Well, friends, it’s been a while since I posted because school has been very hectic, and as you can probably imagine, things are getting a little crazy around here as we only have two months left until the BIG MOVE!! Eeeekkkk!! So excited!
I decided that I simply MUST sing God’s praises to everyone reading this because God has done so many amazing things in preparing us to go that, as usual, we are simply overwhelmed. I really do not know where to even begin! One thing God has been teaching me over the last year is to WAIT on His guidance, and He will direct my paths, my thoughts, my every step, if I simply ask and listen.
Of course, now that we are getting closer to departure time, God has been whispering to my spirit things we need to be thinking about. He prompts my spirit, and then I wait for Him to tell me when to speak or move. One thing that had begun to start weighing on my mind in the last couple of months was to find a location to store some of our belongings while we are gone. Although our home buyer has bought most of our furniture, he did suggest we let Jonathan pick out some things he wanted to keep. We will need to store these things while we are gone, but we do not need to pile on any unnecessary monthly expenses. We will be totally dependent on the Lord to provide and what we are learning is that He often provides through the body of Christ. I had already sensed in my spirit that He would provide the storage at some point; I was just waiting for Him to tell me when and who to ask. A few weeks ago, when we were at a soccer tournament out of town, a dear friend of ours came up to me after our game and asked how things were going with our move. Up until this day, God had been prompting my spirit to be thinking about storage, but He had not given me the freedom yet to talk to anyone about it. All of the sudden, after this friend asked, I found myself saying, “Well, we do need to find some climate controlled storage to store our things while we are gone, so if you know anyone who might be able to help us with that, please let me know!” His response was, “Well, you do know that is the business I am in don’t you?” Oh my goodness, I nearly fell out right there!! I assured him that I had no idea that was what he did for a living, then he said that when we are ready to store, just give him a call and we could probably share space with another missionary family he is storing things for. I walked away from the field praising Jesus for yet another AMAZING answer to prayer.
The next week, I received a phone call from another friend of ours in our soccer family, and she told me that her mother had just moved and used a moving company that had provided many very nice moving boxes and supplies. Her mother had decided to save it all in her garage in case she knew anyone who could use them. Of course my friend thought of us and called me. Tony soon went out to get all of the boxes, and they are right now piled high in our computer room just waiting for us to be through with work and start packing! God not only provided the storage place, but He provided the boxes for us to pack our things in! God is so good, and He knows everything we need WHEN we need it.
Another thing that has been weighing on my mind recently is what we will do for a computer while in Haiti. We will need it for communication, record keeping, Jacob’s schooling, and my writing, blogging, and working on our newsletters. We know we don’t want to drag our PC to Haiti because for one, it’s old, two, they would probably charge us a ridiculous tax for it in customs, and three, we really won’t have room for it. We would be better off with a laptop of some sort. So Tony and I have been praying about it and weighing our options. I have a really nice laptop that I use for school and yearbook work, but I will have to turn it back in to the school when school is out. I had also already decided that if I purchase a laptop, I want to go with a Mac. So I started pricing Macbooks. Of course, that didn’t last long because I just couldn’t justify the price with our budget soon to be cut so drastically. My next option was to check Craigslist. We had bought Jacob’s Macbook through Craigslist and have not had a day’s trouble with it. God led me to inquire about the first post I saw on the list. After going to check out the laptop, the gentleman asked if we had agreed on a price, and I said yes and retrieved the money from my purse. As I handed him the envelope, he said that God had led him to GIVE us this computer for our ministry. He had gone to my blog, checked out the But God Ministries site, and spoken with someone we know in common. God had already prompted his heart to contribute in some way to our ministry, and he had discussed it with his wife and they decided that providing this computer to our family for use in Haiti was how God wanted to use them to bless our ministry. As you can imagine, my knees nearly buckled beneath me, and tears began to stream down my face. Jacob was with me, and I think he was in shock as well. I looked at him, and he just smiled, but his face was as red as a beet! Ha! I must be honest, I really did not know what to say or do! Yes, friends, I was speechless. My first reaction was to say, “No, I can’t accept that.” But then as I explained that I have a really hard time accepting such generosity, my new brother in Christ said with a knowing smile, “Well, you better get used to it.” God was gently telling my heart that this was a gift of provision from HIM and he was using this gentleman and brother to bless us. I knew that God was blessing both of us as I accepted this amazing gift. Afterwards, Jacob and I had the pleasure of meeting his precious wife as well, and we both left there filled with such PRAISE and AMAZEMENT over how God moves in so many ways and is constantly putting people in our paths to connect us in this ministry.
I am telling you, this journey is the most amazing experience, and when people ask, “Aren’t you scared?” My answer is, “Absolutely not! The God of all creation is at the wheel here, and just knowing He is in control and He is the one taking us on this journey is not frightening at all! It’s actually an HONOR, a JOY RIDE, and a HUGE blessing! We could not be more at ease!”
The key to continuing on in God’s will for our lives is CONSTANT prayer, praising Jesus for EVERYTHING that happens, and KNOWING that He is in control. I praise God every day for the beautiful people He is using to build this ministry, and I am so excited about where we are going. If you are reading this, you are part of our ministry too in that God will prompt you to pray in the days to come. When that happens, take a moment to simply ask God to continue to move in this ministry and provide everything needed to begin a MIRACULOUS movement in the lives of the precious Haitian people we will come in contact with. May His love, power, and grace be experienced by every single individual whose life is touched by this ministry. Amen!!
haitiwest 