Blessed Opportunities
By Victoria Johnson and Kelly Bostick

Summer presents itself with blessings as college students have the opportunity to get away from the books and serve God on the mission field. In May Sowers hosted a college group from Palm Beach Atlantic University in China. It was an amazing three weeks which had great impact in each of the students’ lives.

“If there was one message that God was trying to get through to me while I was in China it was this, ‘count your blessings and be convicted by your faith,” comments Kelly Bostick, one of the team members. She proceeds to explain that although she was thankful for the blessing of the living conditions being far more comfortable than anticipated, that the greater blessing was time granted with children at the orphanage.

Kelly writes, “There were two specific babies that grabbed my attention, Gracie and Josiah”. Gracie suffers from Hydrocephalus and has no radius or ulna. She is also missing the thumb in her right arm. She was also born with spinal bifida and may never walk. “However”, Bostick comments, “This child captured my heart”. Gracie is in fact a beautiful child. Pray that she will be given the proper medical attention and that she can come to know Jesus.

Baby Josiah also grabbed Kelly’s attention. He was two years old and although he had a heart condition he never stopped giggling. Kelly wrote, “I consistently wondered how it was that even when every child, including himself, was suffering he was able to laugh.” The question is, can you and I offer such amazing smiles in the midst of pain and suffering or must we be challenged by little Josiah? For when we are suffering we have a blessed opportunity to smile as if to say we know that our Abba Father has us in His hand.