Ordinary to Extraordinary

Frison Chapel 

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." 
(Matt. 22:38-39)

       In Jesus's goodness and glory, sometimes He graciously pours an extraordinary blessing onto an ordinary day as we go about our ordinary routine. He did that for my family once upon a summertime in 1997.
           On a hot July afternoon, I loaded the kids in the van and dashed to a neighboring subdivision to pick up another teenager for football practice. As we passed a tiny church on the edge of that neighborhood, the Lord said, "Jill, I want you to paint that church!"
           At supper that night, I told my husband and children what I believed I'd heard. Phillip wisely advised, "Jill, you can't just walk up and start painting a church. You need to ask permission."
           After several calls, I located Joseph, Frison Chapel's pastor at that time, who told me that he and his wife, Mary, had been praying for months for someone to come help! (Yes, Mary and Joseph - can you believe it!)     

Work day at Miss Mattie's, 1999
L-R Dan, Ben, and Phillip

          Within an hour after we started painting the chapel, enthusiastic people from their congregation joined in on the fun, and among those wonderful parishioners were two godly saints: Mattie B. Taylor and her brother Fred Cross.
         We grew to love our Miss Mattie and Mr. Fred like family, and our children's lives were deeply enriched by an extra set of grandparents sent straight from heaven!

Miss Mattie (in her 90s) and Rebecca, 2000

        As you go about your ordinary days in ordinary ways, please listen for the sweet voice of Jesus. He may just drop an extraordinary gift into your life if you'll trust and obey!