Thank you, Lord.

What a mighty and wonderful God we serve!  We would like to give thanks to the Lord and praise Him for what He did in our lives today.

So far, we have had a great time and enjoyed deputation.  We have met many wonderful people and been in some great churches.  However, in the last few days I’ve felt a little discouraged.  Amazingly, nearly 50% of the churches that we have been in have given us a verbal commitment that they would take us on.  However, all of those churches except one have said something to this effect, “we’ll take you on at some point in the future, when we have more money.”  Only one church has actually taken us on.  It has been nice that people have been so supportive of our ministry, but it has become a little discouraging because things did not seem to be working out the way we planned.  We weren’t getting many actual supporting churches.

Today, the Lord chose to encourage us to keep going.

Last night, we were in a church in Central California.  We stayed with a church family that was a great encouragement to us.  They fed us dinner in their home, they gave Samuel a gift when we got home from church, cooked us breakfast this morning, gave both our boys money to buy some toys, filled up our empty gas tank, and while we were filling up the tank they went into the gas station and bought us lots of chips and goodies for the road.  It was very humbling, and a little difficult, to accept all the generosity.  The Lord used them to provide for our needs and encourage us on our way!  (He also taught me an important lesson in humility.)

As we were driving north today to Oregon, we got another encouragement from the Lord.  We received an email from a church we presented in three weeks ago.  Their Missions Conference went great and they are taking us on for support!  They are going to start supporting us next month.  It is amazing how easily the Lord can take a situation in our lives and turn it around!  What a reminder to us that He is truly the one in control; what He requires of us is that we trust Him.  How thankful we are for what the Lord did for us today!

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!  (Psalm 107:8)