Yesterday, our team lead a fun but exhausting “Water Wednesday” at English camp! This week and next, we are sharing the love of God and the fruits of the spirit with 140 elementary students and yesterday’s fruit was joy! What better way to let the kids experience joy than their first slip and slide?! We all had a great time, but man were we tired after!
Matthew and I got to rest in one of our favorite ways by hammocking. We enjoyed time with each other and the Lord while the breeze kept us cool under the trees. Our hammock has provided a wonderful place for us to relax and talk privately, which can be difficult to come by on the race. While sharing how we were feeling, we realized that we were missing working with a paycheck and we had both begun to worry about finances, which we knew was really very dumb of us. Throughout the race, God has constantly amazed us by his faithfulness in providing for us in many different situations, especially financially. Any time we came close to a fundraising deadline or our personal funds would start to get tight, God would always stir people to give generously just when we needed it! This is one of the many things that have greatly increased our trust and faith in God to meet our needs throughout the race and we kept reminding ourselves to not forget it.
When we were reading through Exodus at the beginning of the race, we got so frustrated with the Isrealites constantly forgetting God’s faithfulness even right after he had performed miracles to take care of them! God finally gets so tired of their lack of faith that Exodus 32:9 – 10 says,
“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.'”
Moses reminds God of his promise to Abraham and God relents of his wrath, but he does discipline them later through a plague. As I read this, I kept asking myself,
“How can they keep forgetting what God has done and not trust him to take care of them?”
Last night God gave me that answer as Matt and I went to take down our hammock. It was dark and I hadn’t brought a flashlight with me, which is rare because I’m afraid of the dark and feel much safer when I have a light on hand. As I was standing under the only lamppost around, Matt said that he was going to go throw away some trash and I responded, “Okay, I’ll wait here where nothing bad can happen to me.”
…”That was a dumb thing to say.” I thought.
“Just because I feel like I can see what’s happening a little better doesn’t mean I’m any safer.”
The Lord very clearly reminded me, “This is why people forget me. When they think they can see what is going on, they feel secure, so they can trust me easily. But when things get tough and they can’t see my plan or my timing, they begin to worry and doubt and become a stiff-necked people who forget all that I have already brought them through.”
… Talk about a random heart check! A few minutes later as I started winding down for the night, I randomly chose a Christian band to listen to. The lyrics to the chorus of the very first song that came on?…
“When I am afraid I will trust in you/ When I’m overcome I will cling onto the rock that is higher.”
As I listened to this, I turned to the concordance in my Bible to find a verse on trust. I chose a reference listed at random and I laughed out loud and got goose bumps as I read Psalm 56:3, “When I am afraid I will trust in you.”
“Okay God! I get it! I’ll trust you when I’m afraid!” I laughingly yelled to him. Much like the Isrealites, I knew in my head that God would provide for us as he constantly has, but my heart needed this encouragement.
Sometimes my stiff neck just needs a reminding that my faith shouldn’t rest on my superficial feelings of safety created by my thinking that I have it under control because I can see the next step in front of me.
Maybe you are standing in the dark of a situation too and needed that same reminding. We normally like to stick to blogging about what is happening in ministry, but when we started the race, we promised our supporters our honesty about both the great times and the challenging times. So I hope the Lord can encourage you through this story and if you are one of our supporters who can be a part of our story by giving financially, please visit Gofundme.com/theturvins to fund the rent for our storage unit and other items we have to pay for out of our limited personal budget. If you like to cook, we are giving a copy of our e-cookbook “New Travels New Tastes” to anyone who donates $10 or more. It includes 2 recipes from each country that we have done mission work in while on the race!
We want to leave you by saying a HUGE “THANK YOU!!!!!” to all of our supporters who have prayed for and given finances to support us! Thank you for playing a role in teaching us that God will always provide when we put our faith in him!
