In a blink of an eye, God can change everything… and that is exactly what He did with our dreams for the World Race! We loved being a part of O squad and were looking forward to being a part of the ministry in all of the countries we would be serving. We anxiously waited to see funds in our account go up. It didn't seem to be happening too quickly, but we knew our Creator could change that over night. We "prepared for rain" by buying our 70L backpacks and daybags. We even found the funds to buy one sleeping pad. . . training camp was soon approaching (7 days) and we held on to hope that God was able to take care of everything. . . In fact, we just knew He would. We waited to see what His answer would be and we reminded ourselves that His answers are always "yes" and "amen." We knew we had this in the bag. Finally, with only 2 days before and 1 day after we should have left for such, His answer came… "NO." HE SAID WHAT?! Yep, it turned our world and dreams upside down!
Here is the story…
Monday (5 days before TC)
I had been feeling like maybe January wasn't where we were called to. I felt that I had "laid out my fleece" with the Oct. 1 deadline. I whole-heartedly believed God's answer would come then. We would either have the money, or not. Oct. 1 came and went and we were still $5,600 short of our $7,000 deadline. I'm not going to lie, I was bummed but had accepted that God has something better planned. Still, it was hard… I struggled with the idea of being left behind by our squad and missing out on the opportunity to see some amazing countries. Cody, however, was holding onto January. To his delight, our mobilizer had called to let us know they were going to extend our deadline until Oct. 14 (the first day of training camp). He still believed God would come through before then. So, we made plans to leave Wednesday night after church (we are youth leaders and didn't want to miss an extra class). That would give us time to drive from Idaho to Georgia to be there on Saturday when camp started. We prayed about it and asked God to provide the funds by Wednesday, so we would know that we could go. Cody talked to our mobilizer about this and she asked him if we didn't have the funds by then if we would take that as God's sign and not come. He was hesistant to say "yes" because God could still come through. They concluded that if the money came in either Thursday or Friday, we could call and they could still get us in, even though we would be 1 or 2 days late. So, another deadline extention. I didn't know if I could stand anymore waiting… I just wanted to know what God wanted us to do.
Tuesday (4 days before TC)
I still felt like God had already answered and was preparing for July. I believed that even though man (AIM) kept extending our deadline, God hadn't. I felt He had given us an answer on Oct. 1. However, I was afraid to let Cody down and tell him I believed we had already gotten our answer. I knew my husband wanted to leave as soon as possible. I was stuggling with the idea of Cody being disappointed. One day, I simply asked God, "Lord, why would You allow us to sign up for January just to tell us to go in July?" As soon as those words left my mouth a fellow squadmate from Arizona came to mind. I immediately realized that if we hadn't signed up for the January squad, we would have never met Dana. We have been able to minister to her about something she is dealing with in her life. It is agreed between the 3 of us that God has creatively brought us all together for this specific purpose. So, I now had the answer and was looking forward to our skype date with Dana on Thursday night.
Wednesday (3 days before TC)
On Wednesday night, just 3 days before camp, we started a new curriculum with the youth. (We have an all-girls class this year and have been excited about ministering to them about "girl-stuff"). We didn't know how they would react to the new Bible-study Lies Young Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free. To our amazement, they all completely opened themselves to it and even seemed excited about it! They all came together and we had an amazing discussion. Later on, Cody's reaction was simply "Wow!" We looked at our account that was still $5,600 short and discussed the idea that God wouldn't start this amazing thing in the youth group just to "pull" us out in the middle of it.
Thursday (2 days before TC)
The next day, I was walking on clouds. I felt that I had heard from God. It all made sense… God had allowed us to sign up in January to meet certain people and to simply "get the ball rolling" and now He was initiating this amazing revival in our youth group. I talked to our mobilizer and discussed everthing that had happened. I told Erin that I wouldn't make the decision to be moved to July without first discussing it with Cody and setting it in stone. That night, Thursday, we had planned on skyping with Dana. . . something both Cody and I had been looking forward to. When Cody got home he acted like he didn't want to talk to Dana and then later on he got upset with me for telling Erin about everything. He said "I never said I wanted to give up on January!" I could feel Satan tearing down all the peace I had been feeling. An argument followed. After a while, Cody realized what was going on and prayed that God would help us take control of the situation again, rather then letting Satan have his fun. We had a long discussion and laid everything out. After awhile, I simply said, "We need to prepare for July." I waited to see what my husband's reaction would be. He replied, "I know you're right. It is just hard to let go of January." Immediately, an amazing sense of peace overcame both of us!! GOD HAD ANSWERED!! Cody even said "If the $7,000 is sitting in our account tomorrow, we still aren't going to training camp… We know what God wants now." Yes, we did!! We began looking at the July routes to pick one. I assumed we would pick the 3rd route, as it is the only one going to Spanish-speaking countries. However, I really liked route 1. After looking at all 4 routes extensively and mapping them out, Cody said, "I don't know that God would want me to go to a Spanish-speaking country. . . because I will feel more at home being able to communicate with others. I think He would want me to go somewhere where I have to trust in Him more. . . what do you think of route 1?" I actually started crying! I knew we were suppose to go on that route. Whenever I looked at the route I would see a "light" around it and when I looked at route 3, there was a "grayness". I tried to explain this to Cody and he said he couldn't see it, but he could feel it. GOD HAD SPOKEN AGAIN!! He had said "no" to January but He has something bigger and better for us in July!! We will now be serving in:
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
South Africa
Mozambique
Swaziland
Nepal
India
Turkey
Bulgaria
Romania
I don't know how to explain it but there was something about making the decision and trusting God before our time was up. (All we had to do was wait until the end of the next day to see if "God would come through.") He really seemed to bless us with the prescence of His Spirit and peace that is Him! It was almost as if He was proud of us for trusting in Him, without having to see the sign. Blessed are those who believe without seeing. John 20:29 The funny thing is that we LOVED our January route. Now, when we look back at it, we are like "Wow, that route is so lame!" (No offence O squad!)
The moral of the story is God never closes a door unless He has something bigger and better coming down the road!! We serve an amazing, loving Father!!!
