Blessed!

On Thursday, we had the privilege of being treated as royalty! Our dear friend and international ministry colleague in Christ, Judy Miller, had a group of visitors coming from the States. Judy is a Southern Baptist missionary, and the group was coming from her home church in Kentucky.

We were invited to a luncheon at a super nice beach resort in Benin (yes one does exist despite this being one of the poorest nations on earth...obviously the target market is rich expatriates like ourselves, not the locals). As lunch was being prepared to be served, the American visitors starting handing out gift bags for all the missionaries. They were stocked with goodies from home, including toys for all the missionary kids. So nice of them.
Lunch was paid for by them and included our choice of chicken or steak kabobs, roasted chicken or fish with rice and french fries, plus chocolate crepes for dessert! It was all their treat. Incredible.

We enjoyed an afternoon at the pool with the sounds of the ocean waves just 100 yards away. As we were packing up to leave, a lady came by to each missionary family with children and handed us a large sack full of macaroni and cheese!! She said at their Baptist church, all the kids were studying missions and the teachers were explaining how life is different on the mission field. To one kids great shock, "you mean there are kids on the mission field who can't eat macaroni and cheese whenever they want???" As a result, admission to next week's bible hour was a box of macaroni and cheese. Our kids' eyes lit up and guess what we had for dinner when we got home at 8pm?!

We just thought we were finished. An older couple then opened up a trunk and proceded to explain that they had heard that our DVD player had gone out a couple of weeks ago (when they were generously asking what they could bring to bless all the missionaries, Judy told them that our DVD had went kaput; they said immediately, "we'll buy it for them.") So they pulled out of the trunk a super nice DVD/VCR combo that we got hooked up the very next morning. Everyone is so happy around here!

There are many days where life as a missionary is hard. Sometimes it is so hard that you want to just say, "enough, I'm going home." (And yes, HOME for us is America...we have a home here, but HOME is still the good ol' USA!) Somedays, the distance from family and friends, and candidly, the absence of luxuries and conveniences just puts a damper on life here. But on days like Thursday, we recognize what a privilege it is, and are so very thankful for Americans who have a heart for missions and for missionaries. Their generosity was overwhelming! And while denominationalism on the mission field is not prevalent like it is the States, it is still amazing that some Americans from Baptist church would be willing to spend their money on some Church of Christ missionaries they don't even know. A spirit of unity and generosity all in one day!

As we were laying in bed ready for sleep, Kelly joked and said, "there'll come a day, when we'll be back in America and strangers won't buy us such nice gifts because we're no longer missionaries"! HA!

-Rockin' Randall