Bless those who persecute...

We had a break in last night. I had almost $200 stolen (all of my money), my camera with hundreds of pictures from the last 3 years, my ipod, and my palm cell phone and 2 USB storage sticks taken. Another girl had all of her money stolen and another guy had his video camera stolen. Whoever did it came onto our property in the middle of the night, cut through our tents with a knife (right by our heads), and took our stuff. We are all ok, we all still have our passports (thank God) but we are a little rattled.

The Bible says to "bless those who persecute you," so whoever took my stuff, I pray that they would look at the pictures and see the love we have for the people here, I pray that they would listen to all the christian worship music on my ipod and salvation would come from this situation.

James 1:2-4 says, "When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great job. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."

Romans 8:28 says, "God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them..."

I am so thankful that God is in control...He knows who did this, and He will use this situation for His glory. This situation is a little reminder that all that I own is God's and not mine...not my pictures (which I'm the most sad about), not my camera, not my cell phone, not my ipod...it's all His and I have to remind myself to constantly surrender my things and not hold onto them.

We have less than a week so please pray for protection for everyone else on the trip; pray for conviction to come to the parties involved in this violation; pray for them that they would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Pray that each person on our team would love these people here even more because God loves them just as much as He loves us. Pray for strength and endurance for the rest of the trip and as we prepare ourselves to travel for 30 hours back across the world that it would be an easy trip home.

Being a human being, it's easy to want to get back at a person when they do something wrong to you...your mind starts running a million miles an hour about "maybe hearing something in the middle of the night," or why didn't I put my stuff somewhere else, or why didn't the dogs bark, or why do people have to steal, why me, etc etc etc...but I trust that God is in control, and as a Christ follower, I am called to love these people and to bless those that persecute them. So that is what I am trying to do...love them even more than before and trust that God will use this situation for His glory and He will bring my stuff back or He will provide new things for me as a blessing.

I love you guys...thank you so much for your prayers. They are definatly needed more than ever...