Good news!

Hey, has everybody checked out my newest nephew over on Liane's blog?? If not- you gotta go see him!! He's so adorable! I am so thrilled with his safe arrival in the world. Praise the Lord! It's amazing to think of the many prayers that were prayed on his behalf- and he knows nothing about how many people have prayed for him. He has no idea how much he is loved. I think sometimes we are like babies- we just have no concept of how much other people love us and have invested in us, or how much God loves us. Be amazed, my friends. At one time or other, you were loved, sight unseen.

Also - an update on my friend Alice - the one in jail. I meant to post about this earlier in the week but it's been fairly busy around here lately! I went to visit her on Wednesday and she seemed totally different- no more tears. She was much more positive and I was really encouraged. Dennis gave me a copy of The Message ( a modern version of the Bible) to give to her and she was very appreciative. She seems very open to the things of God and said she goes to all the services that are held in the facility. She even mentioned the fact that she's aware that the devil wants to discourage her. Huh! I guess she knows even more than I thought!

She described a little bit of what jail life is like- enough for me to decide that I don't want to go to jail.

Since the last time I had seen her, some Baptist ladies came in to hold a Wednesday night meeting for the women inmates and encouraged them to get together in small groups to pray and support each other. Alice thought that no one would want to do this in her dorm.
( Apparently she is not in the typical jail cell- where she is, it's more like an open ward. There are cells but apparently those are for inmates with more serious offenses or who have demonstrated bad behavior.) But that Friday night in her dorm, she noticed a group of women gathered around a table singing out of a hymn book, and she asked if she could join them. They said yes and every night since then, they have met at 9:00 to sing, and pray for each other! Last week when I talked to her, she had said something to the effect that the atmosphere was pretty awful and that it was kind of a dog-eat-dog kind of place. She was disappointed because she thought that everybody should be helping each other, seeing as how they were all in the same boat. I didn't want to say anything that would come across as too cynical, but I remember thinking that I wasn't surprised. I mean, A) it's a jail, not exactly a hotbed of selfless altruism, and B) that's just base, unredeemed human nature for you: Look out for Number One. So anyway- that conversation last week served to emphasize that this development is all the more amazing.

That was so encouraging to me; things like this are happening all over the world - God is at work in millions of lives and we never hear about it. I was so happy to get a glimpse of a hidden miracle. It is such an obscure situation and but for Dennis inviting me to the jail, I never would have had any idea of how God is at work there. Be amazed again, my friends- this is just a small representation of the kind of thing the Holy Spirit is doing all the time.

Okay- I'm off to go see that picture of Drew again!