Where would have be without you?

Bless the name of Jesus for all his goodness, for his mercies , and for his great love. I thank him for the life he has given me , and for the hope I have in him. Therefore, I will praise and worship him with all I have.

It is another day ended the lord Jesus has give me. Therefore, I will come to him with thanksgiving and praise in my heart. I was thinking and contemplating about his goodness and his great mercy, his love and all the promises that is in his word. The first though came to my mind in the process was how great his mercy is. I know , and I know with all my hart it is only his mercy has kept me until this day.

When I though further many thought came to my mind that reminds me of his great mercy, some are from the songs I hear , and some from the word of God. Where would have be without you Lord? I continue saying yes Jesus , where would i be? Where would have be without your mercy of the Lord, where would have be without your grace, where would i be without your love , where would i be without your protection and care.

The more I thought about this, I begin to thank Jesus knowing he is the one who kept me. I began to thank Jesus knowing he is the one who kept me from falling and from many things that could come to destroy my life. I am grateful for his protection for I was reminded I am alive only because of the mercy for he spared my life many times. God reminded me of a time God literally rescued me from death.

This is what happened sometime around 2003. This is a story how the Lord Jesus kept me. The story came to my mind while I was preparing myself to go to work. The more i thought about it, I was compelled to praised Jesus. This is what happened at the time, I was living in a refugee camp in Kenya. I was living in a refugee camp with many of University students who left Ethiopia because of some unrest in the country . The unrest came as a result of students uprising demand for basic academic freedom in higher institution and demand the government to remove police from the University campus. It started as peaceful demonstration within the University compound, but it spread to other higher institutions, because the government responded arresting and beating student. As a result most university students including myself fled to Kenya . This happened in 2001 . This time it is not my intention to bring this story, I am doing it to give you a background of my situation, and how God rescued me literally from death. The thing is at this particular time I was not even a believer, I mean i did't receive the gospel of Jesus Christ or decided to fallow Jesus. I was just living a normal life like any young people.

What happened was one day? We heard a news from UNHCR office that some officer would come to visit us ( the University student community) in the camp we were in at the time. During this time we were living in shelter that we were given by UNHCR. It is a temporary shelter , but most people ended up living there for long. The shelter we were living in the camp was kind of half open shelter. The bottom half of the shelter was build by cement brickes and the top half is open . The good thing is there was no rain at all though the year. The daily temperature was an average of 40 and above.

So, on this particular day we decided to cover the top half part of the shelter with blankets we had. We did that hoping to make the shelter more private for there were many refugee community live in the camp . So, we spend time to clean and organise the place before the officials come. The UN officers finally came and we spend time discussing various issue mostly concerning our future . It was a very exciting time for most students because there must be something when the UN officials decided to come and visit us. As a result, there was a lots of activities , food, games , traditional dances.

What happened was sometime in the middle I went to take a rest for I was a bit tired. Therefor, I took one corner closer to the wall and lay down there. I am not sure for how long I have slept. The only thing I knew was what made me wake up, It is a shout and sound of people. Once I woke up, all I could see is people surrounded me. Some are holding their head with a look of astonishment. Soon after I realised something might have happened. Off course I took time to understand what Just happened . What happened was the big stone that was placed on the wall to fell down and just missed me from crushing my head.

What happened when we cover the top half of the shelter with blanket we used put big stones to hold the blanket at the bottom. At the top the blanket was tied with the rope by the roof side and at the bottom they put stones to keep it from moving. We never thought the day would be windy, but suddenly the wind come and kept moving the blanket . So , when the blanket were moved by the wind , through time it pushed the stone to fall down. When i tried to understand what happened, how I survived i was so.....wow, thank God.

What happened was the rock fell down closer to the wall , not in my head was because the blanket that was placed in the side I was sleeping was long. So, What happened was since part of the blanket was long, it brought the stone down closer to the wall before it reach the floor.

As I said , I thought about well after and I still think about it and I know it is the mercy and protection of the Lord. I thank God with all I have at the time, but now I know well it is God who kept me from it. Therefore, I thank him and give him all the glory and the honour he deserve . While I am thinking and thanking him I am also persuaded that he has a plan for me. I know he has a plan for my life , and I know it is a plan of hope and prosperity , not a plan of evil . Therefore, I will keep trust him , i will keep trusting him and worship him, I will wait for him for he is a God who comes in his appointed time. I worship him for his mercy is great unto me.