Grace, Awe, and Answered Prayers

For the last two hours, I have been pretty near speechless, thoughts flying all around my brain. There have been times of jumping for joy, times of shouting from the rooftops, and times of tears all in the last two hours alone. I've comtemplated this blog entry that whole time.

I am ready.

As you all know, I sponsor a wonderful 9 year old boy named Abu-Bakarr. He lives exactly 5,085.16 miles away from the state of Illinois. However, he also lives in my heart, and that is very close. He is constantly on my mind and in my prayers. I imagine his face (even though I haven't gotten an updated photo of him in almost two years) and all I can do is smile. I feel nothing but love for this child whom I have never met, this child who has told me such amazing things in his letters, this little boy who lives with his grandparents who are so loving and encourage me and pray for me all the time.

I've been wanting to do more for this family.

I found out awhile ago that sponsors with World Vision are able to send a monetary gift to their sponsored child for their family to buy anything they could want or need. It's called a Family Gift. However, the only hitch is that you can't send less than $75, which is really too much money to budget to spend right now for. All I've been to do is pray for Abu and his family.

Prayer is an amazing thing.

Two hours ago, at 9ish p.m, I got a facebook message from this wonderful woman named Ali that I've met through a child sponsorship group on facebook. She asked if I had a minute to chat. Absolutely. Of course. Always. She then told me that best news I have heard in a long time.

"So..I'm pretty straight forward and God has put this on my heart to ask you...I am waiting on some student loan money to come in and when it does I would like to send you money to give Abu..the $75 it takes through WV...can't explain it exactly...how would you feel about that?

The only thing I could respond with for awhile was "Wow". (Even reading this now is just amazing me again).

The last time I had a prayer answered like this was in November. When I sponsored Xhuliano, I prayed to God and I pretty much said, "God, you led me to do this. You better provide for him." The next day, he brought my friend Rosie to send me money each month to help cover the costs.

If you've been following my blog for awhile, you'll remember this post. This is the post where I chose  my one word for the year: Patience. I have really been praying to God for him to help me be more patient and I think I have made leaps and bounds in that area.

My friend Rosie told me that God is washing is grace over me for obeying his commands, trusting in him, praying faithfully, and being patient for God to do his work through me and with me.

I agree and I think it's amazing. The rewards that God gives us from heaven are just amazing.

I am beyond thrilled to send this money in the next month and to receive that wonderful picture of Abu with the things that he purchases.

I am just in awe. I want to constantly praise God, which I've been doing for awhile now. I want to shout it from the rooftops, go tell it on the mountain, thank God over and over again, fly to Sierra Leone and hand Abu the money personally. I want to do it all.

Amen