Happy happy day!

I wrote a long and detailed post about the situation with my favorite boy at the children's home, telling all about what a wonderful child he is; how he was taken away from New Hope by an abusive parent; how we grieved and grasped for hope that we would see him again; how God answered our prayers through miraculously bringing the boy home; and how we are celebrating! It was an extensive post, and I decided to spare you all the details for now.

Here are the most important things I have to say about Prashanth being rescued:

Thank you. Thank you for your prayers. God moved mountains for a small boy when He heard the cries of His people. We are grateful that He answers prayers and that He protects the helpless.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned… for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior… because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you… fear not, for I am with you.” –Isaiah 43:1-5

He is great. He is worthy of our praise. I have a new song in my heart because of the new work He is doing. Really, we danced and sang and were silly over this child's return! Be joyful with us!

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.” –Psalm 96:1-4

Hold on to hope. There is no situation beyond salvation, no circumstance that cannot be redeemed. 

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope… then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations.’” –Jeremiah 29:11-14

With hope, life is beautiful, even through the pain.

I will leave you with a song that played on my laptop during an iTunes shuffle session on the day before Prashanth came home. I had forgotten about this song completely and was grateful for its reminder that life is indeed full of beauty. It’s called Life is Beautiful and was written and recorded by some talented musician friends (one of whom--Dane--is also on a round-the-world adventure and will be teaching English in Indonesia soon). It spoke to me, so maybe it will speak to you:

 P.S. –If you do want to spend a bunch of time reading about the little things I find charming about Prashanth (like how he flips his hair out of his eyes when he translates from Telugu to English for the smaller kids) and all the messy details of his departure and return, leave a comment or send a message. If there’s interest, I’ll post it. It’s basically the size of a novel so I need to do some careful editing… but I’m lazy and don’t want to fix it up for people to read unless you actually want to wade through it. :)