He Provides: The Elder Family

Today's story comes from Wynne Elder. You know when you "meet" (IRL or online:-) someone and everything they say and write you think to yourself "Yes!"? That's how I feel about Wynne. You can follow her at her beautiful blog Gloriously Ruined.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." Psalm 136:1

He provides.

Some might have thought we were crazy to be raising money two summers ago not only for our international adoption but also for me & my husband to go on a mission trip to our future children's country: Ethiopia. But, God provides. It has been a faith and trust journey on this road with Him, but He has always proved faithful. 

I could tell you story after story of God providing the money or prayer we needed at just the right moment over the past 2 years. I think one of the biggest lessons I learned was not in receiving, but in giving. We will call this : the garage sale story. 

The story goes that one of our first big fundraisers for our adoption was a community garage sale. Now, I'm talking our whole community group from church + numerous other friends pitched in garage sale items, baked goods, their time and effort in working the sale/setting up, and even set up a lemonade stand. This was not your ordinary garage sale- a two day event that took weeks to prepare for. The goal: somewhere around $3500 for our next big fee to our agency.

About a week or so before the garage sale, God put a good friend of mine and her family on my heart. I knew they were struggling financially and He told me that whatever we made on the garage sale, we needed to give them 20%.

Now, I did not tell anyone this (not even my hubby) because I think a part of me thought if I didn't tell anyone, I wouldn't be held accountable for it. The garage sale came + went and we made well OVER the amount we needed at that moment. With giving away the 20% we had exactly what we needed for that next payment. mind you, there were lots more payments coming.

After a week or two I really felt the Holy Spirit nudge me. Basically what I felt he was saying was- Wynne, by you hoarding this money you are saying you don't trust me. you don't trust that next time YOU need the money, I will provide.

So as scary as it was, we were obedient to the Lord and gave what He asked. Because of that obedience, my friend was able to buy diapers for her babies that night. The day she got the check, their bank account was negative again.

WOW Lord! He used us! He wanted to show us that HE WAS and WILL BE FAITHFUL to provide what we need exactly WHEN we need it.

I was telling this story to a friend recently and was reminded of Gods faithfulness yet again- over the next 2 years, He was faithful to provide EVERYTHING we needed. The week we switched agencies was our week on Give1Save1 (which seemed random if we weren't switching to accept a waiting child) and we got the $ we needed to switch.

The Lord also used another family to be obedient to his leading and bless US tremendously. There were many times I found money + checks in my mailbox, people I didn't know donating dollars to our paypal and the list goes on.

Raising funds and awareness for adoption was not easy. But God was faithful every. single. time to provide for us. Not just in money, but in prayers.

The weeks leading up to us clearing embassy in Ethiopia were certainly uncertain. There were days we thought we wouldn't be able to bring our daughter, Asher, home. But God provided once again and some friends of ours felt led to start a prayer chain. They did a 24 hour prayer for over two weeks. TWENTY FOUR hours! That means there were people getting up in the middle of the night to pray for our family. And God heard their prayers!

I was reading in Psalm 145 the other day [one of my faves] and came across something new: vs 7 says "they shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness!" That's what I want - to POUR FORTH the fame of gods goodness. to speak of it. to write it down. to remember it on the days that aren't so cheery. the days that I feel alone. I want to always remember that with God it will always be provided.

Will you trust Him?