In the Desert

See, I am doing a new thing! Now, it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19 NIV

Last week while I was on a mission trip in Juarez, Mexico a dear friend was at home praying this Scripture. I didn't know about this Scripture until I arrived home and was sent a copy of the Scripture.Upon reading it my eyes filled with tears of joy and gratitude.

I had not been to this part of Juarez for four years and when I arrived I was overcome with gratitude for all those that had been working during this time. God had used so many people to do HIS work. A working  children's home had sprung up in the middle of the desert!!!!

A dirt path the width of a truck leads the way to the home. A "way in the desert" leads to the sound of running feet and bicycle tires rolling over the sand and giggles of joy fill the courtyard. The dining hall is filled with the clanging of plates of nourishing food and prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord.

The children's home is a short distance from a desert neighborhood of palette and concrete homes. A desolate place of deep poverty and dry dusty land. There is no water except from the occasional rain caught in barrels or pumped from a water truck.

Although there is a severe lack of clean water for drinking there IS a stream of living water moving through this neighborhood. 

This past week alone we experienced close to 50 people coming to salvation. Men, women and entire families were giving their hearts to Jesus!

I was part of a team that led an entire family to the Lord. A father, mother with cancer, a grown daughter and five children repeated a prayer of salvation under the blazing sun last Tuesday. At the end of the prayer the father put his hand to his chest and with an enormous smile he said that actually felt different. The family hugged each other and smiled and laughed in celebration.

Streams of living water running through the wasteland!!

How blessed am I to have been a part of what God is doing in this desert land, to have seen with my eyes and heart the goodness of our Lord.

God is moving and making a way all around the world. Listen for it. Look for it.

Do you perceive it?

With Gratitude,

ruthann