It never ceases to amaze me how loving and gracious God is towards me! And His timing is impeccable! :-) Just now after that first sentence I was looking for a verse but don't have my Bible in front of me so I went to Desiring God's Website. I wanted to find a verse that illustrates God's love for us (one of the many). The FIRST verse I saw on the opening screen was Lamentations 3:22-23, which says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." AMAZING!!! That is the perfect verse for Kelley and I. :-)
I share this with you because I tend to be a "doubting Thomas" far more often than having the "faith of Abraham". Yet, the Lord provides EVERY TIME!!! Granted it may not be in the way I envision Him answering my prayer or in "my time frame", but God is so FAITHFUL. You'd think I would be a little more trusting after all He has done in our lives these past two months. Sadly...I still doubt and I still worry.
Despite my doubts, fears, and worries the Lord has, is, and will always be faithful. Here's how God showed Himself faithful to us this week!
On Wednesday, Kelley and I were sitting at the kitchen table with my laptop scouring the internet for a place for us to live when we come back from NST (New Staff Training) on July 21st. Our lease ends on July 15th. We love the house we are renting, but we need to find something more affordable that is geared more towards our current job situation. We were looking online and not finding too much. The best we could find that looked like a halfway decent place to live and wasn't too expensive was a 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment. That would have been a little cramped, but would have been just fine. Literally as we were talking and stressing about where we were going to live, my dad called and said he talked to someone at their church that was looking for someone to rent their house out for a few months! This family lives in a 4 bedroom/2 1/2 bath house in Adams Farm (which ironically is where we had written the contract on the house we ended up not getting) with a 2 car garage. They are leaving in August and won't be back until December 30th. Perfect! Except I said, "Dad, that's great but there is no way we could afford the rent on that house." I called up the family anyways.....and to make a long story short...we are going to be paying less in rent than if we had rented the 1 br/1 ba apartment! And on top of that, they are going to let us store all of our belongings in their garage, so we won't have to pay for a storage unit. AMAZING!!!
That was an answer to our first prayer! The Lord answered prayer #2 earlier this week as well. Many of you know Kelley works at Westover and when we heard the news that we were accepted to join staff with Campus Crusade, we knew we would be leaving soon for Training. But, once we get back, we will both need to work while we raise support. We needed to let Westover know about our new adventures. Our prayer was that Kelley would still have a job at Westover when we returned, because we knew this was a hard place to put them in. The pastors thought and prayed about it and let Kelley know she had a job when we returned!! To all the pastors, staff and friends at Westover...words cannot express what a blessing you have been to Kelley and I. We love you guys!
Answer to prayer #3 happened today. There are, as you would expect, many "logistical issues" we are working through to be able to make it to Training this summer. One of the biggest, was finding a home for our precious dog Cooper, who is shown in the picture above. We will be in a dorm this summer at Training and won't be able take Cooper with us. Cooper will be a year old on July 4th! He is a GREAT dog and we love him to death. We had been praying that the Lord would provide a good home for him this summer, with people we knew and who loved Cooper. GUESS WHAT....some dear friends of ours that are in our church small group have offered to take care of Cooper while we are gone! That is a BIG commitment to make for 5 weeks during the summer. Needless to say...we are so thankful! Wow, the Lord is soooo good! Sooooo good!
"Father, thank you for your continued faithfulness to us despite our lack of faith, our worries and selfishness. Thank you for seeing us as righteous and precious in your eyes by your grace through faith! We are forever grateful for your steadfast love and endless mercies you pour out on us. How TRUE are the words, "GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS"!!! May we never forget...in the good times AND in the bad.
