracle.

My prayer is that God would open our eyes to see with His eyes and love with His love so that we can each experience the many miracles He has planned for us.  He is a miracle working God.  He just needs us to open our hearts to those who have a need and be the very hands and feet of Christ.  God’s love works!

This week the Dallas Morning News ran an article about Turner Courts receiving a $22 million grant to be rebuilt.  The article began with “Turner Courts was beyond hope.”  For years the media has said, along with many others, the Bonton community was beyond hope.  Even in this article, they are still bringing up yesterday’s news regarding no Dart service because people threw things at the buses and that there were still boarded up houses and no new business in the community.  I am thrilled whenever the world says there is no way this neighborhood is going to change.  This is the opportunity for God to receive greater glory.

It so reminds me of the nation of Israel looking into the Promised Land and only seeing the giants and the fortified cities.  Remember, the majority typically gets it wrong; 10 said no and 2 said yes.  Years ago God planted H.I.S. BridgeBuilders in the neighborhood to start sharing the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Now, some fifteen years later, former drug dealers’ lives have been radically transformed through Jesus Christ.  They have been trained through our Employment Training and are employed, married and homeowners in the Bonton Community.  Single moms are now working as well and are homeowners who also host Bible Studies and Community Outreach events every Saturday in order to take back their community.  The Lord is doing a miracle through His believing remnant in this community.  We are preparing to break ground on Velma’s Cafe that will be the first new business in the community.  It will be a place of fellowship and also a place to begin our culinary training and catering.  Over 30 homes have been planted in the last 5 years through Global Day of Prayer and our ministry.  Every week another drug house is being closed.  We are seeing souls transformed every day in this community. 

Last Saturday, as we began to organize Maeola’s house, a neighbor named Gloria came over to bring her a meal.  Mary Anderwald and Maeola shared with her the good news of Jesus Christ and she was saved.  The Lord is transforming this community.  It is amazing to me how great our God is. “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” Eph. 3:20-21.  How we limit Him by seeing only what we can see and not looking through the lens of faith of who God is and what He is able to do.  I write this to encourage you in whatever situation you find yourself.  God is Able!  He is not limited for He is your Creator, Savior, Provider, and Healer.  He is your All and All and His word is truth. 

After much prayer, we believe by God’s grace that we are healed and have decided to stop taking the chemotherapy pill called Tarceva.  We pray that God alone will receive the glory for our healing.  Our doctor here has counseled us against this, but we are confident that God has healed us and that we are going to rely on God for our continued health.  We covet your continued prayers that our lives would continue to bring glory to God as we believe He is Able!