blessings flow.

I have already told you the story about when we bought our house and discovered that a bunch of our neighbors had been praying for its potential owners and how blessed and directed we felt about our purchase.
Last night was just icing on that sweet cake.
We were invited over to one of our neighbor's houses (the house that backs up to ours and is owned by a couple of native South Africans who are lifelong missionaries - worked with the Presbyterian church and also with YWAM for a while - small world huh?). She invited us, a couple and their kids from down the street, some friends from Kenya that are now living here in Chattanooga - a really cool conglomeration of people - most of whom have either lived abroad, are from another country, or have done foreign missions to another country. I didn't think we would be able to go because Chad got called out on that darned fire but he got home about 6pm last night and was so exhausted and frustrated that I didn't think he would want to go. But we did.
And we are thrilled we did.
We had the best food (chicken curry - felt like Indian home), awesome conversation about each of our lives, and the neatest time of just asking each other questions and learning about individual walks of faith. I can not even begin to tell you how blessed we are to know these people and have them in our lives. We literally live next door to them - in a cool, unintentional that is now very intentional - community of believers. I am thrilled that we went, glad we stuck out the evening instead of pleading off early, and got to know some of our amazing neighbors. God has provided us mentors in faith and in life - with examples of how to live a rich, love-filled life - and beautiful examples of strong marriages that have weathered continents, coups, and time.
I love our house. I love that it is becoming a home, surrounded by people that care about each other, take care of each other, and love on each other.
Oh how the blessings flow.