Over and Above

We are home. Finally we are here! The plane ride was long and exhausting but the good news was we prayed we could an extra seat and we actually ended up getting two all in the same row! We arrived at midnight last sunday so we no have been  home for over a week! We are staying with a couple from our church and we will be renting from some close friends of ours. We are eager to get into our new place. There has been many God providing stories for us along the way and it has humbled us now more than ever and we are so grateful for what God has been doing in our lives. It has been nice to come home with so many of you welcoming us and making us feel like home. There is so much Id love to write about but honestly we have been processing so much lately. We wanted to share the ways God has been blowing our minds!

So three weeks before we were to leave we had run out of money and we felt God really wanted us to stay so we asked God to provide if He wanted us to stay. So the next day one of the directors came and told us and said ” the rest of your stay is paid for” I just started weeping!!

A few days later we knew that we would need to come up with $150.00 to go to the airport so we just asked God to provide. The next day the same  person came up and said ” by the way your ride to the airport is covered” Again SO amazing.

4 days before we were to fly home we still had no temporary place to live or a permanent place. We had 5.43 in our bank account and we had to spend a lot of time in airports the next 24 hours. Again we just asked God…becasue we got really good at relying on Him even in the toughest of situations.

A friend emailed me and said that she had gotten us a groceries gift card for when we came home. She had also gotten us a Target one so we could get some xmas gifts for our boys ans some gas money for our car. I read the email to samm and just cried. I was so touched by the love of the Father. So touched.

The next day we started getting a little worried about how we could go thru the airports with NO money. Got another email from a friend saying she just put some money in our account for the airport! Only God knew what our need was!

So now we are home…and His amazingness (a word?) has not stopped. A friend got me a gift card to get my hair cut nad colored..what a joy when you havent even been able to dream about that!!

Good friends of ours is buying a home that we will be able to rent from them and we are waiting for that to close!

Its been the little things too. Like ive been wearing the same tennis shoes and I was thinking id love to get a pair of shoes but they are all in storage..next day a friend showed up with a cute pair of flats for me..

A few days ago a friend  called me and said she had a gift for me. I opened a card and there was $300.00 to cover some bills we needed to pay. Again she had no clue about this. God does though.

yesterday the people we are staying with gave us two bags of brand new toys that she got thru her work to give to our boys for Xmas!

yesterday a friend asked me she could give us cash and watch the boys so we could go get some winter clothes for the boys.

There are a few more things. All of this to Boast on the one true God that cares about every detail of our lives. He asks that we put Him first and walk in obedience, He does the rest. We are in a place of relying on Him. Samm hasn’t started work yet and we have never had to be in this place of total dependency on Him, while it is a frightening place to be we also have peace.

A year ago you could have never convinced me what would take place and I would have told you I don’t have that kind of faith…and its true I didn’t. God gives us the faith…we just have to take one step at a time. So this Christmas looks very diffrent…we are daily humbled. We are constantly giving Him the glory. Coming home has not been a piece of cake, but in this place of keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus I can truly celebrate His birth this Christmas. What an Awesome privilege!!

Trying not to panic!

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This walk of being a Christian is never what you think it will be. There are twists and turns where you thought the path would be straight and straight paths where you envisioned bumps on the road. Everyone is given a different measure of faith and to each we are asked to exercise that amount. Samm and I have had the pleasure and also the challenge to do just that. We thought when we got to Nz that it was exhausting to trust and press in that much to believe Him on His word, to know God is only good. We thought “ God I can’t imagine living my entire life believing like that, living on the edge”.  I search my concordance and there are literally hundreds of verses concerning that one little word…FAITH. The one that has stuck out to both of us is  “Without Faith it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6 that there should always be something that we are trusting Him for, that we are really exercising that faith muscle. We wanted to let all our friends and supporters know what we are having to use faith for in this season.

 

We assumed when we got home that we could relax a little and not have to “trust” him so big. That a house would already be available or someone would offer to let us stay. That Samm would have a job to go back in some kind of ministry and that we would have money even just a little to get us groceries and gas. Needless to say God is defiantly having us trust Him for every one of those things. Every single one. Although we are only 4 days away from coming home two things come to mind. One is I remember His faithfulness, last time it was literally eight hours and he did a miracle! Two is we know this is part of the journey; He knew it would all shake out this way…so we keep choosing to trust Him. However it doesn’t make it easier, we are afraid and out of peace and wishing we knew what was going to happen. We have a family and have never lived this way before!! That’s why it’s a CHOICE especially times like this. When He brought us here Yes he did do a miracle but you know what? He used people to be his vessel. When you get a timely encouraging word from a friend out of the blue, you know its God but it’s still a person. He is constantly moving thru His people that is the primary way He chooses to use us. Our prayer is that there are people out there right now reading this and God is tugging on your hearts to do something.

 

Will you please be praying for us? I know many of you do and thank you so much. Please pray that we will be taken care of and ask God if you are supposed to help support us? If so the donate button is right where it has always been! That He will give us wisdom on what to do. That provision will be there.  In a weird kind of way it’s an honor to be able to trust Him like this, because when He is ready we get to see His hand on our lives and that is an honor. We will be posting when we know more and when God takes care of it all, we are so so blessed by all of you.

 

Love Samm & Angie