May We Never Forget the Importance of One

Stephanie Parker's Ministry Update - November 2004

Dear Friend,

Hello! I pray that as you are delighting in the Lord, He is giving you the desires of your heart according to Psalm 37:4. Thank you so much for praying for me the last couple of months. Here is one answer to your prayers. I was speaking at a church, and the Lord laid on my heart to take most of the time to explain the plan of salvation to the kids. After the service, the people went to another room to eat. However, one little girl came back to her chair and sat down. I asked her if she had ever really asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come into her heart and be her personal Savior. She told me that she wanted to do that right there. What a treasure it was to see little Amanda bow her head and ask Jesus to come into her heart and forgiver her of her sins. It was also a special reminder from the Lord to never forget the importance of one little child!

Praising God for:

• The kids who accepted Jesus Christ as Savior in August at our VBS outreach at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Va Beach and the many gospel tracts you helped me be able to give to the kids.
• The thousands of gospel tracts and hundreds of Gospels of John you helped me be able to pass out at a military air show in September.
• Shades, an 18 year old who put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as His Savior in October at our youth group outreach that meets on Sunday evenings at my dad's military chapel.
• The hundreds of kids you helped me be able to give children's gospel tracts to at a harvest outreach this month.
  

Please keep praying for:

• Missionary Visa to return to Brazil - I'm praying that I can get the visa I need, so I will be able to return to Brazil this January as the Lord continues to lead.
• Neighborhood Bible Club for kids, which meets on Thursday afternoons - Please keep praying that God will save the unsaved kids in my neighborhood and grow the little ones who have been born into His family.
• Eternal fruit from travels to churches- Lord willing, from Nov. 14th -25th I'll be traveling to different churches & a missions conference in Michigan and praying God will save people and stir their hearts to be missionaries for Him!
  

By His Grace,

Stephanie Parker
5597 New Colony Dr.
Virginia Beach, VA 23464

757-523-6111

stephm2237@yahoo.com

P.S. From my heart:

Before I close, I'd love to share with you a true story from my life that the Lord has been reminding me of lately.

At one point when I was a little girl, I did not have a bike, and I wanted one very badly. One day I was at a garage sale with my dad, and I saw what I thought was the "bike of my dreams." Even though it was old, rusty, and very cheap, I didn't care. I pleaded with my dad to buy it for me, knowing full well that he had the money in his pocket to pay for it. To my dismay at the time, my father told me no.

I couldn't understand why my dad who loved me so much refused to get me what I thought I really needed and wanted. I'm sure he probably hugged me and told me just to trust that he loved me and knew best. I never understood why my dad said no until my birthday came, and he opened up the garage door and showed me a brand new bike that was a million times better than the one I had thought I wanted.

Well, now I'm 25 years old and that bike is long gone, but the lesson my dad taught me that day is clearer now in my heart than ever. He was giving me a picture of our precious Heavenly Father. What a comfort it is to know that the Lord really cares about every need in our lives and has promised to meet them according to His will (Phil. 4:19). When our Heavenly Father doesn't answer our prayers like we think we want Him to, may God give us the grace and faith to simply trust that He only says, "NO" when He has something better for us hidden in "His garage".

Just like my dad, God always wants to remind us to trust Him with a simple, child-like love and faith even when things don't go as we plan. In the end, that kind of relationship with the Lord is truly worth more than everything in the world.

God says, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9)

God bless you!

Steph