Amazing God
I have to tell the story because God is amazing!
We have been trying to get into this major assessment for church planting. It is the next step in planting a church so we NEED to do it. The original plan was to do it in August but miracles happened and God gave us a job for Alissa!
We needed to ask for days off and the we didn't have anybody to care for our girls while we were at the assessment/training. So by the time we had the days off approved the assessment was full and no further signups were allowed.
So we planned to go to the September one. It would give me time to complete my application and church planting profile. Plus, we now knew that we could get off from our jobs. However, we didn't have the child care figured out yet.
So we began to pray about child care. And also sitting on the couch going through the people we knew. Our first thought was my dad. He is retired and is family.
We called and it was a no go. There were too many things going on during that time frame for him to pull away. So we went back to the think tank.
I had some specific things that I were looking for for criteria. First, I wanted them to be safe for our kids. Family or good friends or well credentialed was going through my mind. Second, I wanted them to be invested in us. They needed to believe that what we were doing was important.
We thought of a church planter coordinator that had been instrumental in helping us see God's plan in church planting. His wife is such a sweet lady and so I called her. She said she would love to but that particular week she was watching her grandkids! It just seemed like it was hard.
Side note: I learned long ago that you do everything you can to pursue God's path. But don't pursue without God or get ahead of him. When life gets difficult it doesn't mean that the "door" (hate that analogy) is closed or open. It may mean that God is working but it isn't time yet. I believe that God's will is more fluid than some old door! /ramble
On Monday August 31, I got a text from a friend that learn so much from. He is a man of closeness with God. But, I didn't really have time to read it on Monday. So it lay dormant in my Messages app.
Tuesday came and here it was September 1st! No prospects to keep our girls. But I knew the time frame to register and get flights was getting shorter. I was starting to get antsy. I was talking to God on a daily basis about it and nothing was happening yet.
But God wanted to show us again that the easy way is not the miraculous way (most of the time).
On Wednesday, I woke up around 4 am. I couldn't sleep and like he normally does, I believed that God wanted to talk with me. So I went to my quiet prayer place and asked God to give us someone to watch our girls.
God responded by reminding me about my text message. The text said:
Good morning bro. I just wanted to let you know that God is impressing on me that we need to bring our prayers and petitions to him with FASTING. In case their is something you need to break loose. I encourage you to FAST and pray. I am doing this now and felt the need to share with you. Remember man of God, you are truly blessed!
I felt that God was calling me to fast over this. So I followed the leading to fast until dinner.
I got ready and headed off to work. I work around food and beverages all day long. Did you know when you are hungry that everything smells extra good??
But in my spirit, every time my stomach growled I would say to God, "You are all I truly need. I trust you, God." My stomach growled a lot.
I made it through the day and headed home.
I looked at my phone and had received a text from my wife 30 minutes earlier. It said:
I love it when God just hands us things on a silver platter!!
I called her and she told that a lady she works with, who I had meet the previous week, had come up and asked how the church plant was proceeding. (She has a friend that is going to a Wesleyan seminary and they had talked about the plant and this spurred her to ask my wife about it.) My wife told her about how we need to go to this major assessment/training for our next step and we have everything in place except . . . And the lady finished her sentence . . . childcare.
The lady simply stated, "Well, I will watch your kids."
My wife's jaw hit the floor. She is credentialed and safe. And she sees our kids everyday!
And now it is all arranged. We are going to the assessment/training! God is amazing!
I told my wife with what God had done that morning. See what he did there?? He grew both of our faiths. He gave glory and honor to himself. He provided a way (when there didn't seem to be one).
