Praising God Through Suffering

It has taken me a bit to get the energy to write this. Before I right what happened, I want to share that we can truly say that we do not regret opening our home to Charina and choosing the "risky yet abundant life" of following what we believe Christ called us to (see my June 11 post). We took her into our home, although with little warning, with a purpose - To show Christ to her. She did not see a perfect family, but what she saw, lived and learned in our home is something that a book or a witness could not have told or preached to her. She saw an intact family that loves and forgives by the grace of God, a loving marriage that is truthful and faithful. She went to a Bible teaching church, shared in our evening Bible/worship family times, joined in on our family gatherings and vacation. She lived in a home where praise and worship songs were playing often. She was the recipient of forgiveness and tough love multiple times the last 2 weeks, instead of malicious words or physical abuse. On Friday afternoon, when we were piecing everything together, the kids were sharing their feelings. They just couldn't wrap their minds around how someone who seemed so nice and who was their cousin could sin so badly and hurt us so much. Janae had been quiet and she had tears in her eyes and said, "I feel so betrayed. And she was our cousin and said she loved us??!!" We stopped right then to pray and thank God for the feelings of betrayal and suffering that we were feeling. We prayed that from this we would better understand the betrayal Jesus felt when he was crucified on the cross and the betrayal he feels when we have idols in our life. Providentially, I had started in the book of Hosea in the old testament that morning which is a picture of Israel's unfaithfulness/betrayal to God -isn't He good? We would not change this for the world. We have had so many great opportunities and first hand examples to talk to our kids about forgiveness, love, the dangers of an unrepentant heart, the dangers of sin, submission and a truly changed heart that bears fruit. I share all of this, not to get nice comments or to lift ourselves up in any way, but in excitement of what the Lord is doing and to encourage others not to be afraid of suffering for the sake of the gospel. Our prayer is that the love of Christ that she experienced in our home would not be in vain - that the Lord would save her and make her His child.

About a week and a half ago we took the whole family camping (more about that in a later post). Well, we came home to a stressful week of uncovering lies, receiving a bill with credit card theft, finding international cell phone charges, schemes, Charina running away, much contact with the Sheriff's department, uncovering all of our kid's cash was gone from their wallets, some of our bills/financial info had been taken and hidden and Saturday confirming she was "safely" in New Jersey with her troubled older 1/2 sister. Each day we would uncover more. Much of it we couldn't make sense of until days later. We probably still have not uncovered everything, but she is gone and our family is safe. I am exhausted from the hours spent on the phone with credit card companies, the airlines, the Sheriff, the bank, her sister etc.

About 3 weeks ago Charina and I had a long talk at night about following Christ. She was so excited about Christ and the forgiveness she found in Him. I told her it was not always going to be easy to follow Him and that an excited feeling would not be enough. When the hard times come, it will show if she will do the hard thing and turn from her old ways and follow Christ as the king of her life and that would show if she was truly saved and changed. We discussed how you can not serve 2 masters and Christ can't be a "good luck charm" you tag onto a life of going your own way. What sparked that long talk that night was that her troubled sister in New Jersey called and Charina was sharing the gospel with her. She continued to communicate with her sister (some secretly) and soon after the lies, deceit and steeling began. Once we found some of the charges we got the whole family together, prayed and confronted her on it and told her we forgave her but did not trust her and I told her in 3 different conversations that she needed to ask Javier for forgiveness (the lies and deceit had mostly been against him and caused him the most trouble at that point) and at least say she was sorry and I told her we would likely send her back home if she could not show us that we could trust her. She had just started a job at McDonalds so we were trying to decide if we should allow her to stay and have her work off her debt to us or if it was too risky. Well, we did not have to decide because she ran away leaving a nice note saying that we treated her better than anyone ever had and she could not face us. Financially it appears that most of it we will get back and we think we will only be out the cash and some of the phone charges. That is not the big deal. It greatly impacted our kids and Javier's family. There is so much to be thankful for including the safety of our children and their hearts for her that were revealed through all of this.

My husband reminded me that a pastor said that if you are going to serve a lost world and broken, hurting people, then expect to suffer. 1 Peter 4:12-13 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

PS - I will post some great pictures and hopefully good news later this week - so check back :)