such a bright light shining

There are some people in this world that my spirit rushes when I see them. It is as if my spirit yearns for what they have. Their stories and their light shine so bright that I want to bask in it one moment and then another moment I am convicted to go and preach at every street corner.

I am trying to make sense here but I have a feeling that I need to start with something more concrete.

This is Cott and Shus. Those aren't their real names really but that is what everyone knows them by. This is a couple that have poured out their lives for God.



I first met Cott and Shus around 8 years ago when my son was just a baby. I can't believe it has been that long.

The first time I met them I did my best to pay them great respect because my parents taught me well and I was trained to honor and respect and love those older then me. The aged in my world are some of the most amazing people ever. Their experiences and what makes people who they are today fascinate me. I would love to sit at the feet of the older generation and soak up all the stories and tales and remembrances that they could find to tell me.

Cott did most of the talking on that first day and I remember exactly what he talked about. He talked about sharing the Gospel. He talked about how he shared the Gospel and how he talked to people. He showed me the tracts that he would sometimes use. He showed me the scriptures and he asked me about my salvation. He asked me who I had shared the Gospel with recently.

His light was so very bright.

He was a country preacher. I can identify with that in a powerful way cause I grew up tagging along after my country preacher Daddy. I grew up listening to country preachers preach the Gospel over old oak pulpits with lightening bugs flittering in and out of the open country church windows.

Cott didn't stop at the old oak pulpits. I had the sense that he never stopped. He told me about the people he would see at diners and the people he would talk to at gas stations and those that he would share with everywhere he went everyday. He was so earnest in his zeal for God.

He didn't grow up in the church. He was not a Christian until he was married and busy working his farm but once God came into his life it was never the same.

Now Cott and Shus are retired. It was a long time in coming. I do think that they were technically retired before this but that they never really stopped. They kept right on doing God's work. They consistently filled in at small country churches all over the state. They consistently shared the story of Jesus.

Finally though, it was time. Shus was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and he quickly realized that he needed to be there with her constantly and that it was time to pass on the torch of the hospital visits and all the other work to others.

They are living in an apartment in a community for retired ministers. Recently, we talked and he sat there telling me in amazement what an incredible wife Shus had been for him all these years. How she took care of all the finances and took care of all the things in the home as well as taught elementary school until her own retirement. He impressed upon me that he never understood all that she did, all that she was to him fully. That only recently had he completely realized what all she had done. Cott told me that now he would gladly care for Shus. It was his turn to do this work. To care for his beloved in so many ways.

His work for the Lord continues on in ways he never imagined.

His inspiration will go on in ways he may never imagine in this known world.

blind

I have no words to introduce this link I am giving you.

I give you simply:

ali's african adventures.

Grab a tissue or two.

My Second Son

For more years than I can look back and count, I have wanted to sponsor a child from a developing country. When I was quite young, I asked my father about it and he asked me if I would always, every month, be able to pay that thirty-dollar amount. He discussed with me that this was a very big commitment, that once you sponsor a child, you have made a commitment to them until they are done with the program. I could not, at that age, commit to sponsor a child.

I remembered my father’s words for many years when I would see these pictures of children. I remembered them as I went through college and as I started my own family. I remembered them well as I struggled to keep quality food on our own table. Finally, this last year, I remembered them as my husband and I talked about sponsoring a child. We were ready. I looked over the website at Compassion International and peered into the eyes of hundreds of needy children. They all needed help, EVERY single one of them. I wanted to sponsor every last one of them. My momma heart wanted to scoop them all up and hold them close and smell their hair and sing sweet songs. I just looked over at John and told him that I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t chose just one! How could I know who needed us, who we needed? It was impossible for me, so I chose instead to press the button on the side that would link us up with a child in greatest need. A child, who had been waiting the longest, or for some other reason, was put into the greatest need category. I thought we would find out right then whom we had been paired with, but that was not the case. I was told that we would find out who we had been paired with in a week or two when our packet would arrive.

I anxiously waited. The day the packet came I honestly cried. Our relationship, our bond was born on that very day. We had a new child in our hearts. His name is Brayan, and he lives in Columbia. His birthday is the day after Christmas and falls right between my own two little ones birth years. He just turned 6 and mine just turned 7 and 5. The first letter we received from him was such an extreme delight! He had drawn us a picture and had inquired about us, his sponsors. My children loved the colored pencil drawing that Brayan had sent to us and they quickly pulled out their own crayons and paper to respond to Brayan. They drew pictures to send to this little boy and I wrote him a letter, and sent the money to cover a birthday gift for this precious little one.

Brayan’s picture is right on the front of our refrigerator and it will always have a place of great importance in our home. He is the child that we love, that we hold in our prayers that someone else gets to hold and sing songs to.

The drawing at the top of this post is the one that Brayan sent to us. I imagine that this is a drawing of the mountains of Columbia and that the building with the cross on it and the rainbow above is the center that he now attends because of his being in the Compassion program.

When you are able, please consider sponsoring a child like Brayan. On the side bar of my blog is a link to Compassion International, you just may want to check it out.