The Phone Rang Again

We waited for the family we’d invited to arrive. Only 10 minutes after the scheduled time, we got a phone call from the gate guard.  The wife of the family, her cousin, and 10 children had arrived.  I was surprised by all the children that the father of this family is responsible for and realized I’d miscalculated on the food I’d prepared. Five minutes later the phone rang again.  It was another family who lived next door to the invited family.  This mother is a widow and brought with her 7 more children.  Happy to see them after a long time, I started wondering if we should eat quickly when the phone rang again…and again…and again until we had more than 30 people in our house and a very different gathering than we’d expected.

As Zach escorted the last two boys in, he asked them, “Is there a message  you’ve brought for us?” 

“We came to celebrate the new baby!”  

 “Oh,” he replied, “Welcome!”

So many lessons for me to take from this night!

1.     Community is something I don’t understand, but need to rejoice in when it happens unexpectedly

2.     There is always enough!  The rice, salad, and meat I’d made was plenty for everyone

3.     Relax and see the abundance of God as he brings people to love us

4.    Sometimes we think we've planned something, but God may have a better one!  

You can pray with us that we would trust God to provide enough resources (emotional, financial, spiritual) to help us thrive here when expectations, culture, and daily life are often a surprise to us!