Last week Roy had to once again go and hunt for teachers for Travis’ school. Then Jason had to leave to take care of gathering up all the students, and Sarah was delayed on her visa run, so I was left at home to take care of all the current students and the little girls. I was overwhelmed to say the least, since I had not gotten to know the students yet, and I am a very shy person! About that time, I came down with a really bad cold/flu combination. I was so sick, I did not know what to do, so I started talking to God about it.

That evening, the students took over having worship for me, and helped me get the bedding out and the girls tucked in for the night. I had just collapsed into my bed, thinking that I was finished…I could not do anything more. Right about then, the girls started excitedly talking about a light that was coming up the pathway from the river. It was well after dark, and it is highly unusual for anyone to be out after dark like that. So, I drug myself out of bed again, and went out to the living room just in time to see Ben sticking his head over the railing! Ben and MuPaw, his fiancé, had come to spend a week with me! The timing was so perfect that I knew at once that God had sent me the help that I needed.

I was thinking today about all the ways that God has been providing for us. Since Roy’s bank card was hacked, (we lost half of our money for the month…but the bank is trying to get it back for us) he had to take mine with him on his trip to hire new teachers, which meant that we could not go shopping this week. But, one day when we went to the river the students got all excited about some shrubbery growing beside the river. They picked large bunches of it, and it became our dinner! We already have plenty of rice and soybeans since we bought those when they were being harvested.

Then, I went out to the garden and found that my tomatoes are suddenly producing like crazy. I pick a double handful of them almost every day now. The students add them to the soy bean paste, or the shrubbery curries. Next, the students found fig trees here on our land. They are not the good kind of figs that you like to eat, although the monkeys love them. But the students picked them, cut them in fourths, and put them in a salt water brine for a few days, and now we have those for every meal.

Today Jason went up the river a ways and found three coconut trees that do not belong to anyone and more jackfruit than we could possibly use! Fresh fruit is so welcome! Also, we have lots of greens in the garden, and a supply of pealed mung beans. So, we have been able to feed 30 people every day this week, and we have not spent any money at all. Isn’t God good?

Another blessing is that every morning the students go out and pick up leaves from the jungle floor, and we all spend every spare moment making leaf panels for our roofing. Since that is the most expensive part of building houses here, it is such a blessing to us.

I am always amazed and humbled by the simple ways that God uses to take care of our daily needs. We may not be rolling in money, but we sure are rolling in blessings.