God Is In The GAPS

This may not be blog worthy, because it is a copy of two e-mails. However, it's a memory I'd like to preserve in the altar of remembrance of how GOD brought this child(ren) home!

After struggling with leaving for the funeral this past weekend, I was astounded by God's orchestration of everything in our absence. Not that we were needed, but we had committed to help with the yard sale and the basketball tournament organized by Kristie O'Leary for the downtown kids. God is clearly showing me over and over, everything is UP TO HIM, it's not up to me.

Upon returning home, I was blessed read this e-mail sent from Righ and Kristie O'Leary. It encompassed the beauty of the body of Christ working together for His Kingdom! WOW! I'm amazed at God's provision in every detail! Kristie even bought a birthday gift for Omar and had everyone sing to him at the tournament. I'm so moved by God's goodness. He is so good! Here's the O'Leary weekend recap:

Words cannot express how thankful to our sweet Jesus for such an AWESOME weekend! He gave us all the strength and energy to survive AND have fun doing it! This was an extremely busy weekend, but we pulled together and we are so thankful to each of you. None of this could have been done without you.


From the Von Hagens doing a garage sale for us and the Beebes' adoptions with Paige, Janet Browning, and Kim Menard working until 6:30 tonight. Not to mention the physical exhaustion for them of hosting a 3+ day event all for us!!! And they sent Blake to Dayton, TN for an all day basketball tournament just so they could stay here and be with us. On to the Prince family who helped set up for the sale AND Matt took vacation to be a part of the tournament while Lauren sacrificed her husband being with her and the boys. AND Matt got dunked on by Emmanuel Negedu! (Right, Matt?) Emile baked our desserts for today and she and Stephen tag-teamed today between the garage sale and the tourney. Then, she and their boys came to hang out with us and she stayed until it was all cleaned up. Oh, and Stephen completed Omar and Tyler's team. Heather Bales spent the morning with her stepfather so her mother could do errands. Then, she came to help us at the tourney instead of going to be with Emmie and Jeff. BTW, Jeff just got home and he sacrificed the time with his wife. :) Kristin and Jeremy spent the afternoon running for ice and serving food. I enjoyed spending time with them and they arranged for Emmanuel Negedu (Eman) to join us for a while. And Eman was a blessing to me today. His story has always fascinated me, but it hits closer now. Ghana is very near his home country, Nigeria, and I loved just listening to him talk. I imagined Helen and Samuel. :) And I enjoyed learning more about West Africa from him. Matt Nichols was sick all week and we didn't think he would be able to make it today. Then, he showed up to talk even though his body is still weak. Hope you're feeling better, Matt! What a blessing! Janet helped set up our garage sale only minutes after her parents arrived from out of town Thursday. And she sacrificed her time with her husband today as he ran between the garage sale and the tourney. Mark did an awesome job running the tournament. It ran smoothly and quickly. And the boys loved the prizes he was able to get from UT! They were so surprised by it all! All in all, the weekend was a HUGE success. We have tried to hit the highlights of the weekend! I have so many more things I could say, but it's late and exhaustion is setting in for me, too. Even as I'm typing this, I am still amazed by how willing everyone was to sacrifice so much! It is such a pleasure serving with all of you. The body of Christ working together is truly an AWESOME sight. Several boys asked when we'd do it again and thanked us repeatedly. Once again, we are thankful to our God that He brought each one of you into our lives. He has an ultimate plan and I love to see it played out. We look forward to many, many more times.


Lastly, Beebes, we missed you greatly, but we prayed for you today and will be praying for safe travels tomorrow.

In His Service,
The O'Learys

My response to everyone:
After being home for two days, I am beginning to go through my e-mails. I just read the email from Righ and Kristie and am blown away, by the blessing of the body working together. Praise God! I nearly cried reading how everyone pulled together this weekend! Our prayer was for God to fill in the gaps, and He did so for everything. It seems as though several people sacrificed comfort, convenience, and ease to be a part of the events of the weekend. What a blessing!

We will never know this side of heaven what eternal impact happens through our seemingly insignificant actions. For my heart, reading this e-mail, has provided a tremendous lift to my heart and spirit. What a great God we serve, and what a privilege to serve Him! I'm amazed by everyone's willingness to help in so many different ways! It's my belief that each of you delivered some of Jesus' love to those around you this weekend. I regret that we were not a part of it here, but thank you for extending yourselves while we were with our family. Saturday, it was clear that we needed to be where we were.

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”- Hebrews 6:10


We are blessed by your friendship and to witness how you gave yourselves away this weekend!

From our hearts, the Beebes are eternally grateful! Thank you!