Sometimes you feel like life stinks. Like you know so much - yet you can't seem to make progress. And then a change comes.
Things have been well . . . rocky lately. Its a hard transition when you feel like you are in a comfortable spot. Comfortable in many areas: finances, marriage, being a mom, ministry, everything. and then suddenly nothing is comfortable. You feel like you are failing in all areas.
Well, I feel things are looking up. Things are changing. We are climbing out of our slump. God continues to be our provider. I had this moment. This moment of feeling stuck. Just stuck. At the moment of conversation it was a feeling of being at a "ministry wall". But my words were true about a lot of areas of our life: financial wall, marriage wall. You see I feel like God has created me to be used to my fullest potential - and I think he gave me a lot of potential. I want to be a part of everything. I want to learn as much as I can. So I was extremely excited at an invitation to be a part of a "leadership team" with the Northwest Ministry Network. It was a team by invitation only 10 youth and 10 childrens pastors invited on a year journey to learn and grow in ministry. Anyhow, there's a fee for it all and a trip to california. Registration was coming due. I wanted a slot. It didn't seem that my church was in a position to support me financially. It surely didn't seem like I was able to support this financially. I felt like I was against a wall. I wanted to move forward, but I couldn't. I wouldn't be wise to put money I didn't really have towards this adventure - not when its hard enough to pay our bills. But I wanted it to happen. I had already accepted an invitation to be a part of the Nitro team (planning kids conference). So I made the trip to Tacoma for the meeting. I just about cried. You see as we were leaving I was told that I would be receiving a form for reimbursement. I thought it would be for gas - since they paid for our meal. When I got the form, it was a mileage form. 50.5 cents per mile. That's over $200! At that moment, I felt kind of awkward - them paying me that much to be on the team, they could save a lot of money by not having me on the team. But then I counted how many Nitro trips I have and how many Leadership Journey trips there would be before the may trip. The reimbursements they were offering me would just about equal the cost to be a part of the Leadership Journey. I had so much joy at that moment. I talked to them and they were able to apply the reimbursement directly to my registration. God is amazing.
It gets better. A friend gave us a gas card as "late pastor appreciation". We used that gas card to go to seattle and get Jorge his passport. Another surprise provision.
Oh gets better. I felt like ministry life was coming back into focus for me - God will continue to equip me despite my circumstances. I've been working on track for my Sunday lessons, and even started working with 2 students to have key roles Sunday mornings - been fun. I started being more disciplined with my Berean courses. But I still felt like my marriage needed a boost. Jorge started meeting with someone for accountability. He also checked out a video series. He feels like he is learning a lot. But tonight I got a phone call. A couple from our church wants to bless us by sending us to the Weekend to Remember Conference - by Family Life Today! It is next month. Did you hear that? They want to bless us!
All over God is putting things into place for all areas of our life. I pray that we will be wise with what God has provided, that we will learn and grow from each of these upcoming events.
So right now, this week . . . life doesn't seem so stinky!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
hey that's so awesome!!
it's great to hear stories of God providing for us EXACTLY what we need at just the right time that we need it.
and may He richly bless you with many more blessings!
I have a story Like that for you too. it happened today (sunday 27th) Our church is doing a prayer month and last sunday our pastor preached on how God answers prayers. Anyways he challenged us at the end to pick something to pray about, and to pray for it everyday for a month and to see how God works. Well I chose to pray for Mark. Well more specifically so Mark will be "on fire for God" again. He was when I first met him, which was when he was a new Christian. But I had noticed that he had fallen into kinda a rut. It also didn't help that his boss kept scheduling him to work sunday mornings. Anyways today we had a guest speaker...Wayne Northrup (i think that's how you spell it.) and at the end he did his alter call. But he added to include those who already know church and know God but have lost the intimacy and he compared it with newlyweds vs a couple that's been married for 5 or more years. So anyways Mark went up it was very exciting. It was only a week of praying everyday but I guess that's all I needed. :) well that's my happy story.
that's so cool elia. keep up the prayer.
Maggie,
That is so amazing. Many people, not church people of course, would attribute all that you/ we see as God's provision, as mere coincidence. We do serve an amazing God and it is inspiring to hear people give credit where it is due.
It is in our moments of weakness that God brings us closer to him.
I believe that you and Jorje will be very diligent with the blessings you have received.
I will second Pastor Abe- may He richly bless you with many more blessings!
PS. See you tomorrow night, I look forward to hearing your stories in person then.
Sorry for spelling Jorge's name wrong on my last post. For some reason I always make that G a J in there. Sorry
Post a Comment