I just want to take a few minutes to share what God is doing in our lives on a daily basis.
My wife and I both have experienced God actively answering our prayers in the past few weeks. Its not that God has just started to answer our prayers, nor is it that we have just begun to pray. But we have noticed a difference in how we are praying and believing God, and we have seen Him do mighty things on our behalf.
The most recent example of this happened less than an hour ago. Here is the scene:
Our family of 3 are all at home in our second floor apartment in a large Muslim town in west-central China. It is 11 p.m. and my wife is online actively sharing the Gospel with her agnostic cousin on the other side of the world in Peru. My 4 month old son Gabriel is laying in his crib behind my wife, cooing and cawing and kicking his legs and arms all around. He is actually really happy and not upset in the least. I am in a very contemplative mood. After pulling out some maps and thinking through future ministry plans for a while, then grabbing a calculator to add up some future ministry costs, I get a little overwhelmed and decide its time for a homemade wheat roll and some fresh air.
I leave the room where my wife is still typing away on MSN Messenger and my baby is still giggling and cooing, and head towards the kitchen. I grab my roll and then make my way to a large window in the sunroom. It is nearing midnight so there is no sun, but the air feels nice. As I stand there, leaning against the window sill, my thoughts again wander to the future ministry plans and financial costs that I was worrying about just a few minutes before. I begin to feel overwhelmed once again and this time I begin to pray something like the following:
“God, if these are really your plans for us and ministry ideas that you have placed in our hearts as something that YOU would have us to do, then make a way and provide for everything we will need. Help me to be faithful with the little that you have given us, so that when there is more responsibility I will be a good steward of all you are doing.”
I prayed like that for a number of minutes, really feeling as if I was giving something away to God that He should have had in the first place. He should be the one ‘making’ our plans and providing for every need. It is not something that I need to spend my time worrying about.
As I closed the window and turned to go back to our bedroom where my wife was still at the computer, I ran smack into the sliding glass door that divides the sunroom from our living room. Luckily, nothing was broken. I found my bearings once again, and then proceded through the
open section in the sliding glass door and on into our bedroom.
My wife had just finished her conversation with her cousin and was eager to share with me all that had been said. After sharing the majority of her conversation with me, she said, ‘Lets pray!’ So she began to pray… and pray, and pray, and pray! I love my wife, but I think I have at least a mild form of some hyperactive disorder. I have a really hard time standing still during a long prayer. I feel like I at least need to jog in place or run laps or something. My wife prayed an amazing prayer, like only she can pray, and all I could do was say ‘Amen’ and agree with her. She prayed for everyone from her cousin Hardy, to her grandmother, to friends in America, the World Racers in Thailand (
www.theworldrace.org), for wisdom in leadership, for me, for our son, and many other things that I don’t even remember.
Once, the prayer ended for a minute, then a second wave hit and off she went again. Towards the end of the 2nd half I reached over and hit the button on the computer to pull up my e-mail. I saw there was one new e-mail and the Subject line was an automated message stating that we had received a donation through our ministry website (
www.goingworldwide.info). I also saw that the donation was from one of the World Race team members.
Before I say any more, I need to explain our current financial situation as a ministry. We are stretched very thin and as of this afternoon only had $195 available for regular ministry use. (We have some other funds set aside for designated projects.) This $195 is the money that we use to support our own family, 4 other Latino missionaries on the field here in Asia, 3 others working in Peru, and anything else that happens to come up. Our fund is low!
Well, as I opened the e-mail to see how much had been donated, I was really amazed (I shouldn’t be suprised at God’s timing!) to see that it was a donation of $1,000. What an awesome God we serve. My wife was still finishing the second half of her prayer as I was reading the e-mail. God’s answer to mine and my wife’s prayers was almost instantaneous. We prayed that He would provide if the plans were really His. I believe His answer was very clear. He has called us and He will complete His work in Asia and beyond
through us. It will not be our own physical strength or wisdom that brings revival to faraway unreached people, but His Spirit working through jars of clay.
Praise God for being in control and for having mercy on His servants! Praise Him for being the awesome God He is!
Audio Adrenaline has a song that goes something like this. Notice the excitement. That is how I feel:
“My God is the only God, He’s the only God that lives
He loves, He cares, and eternal life He gives
He broke the chains and took the pain and rattled all of hell
You might think I’m crazy, but only time will tell!”
