How do YOU spell RELIEF?

Picture this with me: You're walking in a dry, arid, HOT desert with HOT wind blowing in your face and sand smacking you in the cheeks. Any part of you exposed to the sun is getting scorched, you can no longer sweat because you have no water in you. You walk around what seems to be aimlessly only to find more sand, shriveled up trees and bushes. There is nothing around to offer shade or protection, and you're just trying to survive. You're just trying to make it through the day, hoping to survive because maybe tomorrow will be better. And then it happens. First, you feel a drop, but you don't pay much attention because you're pretty sure you're hallucinating. But, you feel another and another and pretty soon you realize you're NOT imagining things--it's RAINING! You've been saved! You drink in the water; your skin is cooled off; you feel as though you can continue on. You know you can make it to tomorrow. The rain is so sweet, cool, refreshing. It's what you've needed for a long time and just when you couldn't go on any longer God opens up the skies and nourishes you.

This, my friends, is what the past 20 months have been like for me and David too. We have felt like we have been wandering around in a desert. When we moved to a larger city in May we were able to join a church, and it began to rain. We got a call from a church we hadn't really considered and it rained some more. With every interview, meeting and phone call David had with them it poured. And now, after all of this we are 1 step away from being placed into a church who seems to be healthy and excited to have David as their pastor. My friends, the rain has come. It has cooled us off, it has quenched our thirst, and it has given us hope for tomorrow. We are praising the Lord for his healing rain.