He knows our needs

I received an email yesterday from someone I have not been in contact with for almost 7 years!  My junior year of college I went to Botswana, Africa and one of the girls there that helped with the incoming missionaries was in college herself and was a very important part of our team!  She and I got to know one another over those 3 weeks and kept in touch for quite a while after that.  She came to the states and while she was here she was able to come and stay with us!  All this to say,  when I saw her name on my email I was surprised to tears!  

She has been on quite a journey since I last was in touch with her and is now living in China, learning to speak Chinese fluently and teaching English!  Our first two email correspondences have been such an encouragement to me!  I complain and feel down about being "far" from home and she is living on a totally different continent and finding her contentment and satisfaction in the Lord.

This got me thinking.  I have had 2 other people that have surfaced from my past in this last year as well.  One of them is not someone that I have been "best" friends with in the past but kept in touch with through our home church and mutual friends. She has really been an encouragement to me just calling and checking in, sending snail mail, etc.  

Also, I had a good friend from church throughout middle school and maybe the beginning of high school?  I can't even remember!  She and her family moved away and we did not do to well keeping in touch.  I did keep up with her on facebook and realize that she too went to nursing school and also worked in ICU!  She contacted me via facebook message a few months ago and shared about the past few years in her life. God's plan unfolding in her life has been a blessing to me as well.  It's so easy to feel down and out about where you are in life but when I find myself focusing on the positive, praying for others, and realizing what I have to be thankful for it changes my perspective and attitude.

I know that God has used these people this past year for a specific purpose.  It has brought me joy from the beginning.  The first spontaneous email, pictures of their families and their lives, unexpected gifts in the mail, the joy of praying for them and seeing God work in their lives and realizing there is more to my day to day than myself!  

God is good and He knows our needs!