Encouragement to continue

It doesn't actually take too much encouragement for me to continue writing and editing, but I never shrug it aside when it comes. Here's some from the previous couple of weeks.

This is an excerpt from an email I received this week from a lady I've never met, but who read an article by me in our home denomination's magazine, The Messenger:

The [article] I read in The Messenger was called “Missionary Life and Grief”. . . It really touched me and I felt for you, “mother to mother”. . . 

I pray . . . that He will hold you in his powerful hand every moment as you rest in Him. I pray that He will give you peace and wisdom in every struggle, that He will sustain you in times of pain and sorrow, and that always your whole family will be filled with joy!

The latest issue of Japan Harvest

We're very thankful to all who pray for us. But it is unusual to hear in such detail how someone is praying for us! A wonderful email.

This in an email from a fellow OMFer about our last magazine issue:

I just wanted to write to say thank you to you and to all the contributors of the Winter edition of Japan Harvest which I received in the post today and could not put down and read in one sitting and just had to thank you.

I'm just thankful that I'm able to use the gifts God's given me to help and encourage others. It is such encouragement as we prepare to go back to Australia and tell people about what work God's given us to do over the last four years. 

Yes, we can truly agree with what Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:7-10 (The Messenger):

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.