THE NEW EWE

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'"

Luke 15:4-6

March 9, 2022

LIFE IN THE FOLD:

We wrote and published our very first newsletter on March 12, 2007. It seems crazy that 15 years later, we are still writing and doing this! We had no idea how long we'd be writing this, or even if we'd have any readers, when we first began doing this. We pray that everyone who has followed our website and reads our devotions are blessed and encouraged. Thank you so very much!

This week, I'm going to share the very first devotional that I ever wrote for our newsletter 15 years ago:

Have you ever prayed for something, then find out that the answer was there all the time, only you were looking in the wrong direction?

Jon and I stayed at a cottage in Eureka Springs for our honeymoon. There was a deck on back of the cottage with hummingbird feeders. We would sit outside and watch the hummingbird's flock to those feeders, and became fascinated with them.

Last spring, we decided to hang out a couple of feeders and see if any hummingbirds would start coming to our back yard. We hung the feeders from a redbud tree, and after a couple of weeks we finally saw one. We were so excited and would sit outside on the swing, on our back porch, to watch for it. After coming two or three times, it seemingly left our yard.

We began praying that God would bring the hummingbird back to our feeders so we could see it again. Day after day, we waited and didn't see anything.

We had planted a garden directly behind our home that extended from our porch to just passed the end of the house. On the backside of our garden, we planted some Canna flowers.

One evening we were sitting outside watching for the hummingbird and admiring our garden. This was the first garden we planted together, so we were pretty proud of our handiwork, and would literally check it two or three times a day for growth.

Jon happened to glance over, and saw that a hummingbird was drinking nectar from our Canna's. We had not even thought to check to see if the hummingbird was coming to another spot in our yard, because we had put the feeder up in the redbud tree, especially for them, and thought that was where they should be going. After all, that's where it came before.

Many times when we pray, we figure out ahead of time how we think God is going to answer. It may be that that's how he answered before, so we assume that's what He'll do again. But God may have something totally different planned than what we expect.

By summer's end, we had at least five different hummingbird's that came to our yard. We had to learn to look for them. We moved one of the feeder's from the redbud to our back porch. The hummingbird's came to both feeders, our Canna's, and the honeysuckle we planted on our back fence.

Some may think that praying for something as small as asking for hummingbird's to come to your yard is a waste of God's time. I have learned that if I can't trust God to answer my small request, then I struggle when I have to believe Him for something big. I believe that God is concerned in all things regarding my life.

When Jon and I were dating, his dad gave me a pearl necklace for Christmas. He thinks that all ladies should own a pearl necklace, and as a special gift just from him, he had bought the other women in the family one in previous years. As a gift from both of Jon's parents, they had also bought me a pair of pearl earrings.

One Sunday evening I had come over to his parents' house after church and when I got ready to leave, he noticed that I was missing an earring. I knew that I had it when I had left the house for church. We searched the floor, the furniture, under the cushions, everywhere we could think of to look. That earring was nowhere to be found. I didn't want to tell my future in-laws that I had lost one of the pearl earrings they had given me. I made Jon promise not to tell them that I had lost it.

I desperately prayed that it would be found. The next morning when I got up, there in the middle of my bedroom floor was that earring. I have no idea how it got there. I don't know if it had fallen out and got caught on the sweater I was wearing, if God found it and placed it there, or what happened. Figuring out how it got there is not important. What is important, is that I prayed and believed God that He would answer, and He did.

Whatever you may be praying for, know that God cares about everything that concerns you, whether big or small. Be encouraged in the Lord and know that He truly does love you.

JON'S PERSPECTIVE:

Leading up to starting this newsletter, Loretta and I had each prayed for a ministry. We wanted a way to reach out and help others. To encourage them, and to be a blessing to God. And the answer was easier than we had suspected. We simply had to write, and share it.

If you've been looking for a way to help others, it might also be easier than you suspected. It may not be something grand or huge, but it can be little and often. And it might be as simple as encouraging others.

ON THE MENEWE:

Pork Tenderloin Roast

(easy and delicious)

Cut slits in the top of the meat and put cloves of garlic down in them. If some of your garlic cloves are too big, you can cut it in half.

Salt and pepper the meat.

Pour 1-2 cups of apple juice over the meat.

Cook in a covered pan in the oven at 450 for 1 hour.

Put the meat and the juices in the crockpot and cook on low for 3 hours or so, depending on the size of the roast. If you do not want to use the crockpot, you can leave the meat in the oven and cook on 300 for the additional 3 hours.

Slice the meat and pour some of the juice over the top.

The meat will be very tender.

THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER:

When my sister, Janie, had just started dating Jimmy, they attended a community singing at the church where our oldest sister, Joyce, and her husband pastored at that time. Jimmy was deaf and wears hearing aids. They were sitting on the second row from the front and Joyce and Robert's two oldest boys were sitting on the front seat directly in front of them. During the singing, the two boys, who were around 7 and 8 at the time, got up and went back to the bathroom. They came back in a little later, and marched back up to their seats. To Janie's horror, they had fashioned hearing aids out of toilet paper and had them wrapped around their ears. To her relief, Jimmy was not offended and found the incident humorous.

THOUGHT TO PONDER

Patience is to idle your motor when you feel like stripping the gears.

OUR HEARTFELT THANKS TO YOU:

We love you!

Loretta & Jon

http://www.graysheep.org