August 24, 2016

“Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.  Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.  

Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things.  In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.  

Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.”

This is from 1 Chronicles 29.  It’s a story worth reading.  David shows himself a leader by example and attributes all success to the Lord.  I also love this story because it states that God is the head over all.  All wealth comes from Him … all everything comes from Him.  “Everything comes from You, and we have given You only what comes from Your hand.”

Yes.  All we have was His, is His, and will be used as He determines.  

My dear friend, Cissy, has spoken with me about her heart for the patients.  She has a strong desire to begin a food service program at the hospital - ensuring that every patient has food every day.  Shocking, I know.  But sadly, not every patient eats every day.  Just a couple weeks ago my friend, Rachel, discovered a woman who was not healing, not recovering…. and after 4 days the woman finally shared that she hadn’t eaten.  In 4 days.  Her reason was that she had no one to bring her food because she lives so far away.  Of course this should not happen.  And I think, even here, this is not a common story.  But occasionally patients get overlooked and fail to receive the support they need from social services & nutrition.  

Cissy & I spent yesterday afternoon speaking with the Director, the Social Services head and the Nutrition head.  We shared a survey that we had created for the patients with them.  The discouraging response was that a food program would never be able to be self-sustaining here.  We were repeatedly told that 80-90% of the patients would not be able to pay for the food, even less than $1 per day for 2 meals.  We weren’t told “no”…. but we were given some realities that were difficult to accept.  They do want us to go ahead and give the survey to the patients.  The collected information will be good data to have on hand for any movement forward.  

All belongs to the Lord.  He has all the money.  All the answers.  All the compassion.  All the love.  We can only give back to Him what He has already given first to us.  If this project is to be, then it is His.

xoxox

p