Hosea

     I will start off by giving a little bit of a background on my story here.  7 years ago, me and my husband felt the calling to be in camp ministry.  Several deployments later and during my husband battle with  kidney stones, we were at our wit's end on what to do about a job.  My uncle calls and tells us about this job opening at a camp in West Texas.  Shortly after Paul has surgery to blast the stones, we take off to our first job interview for the position at the camp.  Halfway there, we had to go to the ER due to an incredible amount of pain.  We debated on going home at 3 a.m but decided we would just make it to the interview.  Fast Forward a couple weeks, Paul gets the job and we are loaded up and ready to move.  Along the way we have 3 flat tires and the last two happen during the pouring down rain.  We roll into town about 3 a.m.  Ever since we have been here it is been a constant struggle here and  it has really begun to take its toll on us.  I am a pessimist at heart, I pray every day though about being different.
     For some reason, and I know its not random, I was reading the book of Hosea.  In this book, the Lord tells Hosea that he is going to marry a prostitute and she is going to be unfaithful to him, but he will take her back and forgive her.  He says that this is going to be symbolic of the relationship between God and Israel.  For 10 months I have been saying that all that bad stuff that happened was a "sign" from God that we should have never come here.  Although, deep down, I KNEW we were called here.  I know now though through reading about Hosea that God uses all things. Well, I knew that before, but it became more real to me.   All of the incidents that happened to us here were just a precursor to what was to go on here.  It was a long hard trip to get here and it has been a long and hard 10 months.  But just as in Hosea, the Lord offers forgiveness to the people of Israel. He gives them a chance to make things better for themselves.  I know that things are going to turn out to be better here and even if they don't, Christ never said it was going to be easy to do the right thing.  I have peace in my heart....I love my God...