He is faithful

My beautiful momma.

I have experienced the faithfulness of God so much and just want to always share His goodness. My mother is an alsheimer victom and it is such a cruel disease.  While I was in Africa I prayed over and over that God would restore her mind and that she would use her final days as an intercessor.  My mom loves God and I know that she would be happy interceding for others.  When I talked to my sister yesterday she told me the doctors findings.  His report is that she is not progressing as quickly into the next stages as a normal alsheimer patient would, rather she has not gotten worse at all.  I am believing and thanking my God that he is sustaining and healing her mind. 

God is so good to all of us if we will just ask Him believing.  He is a powerful God who is a restorer, refresher, reviver, and loves to give good gifts to His children.  All He wants is for us to love Him more than anything else and how easy is that.  To love a God who loves you first, who created you in His image and is calling you to walk hand in hand with him loving others as He loves you.  Walk in the fullness of being a child of the most High God.  Believe Him! Don't just believe in Him.  He is able to do far more than you can even think to ask and if you will think about your life and the things He has done you will testify to the truthfullness of that.  Oh how wonderful it is to know Him.

HOME

I have been home for exactly two weeks.  It is almost overwhelming to try and  process everything right now.  My heart is in two places now and they are so opposite of each other in many ways.  The abundance of water here is such a blessing to me now after have two buckets of water for bathing (outside under the trees), brushing teeth, etc. and now, just turning on the tap anytime I want.  Restaraunts galore, air conditioned grocery stores with nice little buggies (everything is carried on your head in a huge metal bowl in Africa) and vehicles to jump in anytime you want to go somewhere (VERY FEW people have cars in Ghana)  are something I just don't take for granted anymore.  I went without television for the past nine months and honestly when I turn it on now I don't like it at all!  When I think about sitting in front of a box and watching other people (literally with "reality" tv) I feel like it is such a waste of time. After living with a people who have nothing watching people who are flaunting the fact that they have an abundace of money being rude, crude and totally unapreciative of what they have is just not how I want to spend my time. I don't have a tv and sometimes I wish I could just sit down and watch a good movie once but there is always my pc which was my television in Ghana. I like to watch people, always have.  I have really noticed that  color is missing in our wardrobes.  In Ghana when everyone wears their traditional African outfits they are arrayed in color and the styles are out of this world awesome. African's love color and so do I after being around it.  Their fabrics are so different than anything you can find here.  I don't know why we are so reserved when it comes to color, and I still am, but it just makes you feel good looking at all of it on the streets on Sundays.  They still get so decked out to go to church and consider anything less not acceptable for God's house. I like it that they consider going to meet with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is reason for putting on your best. I know it is cool and hip to go to church in anything you want and we don't want anyone to feel bad about whey they wear but I still think it is nice to make effort when going before Him, He is worth it.  MUSIC, SINGING and DANCING, oh my! Everywhere you go in Ghana, the market place, the streets, someones home there is music.  It is loud, the kind of loud where we would call the police and complain.  There is no complaining in Ghana and many nights I went to sleep hearing the neighbors music playing. As you walk the music and the voices change but everone is singing, uninhibitedly!  It is so refresing.  I would dance with them and sing and we would all laugh and smile and it was so nice to just be free with what I was feeling.  I pray that the families who have brought Ghanaian children home will make an effort to just be goofballs and dance and sing with their children.  It is a huge part of their heritage and I just want to say a beautiful part of their heritage.

Being torn is tough but I would not give up this experience for anything.  I am blessed to know the people of Ghana and my heart is with 36 orphans that call me Grandma and who I love with all my heart.  I also would never give up the privledge and honor of loving and raising my three girls and having their children be such a huge part of my life or the wonderful friends that I have here in America.

GOD BLESS AMERICA! GOD BLESS GHANA! GOD BLESS TOGO! GOD BLESS US ALL!

Raging Rivers

I was just thinking about the storms of life this morning.  How the raging river is so hard to cross but on the waters edge there is green grass and because of the water there is life making the trees and flowers and everything near it healthy and beautiful. Much like the trials of life, hard to go through but on the otherside is the refreshing of Him who gives the trials.  He makes all things beautiful. He carries us when we are weak and when we are on the waters edge we need not forget, like the roots of the living things on the waters edge strive for the water, so we should strive to be closer to Him.

His Call

One of the most touching experiences I had in Ghana was in a remote village where the children had never seen a white person (Obruni). To watch their little hands tremble as they mustered up the courage to come closer is something I will never forget.  I knew that day, looking at the affects of poverty on these children, I could never say no to Gods call. I watched with  tears as this little girl kept her distance. I wanted so badly to pick her up, to bandage her bleeding knee and tell her that Jesus loves her.  She would not allow it that day but as I shared with Righ and Kristie O’leary the burden God placed on my heart for these kids they immediately responded that we would provide sponsors for food and water for these children.

God planted a seed in my heart and birthed a desire to continue mission work while I was in Ghana.  I have been praying since I left there for Him to show me what I would be doing.  He has placed an opportunity for me to continue my mission work in Ghana.  Feeding the Orphans desperately needs our help. This family has given more and more of their time to running FTO as God has placed more orphans in their care.  They are also providing jobs for single mothers ensuring that they will be able to keep and care for their children. They are determined to give 100% of donations to FTO and providing income for single mothers. In order to do this the O’Leary family is raising the funds to support their family here in the U.S. They are the backbone of Feeding the Orphans and without FTO hundreds of children and many single  mothers would not have food, water and education. The stats are staggering of how God is blessing through this family.

 

Matthew 9:37  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

I know that God is calling me to full time work with FTO and that in order for this ministry to continue to function with 100% of donations going to the kids, I will be raising support for myself.  I will travel to Ghana to oversee operations, work here and there training and scheduling volunteers and mission teams and assist in the daily tasks associated with running an international orphan care ministry.  I am asking you to come along side me and financially enable me to do the work that God has called me to do.

We all are called to be workers. For some of us that means supporting with our finances and for others it means going. I am willing to answer the call God has placed in my heart. I am only ½ of the solution.  Please consider being the other half. 

To begin partnering with me in this mission:

1.       Make your pledge payable to Feeding the Orphans with Lola Crain on the memo line
2.      Mail your donations to Feeding the Orphans, 505 Cave Creek Rd., Loudon, TN 37774 or, you can pay electronically on their website: www.feedingtheorphans.com (All donations are tax deductable).

 

 In Christ,

Lola Crain 

Don't Miss the Blessings in Life

The first three months in Ghana and my last month were the toughest.  There were some days that I was so lonely and miserable that if I could have left I would have mistakenly rejected God’s call and the blessing He was about to give me. I would not have voluntarily gone through the moments of loneliness, heat rashes, ring worm, malaria, skin fungus, being hungry, etc. I would have never known just how much God would use those things to bring me closer to Him. I remember sitting on my bed and thinking… God why would you allow me to have all of these things when I came here to help these children?  He answered me instantly, you asked me to give you compassion for them and now you have it, you understand what they are going through and you are sympathetic. 

Romans 8:  I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which will be revealed in us.

What is more beautiful than the heart of God?  Nothing is greater than having Him give you a glimpse of His heart, to touch you in a way nothing else can.  I have heard the saying that the eyes are gates to the soul and I believe it is true. I have seen a smile that I knew was a blanket covering pain,  a child’s eyes smiling in the midst of hunger, in the midst of the sorrows poverty lavishes on them.  The smile of the eyes came when I was holding them in my lap, kissing their forehead and telling them I love them, showing them God’s heart.

There were times in Africa I was so lonely, longed for the smells of home, missed the faces of my beautiful grandchildren, my daughters and sons and cried out to God to comfort me, to take away the despair I was feeling and replace it with His love, His visions, His heart. He heard my cry and has answered me. In my toughest moments of feeling so weak and wanting to give up He carried me, He gave me a love for those children like the love I have for my own, He has put dreams and visions in my heart of what it could be like for them and a desire to help make it happen.  He is an unfailing God.  In those times when I asked Him where He was He was sitting right next to me waiting for me to remember the promises in His word and to rest in them.  He is the refiner and becoming more like Him means that I will go through the fire. He is the restorer and allowing Him to use me brings light into a child’s world.  What an awesome thing!  I had lessons of how to rest in the assurance of who He is and have felt complete peace through many painful moments. The trials  He allows in my life are from a loving Father who knows me better than I know myself and knows exactly what I need.

I know that no matter where I am I will be tested.  I know that on every continent in this world there is someone hurting, someone lonely, someone depressed, someone hungry.  I know that no matter where I am I need to be Jesus to someone. Through every trial, tempest, storm we are waging war against the enemy and must have our eyes set on eternity.  We must be fixed and strive for the goal He has set before us. 

1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

My favorite saying

He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for what he cannot loose. 

BEING PLANTED

God so patiently and lovingly revealed things to me in Africa about myself. One was that I have not been firmly planted in His work because I lacked confidence in who I am  in Christ Jesus. I was always standing on the side line watching those I was sure must be qualified to do such a noble work. I believed in Him but was not believing Him.  I was living with the insecurity of past failures.  I needed to walk in His forgiveness rendering Satan’s arrows useless, unable to penetrate my emotions and weaknesses. I need to daily walk in His forgiveness for myself and for others. He is not remembering the failures of my life but drawing me into a relationship using those experiences, if I will learn from them, and using new trials and tests to teach me more about Himself every day.

Psalm 103: 11 & 12
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
¹² As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

I don’t understand why it is so hard to walk in forgiveness. Thoughts stemming from inferiority that can hinder us from stepping into a position in His Kingdom do not come from Him. Thoughts of others who we think are more qualified when the Holy Spirit is speaking something eternal to our hearts are not from Him. When God called me to Africa I was flooded with doubts. I was walking in insecurity instead of an awareness of who Christ is in me. He does not make mistakes. He knew what He was doing when He called me.

^II Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

I am so amazed and honored that He would use me to bring glory to Himself.

There is no room for un-forgiveness in the heart of a Christian.  Forgiveness is the medicine that destroys the bitter root and allows the heart to be a haven for love. The condition of ours heart dictates how we feel about ourselves and others.  

 Psalm 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
1And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
³ Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Satan has to ask permission to bring trials into our lives, but it is God who allows it.   When we are in the midst of a trial, we must not surrendering to our emotions but to His will so that we experience victory He has for us. Trials give us an opportunity to trust our Father, to become more like Christ and to to bring glory to whom glory is due... our Heavenly Father.  

I remember making a list of offenses that I was holding in my heart in church and nailing it to the cross.  The physical exercise of taking the paper and nailing it to the cross was very emotional and reminded me of just how much Jesus forgave. Who was I to hold un-forgiveness against anyone.  It was very symbolic and very healing.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.