Thursday, May 24, 2012

any time, any where......

My husband and I went away last weekend to Charlotte, NC.  Our main reason for travelling to Charlotte was for the NASCAR All Star Race.  Or so we thought.....  The race isn't until Saturday but we go up on Thursday night.  Jim likes to say that Friday is my day and Saturday is his day.  The first trip we made to the Allstar Race after I started sewing, I found a wonderfully huge fabric store in nearby Gastonia, NC called Mary Jo's.  I loooove Mary Jo's.  So Friday morning we went to Mary Jo's, then we mosied over to the Sam Bass Gallery and actually got to meet Mr. Bass, who, in case you don't know, is a famous artist who does many Nascar paintings.  It was pretty cool.  After that we returned to the hotel to relax at the pool for a while until dinner.  We were hanging out with our feet in the pool enjoying each others company when a daring man who had been sitting across the pool from us with another man decided to brave the extra chilly pool to cool off.  He dared Jim to join him and Jim not being one to ever turn down a challenge hopped right in.  We all laughed and then they both returned to their previous seats.  I got really hot myself a short time later and decided to walk in and the same man, seeing that I was a little timid about the cold, decided to walk in with me, holding my hand and giving moral support in the form of a little tough love...i.e. don't you scream, Alabama, don't let anyone see you are hurting, haha...  Again we all laughed and returned to our seats out of the cold.  A little later Jim decided to once again jump in and go over to the other side to talk to our cold water buddy and his friend who we later learned is his cousin.  My husband, never, and I do mean never, meets a stranger.  He was talking to them about the Allstar Race which Texas (I call him Texas because I never got his name and he is from Texas) had no interest in seeing at all.  He had come to NC just to visit his cousin and then go to the beach...or so he thought.....  Jim was telling them about last year's race and that I had just finished chemo and radiation at that time and the heat was just too much for me and how far we had come in a year.  Texas's cousin was intrigued because his mom had fought breast cancer as well.   During this time I had come to join Jim in the pool and he was saying that we couldn't have made it through cancer without our family and church.  I said it was all because of Christ and Cousin said he totally agreed.  Texas was sitting in his chair looking quite amazed, jaw dropped shaking his head, grinning.  He hit his cousin on the arm and said, "That's it right there."  We continued our conversation sharing about God's goodness and how he helped us through.  Finally Texas shared that he had talked to his cousin at lunch and told him that he just didn't believe in Christ anymore, that there just wasn't anything there for him.  He said that hearing us talking had changed him though.  He was so excited and saying that he knew why he was there now, it was to meet this woman and her husband who showed him Christ again.   How exciting is it to share Christ anytime, but especially so unexpectely!  We weren't there on a mission trip, we weren't there with our church family.  We were just on vacation and God used us.  Any time.....Any where...... in Any way......God will use your story, your life, your words...your everything.....let Him.

Friday, May 11, 2012

God at Work :)

I just love to see God at work!  My husband and I started a Cancer Ministry at my church last night.  I had this grand expectation of lots of people showing up because I know that lots of people in our church have been touched by cancer.  My fear was that a lot of people would come but not come back again because what we offered wasn’t appealing to them.  As I shared this fear with my sweet friend, Stephanie, she made a statement that literally stopped me in my tracks.  She said something along the lines of , “Kim….do you believe God called you to start this ministry?”  Wow, don’t you love how God puts just the right people in your life at just the right time.  Love this girl! She went on to remind me that  it didn’t matter  if it touched one or one hundred with the ministry, whatever God’s will is for the ministry…it’s His will , I just have to be obedient.  I do believe this ministry is God’s calling. And it is HIS ministry.  We had 9 people there last night and I truly saw God at work as we shared our stories and our information.  I was reminded once again that it’s not only the cancer patient or survivor who the cancer affects.  It is the family, the caregivers, the friends, the church family.  It affects everyone around the cancer patient.  And once you have been touched by it, it never leaves you.  Praise God for giving all of us strength to endure the things we never imagined being strong enough to endure.   Praise God for giving us family and friends to care for us.  Praise God for the testimony of the survivor and the testimony of the surviving caregivers and family and friends.  Praise God for Jesus Christ and the Hope provided through him.  If you are reading this right now and do not have a personal, saving relationship with Jesus Christ,  please contact me or someone else you know that does.  Whether you are going through cancer or not, I promise you that you NEED that HOPE, whether you realize it or not!  I pray that as this Caps of Hope Ministry and the Cancer Care ministry grows that God will use them to reach the unreached and to comfort, encourage and meet the needs of everyone He sends our way J  I look forward to seeing God working in and around us even more.