Sunday 25 March 2012

God Provides...

We went out to a friends place this afternoon to get together with friends from the church. While there we had the priveldge of chatting with the pastor's wife of our church. We started to share stories of God's fathfulness in our lives and in the lives of people we know that had worked in the ministry for years. It was amazing to hear how God had worked through different people and in different people. Right now we have a living inspiration in a friend of ours...well they are firends of Malu, but by marriage, I can say "ours". They've spent their lives bringing the gospel to Mexico. The Lord has blessed them and because of that there are between 200-300 churches in Mexico. Their names are the Kincaids and it's one of those couples you become honored to have talked with. They are one of those couples that you can sense the Spirit of the Lord close with them. They've shared their lives and God's faithfulness with us. They've told us of times when they had no where else to turn and they were at the point of desperation and then God arrived to encourage them and care for them.
In our short time as a couple we've also seen God's merciful hand. Malu and I lived in Chiapas for six months looking to prepare for a college team to come and minister with us. While there, there were times that we struggled because our support was low. During one of those times we had walked almost an hour to get to church because we hadn't the extra funds to take the bus. During the service we prayed and asked the Lord for enough money so that we might buy a rolling pin...a really low agenda request for the master of the universe. On leaving the church we stumbled upon a cell phone by the side of the road. Malu picked up and looked through the list of contacts and called a couple of them. It wasn't long before the actual owner of the phone called us back. We told him that we had his phone and we wanted to return it to him, he asked how much we were going to charge him, we told him nothing. We setup plans with him to meet in the middle of town and then got on our way. Half way there he called again, to make sure that we were coming and again he asked how much we were going to charge him to return his phone. Again, we assured him there would be no charge. He was concerned because the phone was new and quit expensive. Well, we met him and passed him his phone. He asked again how much and we told him no charge and then he said," take 20 bucks, I'm so happy to have my phone it's the least I can do." we accepted and went on our way. The Lord had provided the funds to buy the rolling pin we needed to make tortillas. Out of all the requests that made it to heaven that day, why do think God provided for this one? We're not any different than any of you.

We're in the process of preparing to return again to Mexico for fulltime ministry. Part of this is changing some of our things. One of those things is the vehicle we have. Currently we drive a Ford F150, it's not new, but it's in good shape and comfortable. However, with the way things are in Mexico right now we can't take the vehicle with us, so we're going to sell her. Before we sell her, we need to find another vehicle so I started shopping for one. We had decided we'd like to get an older jeep that would handle winter driving as well as summer and not draw any un-wanted attention in Mexico. I had a budget of what we could afford and we began looking. Well I found the jeep and the price was less than the top of our budget...it's older, but not too old and has around 140 000 kms....the motor size is what we'll need and with a little TLC she'll be good. We we began to look at purchasing her and the Lord stepped in and touched someone's heart to help us. It would have been a little tight to make the purchase work and we would have had to hold off on a couple of payments on other things....but God is here and He provides. Do to His mercy, He got us the Jeep.  We have the Jeep we'll need to go to Mexico and we can prep the truck for sale. The Lord has taken care of us, yet again.
All of this is to say, do you remember stories of people that the Lord worked things out for them? Has the Lord been taking care of you? Do you have something to share? Can you tell your story, your families story or your friends story of what God has done and is doing?

God is at work and He expects us to put our trust in Him and He'll supply all our needs...

Mat 6:25-33 Therefore I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Behold the birds of the air; for they sow not, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them; are you not much better than they are? Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin, but I say to you that even Solomon in his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much rather clothe you, little-faiths? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed? For the nations seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hola Malu y Julian!
Estamos contentos que todo va bien.
Orando por vosotros.
Pastor Manuel