Still I will praise You...

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9). I want to start with this verse because yesterday was a difficult day for me. In my world, in my thoughts and my ways, I am crying out why? But, I cling to this verse in the midst of it, knowing that thankfully GOD accomplishes his divine purpose in ways that do not always make sense to the feeble minds of man. Two days ago the team here this week began to fix up a house for an elderly crippled woman in the Celebración Church family. Not only did the team itself raise funds in order to complete the project, but the entire Celebración congregation generously donated to the cause as well. The team spent the day cleaning out the house (which was quite the job seeing as it has been inhabited by the sheep that live on that particular hill) painting it, and making it ready for Gloria and her family to live there. They prayed over Gloria for healing and spread the love of Jesus through their selfless acts. Later that very night Gloria was admitted into the hospital and passed away early the next morning. The suddenness of her death shocked her family, the church congregation, the team, and everyone on 6:8 staff. I cannot say for sure on behalf of anyone else, but I was definitely asking GOD Why? Why now? However, despite the ideas or plans that I had in my head for Gloria, she is in heaven now, free of pain and completely restored. Gloria is healed and I thank GOD for that.
There is the sweetest kid named Jorge who volunteers at Celebración Church: he is so full of joy and has a huge servant’s heart. So when we visited his home yesterday and heard a little bit about his story I was asking the very same question I had earlier. Why GOD? Why such an incredible family? Jorge lives with his grandmother, Esperanza, and his alcoholic father in a house that was condemned by the city after the most recent earthquake. The condition of this house would rock your world: there is no wall in the kitchen and the kitchen floor consists of occasional two-by-fours and giant holes revealing the 8-10 foot drop to the ground. Two of their bedrooms are have holes so large that the beds fell through during the earthquake. When it rains water leaks in from the sides of the house and pours down from the pieced together tin roof. His eighty plus year old grandmother has to navigate around the missing floor boards and is forced to sleep sitting up because the bedrooms are unsafe. The amazing thing is that Jorge and Esperanza (which very fittingly means Hope in Spanish) have incredible faith and they pray wholeheartedly for GOD to miraculously provide another house. When confronted with such genuine trust in GOD I am so humbled. As we sang a song later that night in worship that says “So I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on/ There will be an end to these troubles but until that day comes/ Still I will praise you/ Still I will praise you” I thought of the struggles of those two families. One who is grieving the loss of a loved one and the other who is trusting in you to provide a way for a new home. In the midst of these struggles, we will praise you LORD. We don’t understand your timing and we cannot comprehend your ways but we do know that you are good. Thank you, LORD, that your thoughts and ways are higher than mine.
Please continue to pray for Rigo as well as for the families of Gloria and Jorge. Thank you so much. GOD Bless.

Becca