“Bow down your ear and hear me, O Lord, for I am poor and needy….”  Psalm 86:1

If there is one thing that we begun to learn while living in the Middle East, it’s how poor and needy we are—that is, how much we are in need of the Lord in every way.

There are many other opportunities for God to act into our neediness.

While in Syria, we gave a ride to a fellow who befriended us. As we drove through a rural area, there was a drought looking man standing beside the road holding an AK47. He waved for us to stop, but I just stepped on the gas and kept going. I wasn’t going to  stop for  some bandit. Our new friend, however, was appalled. “That was a policeman,” he said, “you should have stopped!”  But I didn’t and the Lord protected use.

The next  day we returned from our exit to Syria. The trip itself was long and arduous with heavy traffic, many big trucks,  and rough, winding roads making travel slow.  Near evening I failed to see a large pothole and when I hit it, the right front rim was bent and the tire began to go flat. But, praise God, it was not totally dark yet and we were able to drive far enough to find a place to get off the narrow, heavily traveled road and change the tire.

If the tire had  gone flat immediately, it could have been a disaster, both for us and the others on the road, as we would have blocked everyone. We didn’t have control over these things, but God did!

And we are thankful that He got us home before real winter weather set in the  next day with freezing temperatures and lots of snow.

There is so much out of our control, but our Heavenly Father is totally watching over us, every minute, every hour, every day. We can rest in His  goodness.

Picture: slow traffic on the way home