Better to Give than Receive

Do you believe that? Is it really better to give than to receive? Well today we, as a family,were able to give ... and it really is better. We had a wonderful day! We participated  in "Giving the Gift of Thanksgiving" today with Passion City Church and World Relief.  It was very encouraging to see 100+ people from Passion City Church with a desire to reach out to refugee families and show God's love in a very tangible way.- by providing a basket full of food for each family and a Bible in their language.

Basket of food- we were provided with a list of what to purchase

family photo before delivering the basket

Andrew woke up this morning knowing we were going to give food to people who didn't have much. Mark asked him, "who are we giving food to?". He responded with, "people who come across water, come across beach". Ha! Don't you love the way 2 year olds think! So we met up with everyone in Atlanta to get the information about our family and to pray before delivering our basket. We were given a family of 5 originally from Burma,who had been placed in Malaysia, and has been in Atlanta for 6-8 months. The father is 35, wife 30, son 10, daughters 8 and 2. We were told that they are not expecting us and may not speak any english. Oh goodness...

Here's our story
We carried our basket and 2 little boys to the door not knowing what will be on the other side. We were just praying they would be home because we had talked about it with Andrew for days now. Anyways, when they opened the door you could tell they were very surprised to us standing on the other side. They did not speak much English so we relied mainly on hand motions. The children opened the door. Mark asked for the father by name. They ran to get the father. Mark introduced himself, shook his hand, and told him we were with World Relief. He was so thankful for the basket and bowed down to show thanks and invited us inside. We went inside for about 5-10 minutes and he LOVED our children! He held Andy the entire time. We talked to him as much as we could with hand motions and a little bit of English. We told them  that we were Christians and wanted to share the love of Christ. He said he was a Christian too. We were told by World Relief that they probably had to flee Burma because of religious persecution. Mark asked if we could pray for them. As Mark was praying he put his hand on the man's shoulder and you could see the gratitude overwhelm this man. How neat it is to pray for a man in the name of Jesus, knowing we worship the same Lord and Savior. He had no idea what Mark was saying but the he was filled with emotion. PRECIOUS. As we were leaving we asked if they needed anything. He could not understand us but it is obvious they have needs. Mark gave him his business card and taught him how to say his name. He told him to call if he needed anything.

As we left we immediately wanted to give more. I was actually looking for toys in our truck that we could give  children :) The three little children had no toys. They had 2 mattress on the floor in a bedroom. A couch, table, and mat on the floor in the living room. Can you imagine having to flee your country and being displaced for several years and 'settling' in Atlanta? It just broke my heart. So we returned to the church parking lot and spoke to the World Relief representatives about going back next month for Christmas. We are hoping to provide a little Christmas for this family next month. Anyone want to donate toys, clothes, shoes, coats?

We've been blessed and want to bless!

* on a side note. We were able to talk to Louie Giglio this morning. My sweet husband went up to him to tell him how much the Lord has used him in his life. Mark started to get a little emotional.... LOVE HIM. Louie really appreciated it. He then Louie looked at me. I introduced myself and the kids and told him how Andrew plays church and acts like him :)  He loved it! He wanted to see it and wanted Andrew to sing "church songs" to him. Of course, Andrew just smiled and froze up like he has never said a word in his life :) Oh well! Maye next time.