Aloha from Oahu! Here are some pictures I took of the kitty kats and chickens at the park. Please come visit my FB page - "Island Cats of Oahu" where I am posting updates and seeking prayer and donations to help feed the abandoned kitties and chickens of Oahu. (There are well over 100 just at this park alone!) We also get all the newbies dropped off (argh to their owners who do this!l) spayed/neutered and get medical attention if needed. If you want to help, even the smallest amounts help, please email Sue - Thehealingpath40@aol.com. God's PRECIOUS animals...
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| "Lawrence" |
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| "Angel" |
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| "Molly" |
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| "Nadine" |
"The Lord says,'I will guide you along the
best pathway for your life. I will advise
you and watch over you"
~Psalm 32:8~
Life here has been good. We have really enjoyed getting to know the island and exploring
its many beautiful beaches, tropical rain forests and people. We continue to meet new peopleand see many areas where we can help and minister. But we still "FEEL" that God is
holding back on showing us specifically where we are to really dig in and get our feet dirty...
and frankly, it's a bit frustrating! We have been here 4 months and have 2 more months left
in our little cozy apartment that we pre-paid for. We will have to find another place to live as this is too expensive. We came with NO furniture (this place came furnished), not even a
bed! Michael is continuing to be blessed with daily work, but pay is not nearly enough to
support us. Our savings is dwindling down...I have been talking w a lot of people about
nutrition and photography, praying doors will open for income opportunities that I can do. Thehard part is that I am still struggling with the health issues that make commitments tough!
It's all very unsettling to say the least...
So when I get into tough situations like this, I need encouragement. And the best
encouragement I find is in other's stories of faith and trust in their God. I LOVE reading
auto-biographies of ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things for God! Here is one that I
just started yesterday...called "Kisses From Kate" - it's written by a young woman named Katie Davis sharing her story of living in Uganda having adopted 14+ African babies/girls. And guess what? She is ONLY 21 years old!!! She was a typical girl growing up in an upper class christian family, with parents who wanted nothing more than to make her happy, supplying her with her own little sports car & her own little VISA when she turned 16, planning for her to go to the BEST college, etc. She loved going shopping at the mall with her girlfriends and her life revolved around all these things. BUT Jesus continued to draw her away and get her attention. She couldn't shake it until she finally decided to go volunteer at an orphanage for abandoned/orphaned babies while she was still in high school. She was there for 3 weeks and said she lost her heart there in the midst of all the filth and that's when she realized fully that her love for Jesus far exceeded her love for herself and any THINGS she had. She saw such need in that ugly, DIRTY town...babies/kids uncared for roaming the streets, filthy and hungry. She made the choice, left her boyfriend who she was in love with, her family, friends and against everything she was raised with, against her parents wishes, she MOVED there at age 19, on her own, to do whatever she could to help. Wow. Just blows me away. One by one, she took in these little ones and nursed them back to health and now she has 14 of them that she calls her own and who call her mama. She said doing this work, caring and loving these babies, is when she found her true joy - to serve them as Jesus would. Wow again. This is why I continue to feel led to read these kinds of books - true stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God because they let go of everything in their human world and SELF and looked to Him in faith and trust to supply their every need while they served Him. And I have come to realize my "every need" is different than what I "think" I need to be "comfortable." So much of that need is based on fear and need for control in my "oh so little world". This is WHY I left Redmond and got on that plane in the midst of such fear and sickness...because I had felt His call on my life to let go, to give up me, (so tired of ME!) to live a life with a much higher calling than ME!! And it's a step by step ripping/tearing away from all that I have lived up to this point, but it's what I know He has destined me for and even though I'm now 50, I still have a good 30 years left in me to get it right, and to live my life for Him. Amen? Amen!
Here is an excert from her book I will leave you with...just precious words beyond measure...
"I can't really explain the love I felt for these children or why I felt it. I think many people would have looked at them and seen only their filthy clothes, the ringworm on their heads, or the mucus that ended up in a crust around their nostrils. They would have looked around at the dormitories of the orphanage with its smooth, hard cement floor where rats and cockroaches made themselves at home and been a bit disgusted. By the grace of God, though, I didn't see these things. The truth is, I saw myself in those little faces. I looked at them and felt this love that was unimaginable and knew that this is the way God sees me. The children would run to me with gifts of stones or dirt and I saw myself, filthy and broken, offering my life to the God of the universe and begging Him to make it into something beautiful. I sit here in a broken world, small and dirty at His feet, and He who sits so high chooses to commune with me, to love me anyway. He blinds Himself to my sin and my filth so that He can forge a relationship with me. And this is what He did for me with these precious children. He blinded me to the filth and disease, and I saw only children hungry for love that I was eager to give to them. I adored them, not because of who I was, but because of who HE is. I just sat right down on that cold, hard floor and snuggled my nose into their dirty necks and kissed their fungus-covered heads and didn't even see it. I was in love."
So please pray for us as we continue to seek God's direction in all of this. There is something that has come up recently that seems VERY amazing and exciting...it has to do with a Farm Animal Sanctuary that is just getting started (a doctor has designated 30 acres for this along with community organic gardens and eventually his life-long dream to build a health center to care for those unable to pay) and my lifelong love for animals that I have had and the ability to really care for them full time...there will be a dedication to the land designated for it on the 2nd of January and we will be there. We were asked to bring a "Christian" prayer to pray and bless the land and we feel very honored to do so. We will see where this leads but the gal who is in charge shared that they need a full time caretaker on this 30 acre lot before they can bring the animals on for their safety...I told her please consider us...we will see...
You see, I don't HAVE to know. Because He already knows. And that's all I need for today.
Blessings,
Sue
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