"Who knows but that you have come for such a time as this?"

Wow. Sometimes the Lord shows His hand so clearly in a situation and it literally takes my breath away. Days like today, even though I have had less than 6 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours, I can scarcely contain the joy that is pounding in my heart and feel like bursting into a thousand pieces and yelling and crying and laughing all at the same time! I have to be completely honest, at least a half dozen times a day recently I have had to stop myself from whining in my head about how exhausted I am and try to cling once again to the purpose for which I am submitting to the labor of being exhausted, that is glorifying the name of Jesus Christ in every situation, and not the name of Heidi Elliott. Last night as we finally pulled into our compound after a full day of travel at 2 am, and I flopped myself into the bed fully aware of the fact that I’d be up again in less than an hour to feed the baby, I had to pray hard for the ability to see beyond the moment and the momentary discomfort of not being able to force my eyes to focus for more than 30 seconds at a time.
This morning, (after the sun had actually come up) I sat down and read a note from a friend that reminded me that our God works through seemingly hopeless and thoroughly unlikely situations for the display of His glory and greatness, and reminded me of the way He’s been faithful to show this through the past. The Lord caused the words to stick in my mind all morning and as we hit the ground running seeing patients I was reminded of what I’ve been learning in my bible study on the book of Esther. Beth Moore draws out an interesting parallel between the well known words of Mordecai and words in the book of Joel. She points out that Mordecai may have purposefully framed his words to reflect and remind Esther of what had been written in Joel about Zion in a time of peril needing to be rescued by our merciful God. Or it could have been that the Lord just chose to tie together the pieces of history and leave His fingerprints clearly displayed without Mordecai even being aware of the part he was playing. I was reminded that it was only Esther that had been called for “such a time as this.” One of the points that Beth Moore had made was that “who knows?” if every mind battle that we face and have to choose between honoring the Lord and following the leading of the Holy Spirit could be that very defining moment for which we were created. The weight of righteousness is a heavy burden, but Praise God we do not have to bear the burden alone because it would not be physically possible!
So, as the day progressed, and both Renee and I were battling fatigue, headaches, backaches, and just general discouragement, but the Lord was so faithful to continue to remind me that He is always concerned with “such a time as this,” and that I needed to trust that He would work even when I thought that I could not. This afternoon I sat down with one of the children we had taken to the clinic earlier in the morning and his father to discuss his follow up injections. His father didn’t speak any English so our day guard sat down with us to help translate. I told him a few things to convey and then sat and waited and watched as their conversation became intense. I had no idea what was being communicated back and forth, but was growing impatient to move onto the next patient. After a few minutes Charles, (the day guard) sat up straight and smiled real big at me and said, “Okay. He said that he is a Muslim but because of all that he has seen here in the past week he wants to know about being born again. On Sunday he is coming and he will come to my church for prayers!” PRAISE GOD!!! I had to fight back the giant tears that were filling my wide eyes, as I thanked him for inviting his to his church. The father smiled and thanked me and shook my hand several times, and as I walked them to the compound gate to head to the hospital with the next patient I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement at the grace of our Lord for allowing me to see that He is in the business of turning back hearts! The Lord used that interaction to show me His fingerprints on this situation and remind me that all of our efforts are for “such a time as this;” times when the world is watching and seeing if we really do care about them and care to show them the love of Jesus. Times when the Lord wants to give us the joy of being a part of His work in teaching others about His character and drawing them to Himself.
When I reached the hospital where I was supposed to meet Renee, I walked in and was once again blown away by a reminder of God’s perfect plan and perfect timing. As we were sitting in a poorly lit hallway waiting for a doctor that never came, we shared the events of the afternoon and Renee began to tell me about some new ideas she has felt the Lord laying on her heart recently. As she was saying that she still wasn’t sure if they were her own ideas or the Lord’s, a white woman walked up to us and just started asking us about our ministry. It was a whirlwind of a conversation, but she left and returned with a Ugandan woman who wanted to talk to us about the very thing that Renee had just described to me! As soon as that little meeting was over, we felt like it was time to head to a different hospital since the little girl we had was not even receiving treatment. We walked away from that hospital marveling at how the Lord had placed us there for the purpose of meeting this woman; talk about a divine appointment!
The Lord is incomprehensibly great and He desires for His creation to have the joy of seeing His greatness and glory, and His plans to accomplish that are perfect!! I am incredibly joyful and humbled by the realization that He chooses to use me as a part of that plan, despite my weaknesses, my tired whining, and my blurred vision for the future. I am so thankful to be in this place for such a time as this!

Thank you all for your prayers and notes of encouragement, they mean so much! I wanted to also update you on Shaquille, for those of you who have been praying for is surgery. They finally felt that he was well enough to operate on Thursday and the surgery went well! He is feeding through his mouth and the doctors say he is healing nicely and should be discharged possibly early next week. They said that he was even laughing and singing this afternoon. Praise Jesus! Here are some pictures from before and after the operation. The tubes in his nose were for feeding through, and they said that now he is tube free so I’ll post more pictures when he gets home!