Friendship

God has blessed us so much over the years and helped us to grow along our spiritual journey. Of the millions of amazing things He has done, introducing us to godly friends is close to the top of the list. I feel in recent years that our family has been privileged to meet so many people who share our faith in Jesus Christ.

We have met missionaries from all over the world who are pouring their lives out for the sake of the gospel. I have reconnected with childhood friends who are now truly walking with the Lord in an amazing way and our connection is so much stronger than it was when we were children.

Quite possibly, the most amazing of all is how God has used the Internet in our lives. If you know me, you know that I have a real love/hate relationship with my computer. I really don't like it and I truly wish I could do without it at all. Half the time it is so slow I push the limits of my patience and have to bite my tongue not to use words I will immediately regret. However, I know the Internet is here to stay in this world -- I am interested to see what form of communication God has for us in Heaven. At least I know that if it is electronic that it will work properly! Since it is here to stay, and since there are so many base and disgusting things on it - I feel that as Christians we have a real obligation to saturate it with good stuff, so that people who are randomly searching might come across a website that proclaims Christ.

My older daughter is a writer and because of that she has searched out some wonderful writing forums, controlled by believers whose goal is to train up the next generation of godly communicators. Through these websites we have met an author and his family and have had them in our home, she has met countless "online" friends that she communicates with regularly.

Without a doubt, however, the best thing that has happened to us online is meeting the Diez family. We both have twins as our oldest children and one of my twins and one of theirs met in an online writing forum. They both love to read and write and they immediately hit it off. The girls soon found out that we live about two hours apart and they began to plan a get together. That finally happened and we found that our families really enjoy each other. They are an amazing, godly, home schooling family and we love them dearly. Since the first meeting, they have been to our home a few times and we have been to theirs as well. We found that we actually have mutual friends - both in real life and online. They have six beautiful children and all of our kids get along beautifully. Recently, they were here for a short visit and we had a great time, just hanging out. It seems us moms can chat for hours on end about schooling, parenting, marriage, and what God is doing in our lives.

I feel that God is tightening the community of believers all over the world. I don't know why, and I won't speculate. Maybe He is just blessing us all with great fellowship in a world that seems to be out of control. Whatever the reason, I continue to have opportunity after opportunity to meet with, pray with, and fellowship with other believers. The bonds seem to form more quickly and within a few hours of meeting, I feel like I have found a kindred spirit. This is what happened with the Diez family and I just thank God that He brought them into our lives. Here are a few pictures from our last visit.