Sharing God's goodness

Recently, Chuck had made a challenge on his blog for people to share what God has been doing in our lives. So here is praise to God for the work that He started in the reconciliation in my wife's family. The whole family of 11 is making a trip down to see family in relation to Sandy's side of the family. Its been almost 20 years since my wife has talked with her Uncle's & Aunt's from California. When Jolie's family lived down in California, some family drama unfolded that caused relationships to be broken. God's goodness just shines from this whole thing, and He is worthy of all honor and praise. God cares about our relationships and is always working things for healing and growing in grace.

Back in 1992 Jolie and her family moved up here to Washington. She was at that time around 13 years of age. There was no communication with the family down in California after they had left. Well back in 2003, Jolie had received a letter from her Uncle Ted wanting to get in contact with her or anyone in the family. Jolie talked to her Mother about the letter and her Mother was not interested in anyone contacting her brothers, and so Jolie respected her wishes. She took the letter and put it away.

It is now April of 2010, and at this time Jolie has long forgotten about the letter. She was going through her night stand looking for something and came across the letter from her Uncle Ted. She came down with it and we talked about the letter. After a few conversations with her family, she thought it would be a good idea to try and reach out and get in touch with them. So that night she sent her Uncle Ted an email, not sure what would come about since it had been over 7 years since the letter was sent.

Well her Uncle Ted emailed her back. He was so excited/grieved about the email. He told Jolie that he had been praying for many years for the reconciliation of his family. That was the reason he had sent the letter back in 2003. He didn't know that his sister had passed away back in 2006. And Jolie also learned that her Grandpa had passed away a month after her Mother. Jolie also learned that her Uncle's, Aunt's and Grandpa had all come to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The story from my end can't get any better then that.

We had a family camping trip in June. The Scripture says, "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9). So all along the camping trip we made has was meant for our family trip down to California so that Jolie and her family would complete the reconciliation of family. I can't wait. I know that God is going to continue to deepen our relationship in Christ. It will be a sweet time, and we are all looking forward to all that the Lord would have for each of us and our progress in the faith. I know that we will all be mutually encouraged by each other's faith and hearing what God has been doing in each of our lives the past 20 years.