Meet my niece, Olivia celebrating God’s gift of Fall!
Were you wondering what we did when the doctors would not release me to return to our village? We were desperate to return to the only “home” we knew in Panama…
BUT God had another plan…
Gratefulness is recognizing the benefits, which God and others have provided.
From the pilot risking his life to save mine to the missionary families who sacrificially opened their hearts and homes to us to see me recover, my heart overflows with inexpressible thanksgiving for their generosity toward our family during this conflicting time in our lives.
Gratitude is the memory of the heart!
It is said to be the parent of all the other virtues.
My gratitude for those members of the field
that picked up the slack and totally covered
for me is overpowering.
Norman and Barbara Slaymaker were the “little dorm” parents at the time of my emergency flight and surgery and they took the loving responsibility of my babies for six weeks after our pilot, Scotty, and his wife, Mary, filled the gap in those first few days in Panama City. After leaving the hospital, John and Ruth Jenkins, our very busy field leaders, “adopted us” for another six weeks (!) until the doctors would release us to return interior to our post! What a tremendous weight we must have been…a family of 4 for months!!!
My memories are scattered and few. I isolated myself into a survival mode. I really thought I was going to die. I had no time for tears and cannot remember even wanting to cry during those weeks, although I am sure I must have and those whose care I was under would readily attest that I did! My heart cannot express the genuine gratitude that is flooding my eyes and consciousness as I write this! I am mentally rehearsing the personal cost of the missionary families that encouraged me during those days and blanketed me with prayer and hands of intervention!
Why this flood of overwhelming gratefulness? Why now? What is it about life that at unexpected moments God opens our awareness to the magnitude of His Sovereignty, Majesty, Grace and Mercy on our behalf?
I am sitting here with a keen sense of:
Ø My Unworthiness…and His Holiness!
Ø My Pretense of thinking I have any kind of control in this life (other than to choose to walk with Him)…and His complete and encompassing Rule and Protection!
Ø My Powerlessness…and His Omnipotent Presence, faithfully accomplishing His purpose with my blindness to His silent footsteps all around me!
Ø My Desperate Need to express my gratefulness and indebtedness to God and others!
Do you make it a habit of thanking God and others
for the many things in life that others take for granted?
I would like to express my gratitude to you for joining me each Monday morning and for your encouraging words. I am like Olivia…so blessed!
Will you take time today to reflect glory back to Him
for His faithfulness to you…
the Author of every blessing?
Let’s take today’s opportunity to acknowledge those
who have and are benefiting our lives!
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
