sacred journeys

Michelle and I do not want to be the type of Christ-followers who see God in ‘living color’ when something good happens, and then not even acknowledge God’s presence, or disregard God’s hand in our lives, when challenging things happen. However, that being said — we also do long to be a couple and a family that is very grateful and stands in awe of God’s blessings and how God takes care of his children.

This summer in our final preparations before our move to California, there have been challenging situations that have come up. Things that have almost pulled the rug out completely from under our feet. In the midst of that, again and again God has been providing for us and taking care of us.

We will say it again, we don’t want to make the Christian walk, to be so simplistic that if we do this (pray, give money, serve, etc.) then God will bless, like a genie in a bottle. However, we do want to see and be thankful for how God does respond and answer our prayers and how his hands have supported us so much of late.

Rick Warren says this about how God builds a person while they are attempting to build a ministry: “…problems (will) start popping up. The two most common types: (people) and circumstances. Don’t worry. It’s all a part of God’s plan. “At the present you may be temporarily harassed by all kinds of trials. This is no accident – it happens to prove your faith, which is infinitely more valuable than gold.â€? (1 Peter 1:6-7 Ph)”

Then, “…God provides a supernatural answer. Miraculously, things fall into place! God loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections so you can see his greatness. “I expect the Lord to deliver me once again so I will see his goodness to me ….â€? (Ps. 27:13)

Here are a few things that God has miraculously (at least for us) been bringing into place…

CAR SITUATION
If you have been following our story - you know that our van completely broke down a few months back. With where we were at with support-raising (meaning financially) there was just simply no way we could go out and buy a nice, fairly new car. So we bought a 1991 Toyota Camry with 100,000+ miles on it, to replace the van and there were things that were starting to go bad with that vehicle also.

Well, I met someone (Craig) just a few months ago through my support-raising travels. He and his wife Holly heard about our dilemna and they prayed about it, and both felt very strongly that they would like to help out. So, they graciously (amazingly, unbelievably so!) wanted to give us their vehicle. It is a Dodge Caravan, and it is only a couple of years old. To be honest, it is the nicest vehicle that we have ever driven! We even had another couple (Scott & Michelle) generously offer to give us their car also! It floors us, how generous people have been, without ever asking for their help.

MOVING SITUATION

Another new friend (Adam) asked us a while back how we were getting our stuff out to Los Angeles. We told him that we were simply going to be renting a big moving truck and driving it out ourselves. He came back to us and asked if he could drive the truck out for us and wanted fly back to Minnesota on his own dime — amazing!

It would have been a ton more work to drive this big truck out ourselves, and so Adam blessed us more than he knows.

SCHOOL SITUATION

We have mentioned this before, but will mention it again about the kids school. With how late in the school year we applied to get into a magnet school in Hollywood, it was nothing short of a miracle that the kids got accepted to get into the school. Thank you again for your prayers for us regarding that! It starts this week already.

SUPPORT-RAISING SITUATION

Lastly, the weekend before we left to come out to California — I was really worried about many things, one of which was our finances (a topic that comes up again and again in my mind.) I think if I was perfectly honest, I was wrestling with… ‘will God take care of me? Will people forget about us, once we move out to California? Will he be attuned with everything that my family and I need, and will he provide?’

It was a Sunday afternoon (the day the mail does not come obviously), and there was a knock on the door. A woman was at the door, whom I had never met before. She said she lived 2 blocks over (at 3400 Grand Ave & we lived at 3400 Garfield Ave) and she had found a letter under her porch which she was cleaning out that day. It was ripped and dirty and barely holding together. This is how it had looked…

In it was a large check for our missions-organization (completely intact), that someone had given for us. Now miraculous or not, it was for us a situation that put wind in our sails. It showed us that God can literally rain manna from heaven if he wants to and he will take care of us.

Matthew 6:31-33 “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing…Your heavenly father already knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.”