multiplied wondrous deeds

Psa 40:5  “You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. ”

So, more is happening than I feel like I have time to record.  I look forward to collecting and retelling these stories in the weeks upon my return, but I had to tell you the biggest one from today.  (so far!)

As I was heading down to the lobby to get breakfast, the elevator stopped at the floor below mine and one of the staff members boarded the elevator with a stack of Gideon New Testaments and also the “Teachings of Buddha.”  I asked her if she was replenishing the copies in the room, (BECAUSE I had been eyeing the one in our room and wondering if I could take it and give it to some of the students we had been meeting.  We had $100 in our budget to buy Bibles and we depleted it through buying only four!)

Anyway, she said, “No, we’re actually taking them OUT of the rooms.”  I asked what they were doing with them, and she said they were donating them to Salvation Army!

I politely asked, “May I have them?”  And she said, “Sure.”

Now we have a bigger box of Bibles than I know what to do with!  ALSO, she said the Gideons regularly show up to restock the Bibles and that she would contact me if they need to get rid of more!

(BTW, this also led to the foundation of a good spiritual conversation with the hostel worker.  Her name is Maria and she is an atheist.  Please pray that God will open her heart to His Word.  I told her that this was an answer to prayer, and that I believed God had used her to answer it.  She raised her fist at the sky and said something, jokingly, that I don’t necessarily care to repeat, but we had a cordial conversation that may bear, Lord willing, more fruit…)