Yahweh Jireh

Back at the end of July there was a sermon by Josh Mann that rocked my world, and many others who heard it as well. I took a lot of notes and got a lot out of it..there were about 3-4 things that hit me the most, but the one I'm going to write about is when he said we can put our hope in the fundraisers, in the support letters but overall, our trust needs to be on God. I felt like that was directly for me because I had been discouraged with the way fundraising had been going with my trip. I had been super busy, and working as much as I could, we did a garage sale and I had just sent my support letters out. I knew I wanted to trust God, but for some reason I was thinking that what I was doing is how God was going to bring in the money for me.

What Josh said changed where I put my trust a bit. Yes, I was still going to work as much as I could and if people felt lead to support me, I believe it was a tug on their hearts from the Lord...But I had to believe that it was going to be GOD that provided me with the finances to this Calling. Gods will is Gods bill...right? So, I kept trusting!

August went by and combining finished up. Now I would just be working at Jamba unless I could find more work, but it was near impossible for someone to want to hire me for just a month. In this economy, businesses want to hire the best of the best, and someone they know that will be able to stick around for a while so that they don't have to pay so much to re-train someone. So I worked at Jamba Juice as much as they needed me, and picked up others shifts as I could. Then I got a call from Hot off the Press in Canby, OR. My friend Kayla works there and it is a scrapbooking ware house. They just realized their new catalog so business was very busy for them. Kayla knew I was looking for temporary work so she gave them my number! I was able to work there and at Jamba, putting in about 12 hour days for a little over 2 weeks! God provided for me there.

Then, I was thinking one day, what if the money doesnt come in? Should I look into a cheaper YWAM closer to home? Keep working and do YWAM or Capernwray in the winter? I didn't want to think about it to much because everyone I had talked to believed that ABS was what I was supposed to do, but satan tried to attack me many many times and what was about to happen next is something Satan doesnt life at all! I felt God had told me to remember how I got accepted and that it was because of him I got into the fall school..this is what He wanted me to do so it'll happen, in the fall, like he said.

About an hour after I was thinking of a different option, my sister called and said that Mom and got an e-mail from the school saying there was an anonymous donor that will pay the remaining of what I dont earn for the program! I was so happy! God totally came through and provided. It wasn't my letter, it wasn't my garage sale or pop can drive, it was completely the Lord who put it on someones heart to help me out!

It's difficult for me because I don't know who it is, but I know thats the whole point right? I want to give them A huge hug and thank them over and over and over again and let them know how grateful I am that they are paying such a hefty price to help me out! I wish words described how thankful I am, for their donation, but also for everyone else's donations!

Then a couple days later I was booking my flight-this is also a long story, but to sum it up....The first fllight i booked was wrong, the next flight i was about to book was $2,400!! but it was the cheapest I could find. then somehow my friend Kalia got online right at the right time and had found one for $1,400 and we booked it through her ASAP and I saved all that money!! Wow, God is good.

Then another couple people knew I didnt have much spending money, and they donated a hefty amount so that I could have a good time. I put some of that towards school, have all my gear and I'm Soo happy the ways God has provided for me. The verse that keeps popping up everywhere I go this weekend is Matthew 6:25-34 Do Not Worry

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^{a]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]}?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Yahweh Jireh. Thank you for being my provider. I will never forget this time in my life where you have provided for what you called me todo! Thank you very much, and please bless those who have helped me out so much.

http://salemalliance.org/574262.ihtml (josh's Sermon)
-sacred places and then Breakthrough by Josh Mann.

Heaven on Earth.

This Summer while we were combining, Thomas, Kristen and I would read a book and then rotate it around for everyone else to read. My favorites that I got read were Sex God by Rob Bell and Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. I'll save what I learned from Shauna another day because her book was incredible.

In Sex God, one of the main things I took from it was a comment that Rob said about bringing Heaven to Earth. So often we say "Today was hell," or "that was HELL!" We say this when we had a bad day, or when things go wrong..or to take it more literally, when we feel that the presence of God is absent.

Rob asks what about bringing Heaven to Earth...? And it hit me, there are so many amazing days where the holy spirit has been so thick during worship, or driving in my car. Or I saw something through a different set of eyes that made me finally realize what God had been trying to tell me all along and I am over joyed! How come we never say, "Wow, today heaven was on earth!"

There was a day when Kristen said it, and I couldn't agree with her more! Tom, Kristen and I were driving home from combining and there was a guy sitting on the side of the road where we take our exit into Salem. Thomas asked if we could see what he needed and give him a hand. We prayed for protection and for the words from God to be said to the guy before we stopped to help him out.

To sum up the whole story, we were able to help the young boy out the best way we could by feeding him dinner, bringing him breakfast and a sack lunch the next morning and offering him a helping hand in Salem where he could pick up his feet. He decided he wanted to keep his travels headed down South so we helped him out with a bus ticket to Eugene. We prayed and prayed for him. In the few hours we got to know him, we fell in love. It was a kind of love I had never experienced before, but saying good bye was really hard. By the end of our time with him he was smiling and laughing.

We filled out an envelope for him to write to us when he got to wherever he was headed and I prayed that somehow we impacted his life.

About 3-4 weeks after we helped him out, I got a letter in the mail that looked my hand writing on the envelope and I was so confused why my handwriting had addressed the envelope. And then I remembered!! It was JOhn, he had written to us! He was in southern California and he remembered to write to us! It was so great to hear from him. He drew a picture and sent a little snapshot of himself. I called kristen and Thomas and we were so stoked to hear back from him.

After we got to know John a bit, Kristen said "Today, heaven was on earth." And it was, somehow, God used that time. He changed me with it, and it was risky and Thomas really stepped out in faith by asking us if we minded seeing what he needed. Ill never forget John or that day. I think about him lots and I pray that I'll meet him again in heaven.

Thank you lord for bring Heaven on Earth.