A Life Saved!!

It has been quite a while since I last blogged about what is happening at Mid-South Love Home.  We have had a huge week this week!  God is doing amazing things in the life of our resident...who is more anonymous than other residents.  Anyway, she was quite abortion determined when she found out she was pregnant.  We are thankful she didn't abort and that God brought her to us and now He is doing an amazing transformation in her life!!  She is just different!!  She is so emotionally stable and I can see that she has begun to learn how to "take every thought captive" instead of just letting her mind wander wherever it may!  She is working and going to school and is getting her life on a new path and it is so exciting to watch and be a part of.  This week, a young lady approached me and told me that she had confided in my resident a couple of weeks ago that she was pregnant.  She said that she was thinking about aborting the baby and that MY RESIDENT TALKED HER OUT OF IT!!!!!  Do you understand how huge that is!?!?  A baby was saved!!!  She is using her experiences to bless and affect the lives of others!  She has a ministry all her own!!  I have been telling her that God has great plans for her and that He is going to allow her to use her story to minister to other women!!  What a blessing to see that He has already begun that process!!!!  God is good....ALL THE TIME!!! 

As we continue to do the work that God has called us to, we have experienced His blessings, peace, provisions, and joy beyond what we could imagine...knowing that our best rewards will come in eternity!!  As I look over these past sixteen months, I see how much God has taught me personally and I am forever grateful for the trials, fires, storms, desert, wilderness, and mountaintop experiences.  These experiences have not been solely external.  They have been opportunities to encounter God in deep, internal, intimate ways and my walk with Him will never be the same as it was before!!!

My pastor said in a sermon years ago that our children are an extension of ourselves.  He was talking about reaching out and helping and serving others and often times we feel like the ministry we have as moms to our husband and children is "outreach", "serving", and "helping".  Don't get me wrong.  Those of you who know me know how much emphasis I put on being the wife and mother God has called me to be.  When my pastor said that, I even bowed my back a little and got defensive....because my primary ministry is in my home.  God has called me to "look well to the ways of my household" (Prov. 31:27a) and I spent most all my time doing that.  I mean, I had four children in less than five years.  My household was busy and quite demanding of my time and energy!  So, for him to say in essence that I wasn't really reaching out and serving when all I was doing was taking care of my home, I got my feathers ruffled a little!!

Fast forward about six years to today.  I understand what he meant a little more today than I did back then.  My home and my family are priority.  However, we must make time to reach out beyond ourselves...which means beyond our family...and help those in need!  God has called us, the Kimberlins, to do this in a very personal and practical way.  I am not tooting our horn.  If you think I am, just read back over past blogs on all the struggles I have had in this process!  It is easy to hop out of the boat when God calls you.  It is most challenging, however, to keep "walking on water towards Him" when the storms begin to beat at you and when Satan continues to whisper in your ear.  So, no pat on my back.  Apart from Him I can do NOTHING!  But with Him, ALL THINGS are possible!!!  So, my challenge to you is this:  If your family and your home is the only thing that you are investing in, branch out!!  It will not negatively affect your family!  It will grow and stretch them as they have to be more selfless and help and serve instead of always being helped and served!  It will also bless your socks off as you see God working in and through you to alter the future of someone in need!!  It is a beautiful thing to behold!!