Even More Provision

About this time two years ago my youngest son had to decide where to attend college. None of the possible engineering school gave him much support, so sending him to school meant some creative financing. I thought perhaps I needed to find some source of income, a second job of some kind, and I even looked on Craig's List for options.

I am a full-time pastor, but only get housing. Yet trying to find something to fit with my other responsibilities and pay enough to be worthwhile proved difficult.

For these first two years of his college time we have been able to keep up with the costs. Our other son graduates this year, which means the government expects we can devote more to the remaining son, so we don't know what to expect the next two years.

At the beginning of this year I began a project that I can work around my other responsibilities weekly and provides some extra income. I enjoy doing it and appreciate the benefit of being paid. Without my actively looking again, God provided.

More Provision

Yesterday my youngest son Wesley received an offer for a summer job internship. That alone can be attributed to his own skills, as the employer complimented his interview skills. So how does this qualify as a Day of Wonder worthy event?

Wesley also had an internship offer here at home. As he has looked for other opportunities,  my concern was the living expenses of living elsewhere, which could greatly reduce the gain of the summer employment. I hated to have to tell him he could not take a position out of town due to the finances.

He is excited about this new offer, working for Club Car. He remembers with fondness my father working on golf carts, and mentioned this to the interviewer. In addition he'll be testing prototypes, not doing some kind of meaningless mundane task. So of course he wants to take this position.

And the Wonder element is they provide a living stipend! The pay actually exceeds the position in Cincinnati, and the living stipend neutralizes those expenses. Yea!

Provision

Last fall a young man who attended high school with my son asked if he could volunteer for our church. We run a Sunday evening program for children and youth that always needs help, so I was glad to welcome Sean to the team. As it happened he came a few times before Christmas and met Stephanie, our volunteer for 20+ years.

Stephanie graduated to heaven in January and I mentioned to Sean how grateful I am for his coming to help, and I am glad he met Stephanie so that when the children talk about her, he knows who they mean.

This past Sunday night we were especially short handed, with some workers out of town and one sick. Sean asked if his friend Sharise could help, and she was able to help my husband with the pre-schoolers. God provides!

Prayer Answered

Last Sunday Margarette shared in our fellowship lunch prayer time that she needed to buy a washer and dryer. She had driven all over and missed the deals she wanted. We prayed about it.

The next day the lady Margarette cleans for offered to put a new set on her credit card for Margarette, take what cash she had saved and allow Margarette to pay her off over time. A new washer and dryer the day after we prayed about it! God is good.

Angels Watching Over Us

Nora and I got up early this morning to meet my cousin for breakfast. He works third shift as a cop, so he wanted to see us after he got off and before his day job. After breakfast, we were on the side of town with stores where we needed to buy final supplies to finish organizing her room. So we were driving back and forth between stores on a misty morning that steamed up the windows.

Nora pulled out in front of an approaching car coming out of one of the parking lots but we avoided disaster. What a relief. Besides the obvious risk of bodily harm, her older model car only has liability insurance so fixing it would be out of her budget.

She hasn't had an accident since early in her driving career, on another rainy morning, when the brakes didn't work fast enough. She said it probably wasn't to her credit that she'd had no other accidents, and I think we can all say that. I am grateful for guardian angels that protect us. And I'm counting on that as I fly home tonight.

Part 2:
When I got to the airport I sat in the wrong place, right by my gate, but the announcements from my flight could  not be heard. I was starting to wonder why we weren't boarding when I heard an airport wide announcement for my plane. I jumped up, grabbed my stuff and hurried to my plane. I normally wouldn't mind another night at Nora's, but Roger would have minded having to stand in for me preaching!

I couldn't sleep on the plane, so I was worried about driving home the hour from Dayton's airport to Cincinnati. UK's basketball game against Mizzou kept me awake, plenty intense, then went into overtime. Thankfully they won but the bonus for me was the overtime got me almost home! Thank you Lord for traveling mercies.

Intervention

Sometimes it's the little things. I came to Baltimore to help Nora paint and organize her bedroom in the new house. She wanted three walls yellow, and one white as a backdrop to photograph her art. The room used to be blue, so after trying to paint yellow over blue, we discovered we had to prime it all. Primer required a four hour drying time.

When I returned to put yellow over the primer, the window wells were not dry because of the high moisture around the windows. We had to use a heater to dry them, therefore we skipped painting them while we continued with the walls.

Today when we returned for the next coat, we decided we really liked the window wells left white. Had they dried with the rest, we would never have noticed that option.

Her room is finally painted, fresh and beautiful. I love helping my children get settled in their home away from homes.

Moving

In the fall of 2009 Nora moved to Baltimore to begin her graduate work. I rejoiced with the blessing of her moving in with Bekah, a fellow Wheaton grad, who had moved to Sandtown to work for the school run by New Song Church. Bekah had rented a house on Presstman Street on the same block as the church, right next door to the coffeehouse also sponsored by the church. Despite the rough neighborhood, I felt the Holy Spirit covered them, with the church having such a good rep in the neighborhood and the coffee shop staff right next door on one side, and a church couple on other.

Through the years the Presstman ladies have struggled with the rental property, as any rental, it had issues. At the beginning of this year, Bekah bought the house right next door, as the church couple bought another house in the neighborhood. Moving could not have been easier! No vehicles to rent, just helpful people who carried everything down one set of stairs and up another.

Now they have their own place that was already in much better condition and they can change as they want. Bekah, Nora and Margot have established a rapport with their neighbors by throwing many parties and block events, and they don't have to start over on another block!

Perspective

Today before our plane could leave we had to de-ice and  it took awhile so our plane arrived late in Baltimore. This gave Nora more time to get ready to pick me up and we re able to buy paint for her house. Even late can be a good thing when you're looking for God at work.

When we took off from the airport it was still dark, the street lights of the city creating points of light in the darkness. We lifted up through the misty cover of sky, and when we arrived above the blanket of clouds the horizon shone red from the rising sun. Darkness still shrouded the earth below but light had begun to dawn above.

Never Alone

This morning I took a walk in Spring  Grove Cemetery near my house. For those of you unfamiliar with this location, it might sound weird, morbid, and dull to walk in a cemetery. But Spring Grove spans over 700 acres, is also called an Arborteum, showcasing ponds, trees, and beautifully manicured grounds. To take a loop around the perimeter involves over 5 miles. I greatly enjoy walking there, often surprising deer in the early morning.

I had done my "Tuesday" route which involves some steep climbs (Cincinnati boasts seven hills) and hit the final way home, a long stretch of open straight road where I could see no one. Just as I did, the music on my phone played "Never Once" by Matt Redman, which says "never once did I ever walk alone, never once did you leave me on my own, you are faithful, God you are faithful."

I first heard this song the Sunday after my daughter Junia's horrific bike accident, the one where she flipped onto the pavement in Houston and no car ran over her. We couldn't be more thankful that despite multiple injuries she survived. I had flown down to help, and we worshiped with my friend Margaret  Dunn that Sunday morning and I heard this song for the first time, immediately grasping its significance for Junia's deliverance.

So this morning on that vacant path before me I was once again reminded we are never alone, despite what our eyes would tell us.

Return

Two weeks ago a young man came to church with his friend. He sat alone in a back pew, and I considered it a challenge to get this Will Smith look alike to smile. The next week he said he would come, but at the last minute left to do some "work."

Yesterday he was back. Still not smiling much, but seeming a little more engaged. Stay tuned for the next development in what God is doing in his life.

Orders Our Steps

Roger attended a conference in January hosted by the fund raising company that helps City Gospel. All the attendees are director and marketing folks from gospel missions in the US and Canada that use this company. Hundreds of people.

I flew out to CA with him so I could see my brother, his wife and my two adorable nephews. So I joined him to return home.

The morning before we left I had breakfast with everyone at the conference. We sat down at a table with the massage therapist that works for the company. Two women joined us and the one next to me engaged me in conversation.

I learned Sharon lives in Toronto, and I mentioned I have a pastor friend there, Howard Olver. Turns out she attends Howard's church.

I was at this event for ONE meal. I sat next to Roger and ONE other person. That one person knew someone I know, in a huge metropolis in another country. How crazy is that? Not crazy in God's amazing way of ordering our steps.

God's Timing

Tuesday Roger needed some prescriptions picked up from our neighborhood grocery. I rushed over during the UK_Florida game, intent on being as quick as possible.

While I hurried through the crowded store, someone grabbed by arm. I turned to see a woman who had been missing from church, and I thought had moved. I was able to get her new phone number so I could keep in touch when she does move. God's perfect timing!

Side benefit: I missed the terrible crash of Nerlens Noel, so I don't have to replay the gruesome season ending injury in my mind.

God is good.

A Valentine Salute

We celebrate this holiday named after a martyr, for which someone created a hilarious cartoon, showing a man holding his decapitated head at the romantic dinner table of a couple celebrating in his name.

St. Valentine suffered arrest and martyrdom for continuing to marry couples despite the government edict to desist. Then he wrote letters to the jailer's daughter, (not romantic ones) so now we have this flurry of Valentine mail in that tradition.

On this second day of celebrating God's miracles in my daily experience, today I celebrate the daily miracle that is my marriage. After 30 years, four children born, raised and moved on, his para-church ministry that grows exponentially, my church plant now church that grows in ways mostly unseen, I appreciate my husband who stands by me through it all.

Last night before our Ash Wednesday Service he had to carry my guitar and microphones over, return to the house for the ashes I forgot, come back and hang the banner, then run the computer and sound. Then he washed up the extra dishes before bed. That's just a typical evening.

Tonight we get to celebrate with dinner out, then he's going along to my monthly Emmaus Gathering, a romantic touch to the evening.

Some of my friends have lost their husbands to death, for which I am saddened, others to divorce, another way of heartbreak. I am grateful Roger still stands strongly in my corner, cheering me on, keeping me encouraged, helping me in so many small and large ways.

Today I celebrate the miracle of marriage, for any, and for us.

Set the Captives Free

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke? Isaiah 58:6

Lent begins today, a time of fasting. I appreciate this yearly call to regroup and discipline myself. What's missing sugar compared to what Jesus did for us? And every time I'm tempted to whine, which is often, I try to remember that. Easter dawns with great joy after a season of deprivation, and hopefully my spirit soars with more than just Easter candy.

This year besides the deprivations I will impose on myself, I hope to write a daily blog, even if brief, documenting God's work. I'm calling it 40 Days of Wonder.

God has no trouble supplying me with material, I already have enough for days. On this day of Ash Wednesday, with verses like the above in mind, I met with someone who had been captive to a lie of the enemy most of her life. Jesus with his still small voice spoke truth to her and set her free. 

I told her to give up depression for Lent. That's a worthwhile choice to make. In fact, give up depression, negativity, criticism, pride, judgement, inertia, self-centeredness.  Imagine what would happen if we gave up things that bind us.

God is waiting to free us, so let that be the kind of fasting we participate in, fasting that sets the oppressed free. Welcome Lent!