I've got a hallelujah heart, it won't stop singingI've got a hallelujah heart, It won't stop singing your praiseI've got a hallelujah heart, It's beatin' to the rhythmI've got a hallelujah heart, It's beatin' to the rhythm of praiseA hallelujah heart always wants to start every day with worship and praiseA hallelujah heart always wants to startin a glory and hallelujah way Glory hallelujah!I've got a hallelujah heart, It won't stop singing won't stop singingI've got a hallelujah heart, it won't stop singing your praise it won't stop singing won't stop, It's beatin' to the rhythmit won't stop singing your praise(Song sample:
http://www.worshipmusic.com/lib/worshipmusic/19852-02.mp3)
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Dear friends,
Work at the orphanage has been pretty awesome. I've overcomed some nice barriers in my work, like handling poo directly, and not be grossed out by it, and also, I'm continuing to learn to love the children and to not only take care of their physical need, but their emotional needs too.
If you can remember Wing Kit, he's the one that's been nicknamed "The Grumpy Old Man" by the rest of the staff, and he's always lived with a frown and lots of complaints. But since two weeks ago, he's been spending most of his days smiling, and it's kinda very cute and contagious, and I'm so in love with seeing that smile on his face, and have been so encouraged because I know I'm one of the ones that put that on him. I guess a lot of the time, all he's reflecting is his difficulty in life (as he's quite self-concious about his disabilities) and he's reflecting what sort of tones and comments that everyone have been giving him, and often he doesn't get as much praise as everyone else, because one of his main means of communication is to pinch. A light pinch for affirmation, and a hard pinch for complaints. But he lives in a room where everyone else gets more praise than him, and I guess, he notices it and gets very upset. So I've been giving him his much needed praise, whenever I'm taking care of him, and spending so much more extra time just bonding and waiting on him to reach out and touch my hand, and giving him praise whenever he's within hearing range, and he's really made a U-turn, and I'm just glad to see his cute smiling baby face every morning!
I'm full of praise today, and much of these past few weeks, because I've settled in quite well into the work, and am making good progress in my working relationship with the other staff, and have been encouraging my friends in the New Territory area to meet up more often for dinner during the week, at least once a week, and it's becoming a very good source of support and fun, and it's really great to be having this time of fellowship to keep me going. And the group is growing, and it's really encouraging just to have a steady group of friends in the area that spend time together every week, and just enjoy some light games and a good meal. So I'm really happy about this.
I've been spending a lot of time praying and praising, and have been taking every moment of joy as a blessing from Christ, and have been giving Him praise for all the little things that happen during the day, and have been relying on Him more and more, trusting His plan for me, and also living out my witness for Him, and it's been such an amazing month that looking back, I cannot tell which day God has blessed me more and which day less, there's been so many opportunities to give thanks that I've lost track of it all. I just know that He's blessing me in all the areas of my life, and helping me to become the worshipper that He deserves to worship Him and helping me become a wonderful witness of His grace, His joy, and His love, and that is really awesome!
I've been shamelessly sharing the Gospel and sharing about God with people around me, whether Christian or not, it doesn't matter, because this amazing love feels so tangible and so contagious that I must share about it, and it's just been an encouragement to everyone, and that's just really awesome! And so, when it comes down to just sharing about my work, and my passion, and my dreams, and this amazing love that I've got, and when I'm sharing the same material with anyone and everyone, it's no longer offensive because I'm no longer preaching, and that's such a great revelation for me, because I love sharing about this love, and I've finally found a way of doing so where people can just feel this love and see how great it is, without needing to hide from "preaching"!
I can see now how Christ can walk up to anyone and get into real deep, meaningful conversations with them, because He's got this amazing love and I experience it all the time too, when you're so in love with God and so in love with His people, you can get right down to the important things and skip a lot of pleasantries.
Because it's not who they are, it's who He is. It's such a good revelation!
So.. It's been an amazing month, and it's only the beginning of all these awesome blessings that God's been raining down on me lately, and so I'm really excited about what happens next! Thanks for your time again, my friends, please keep me in your prayers, and pray for health, and joy, and patience, and love to fulfill all things that bring Him glory! Amen!
