Sunday night as I lay in bed, tired, but unable to drift off to sleep; I thought to myself about our mission team's prayer calendar that had Zach scheduled on Monday to be one of our team members to keep in special prayer for the day. So I asked the Lord "what should I pray over Zach tomorrow in preparation for Haiti?" and suddenly I had this overwhelming surge of anticipation rush through my veins like unbridled horsepower and my blood began to pump like crazy, shortly after the Lord spoke to me and said two incredibly powerful words... "he's ready"....and I lay there quietly in the dark, experiencing this supernatural adrenaline rush, thinking in my natural mind, I'll surely NEVER fall asleep now and I just enjoyed this moment full of anticipation that the Lord has spoken to my heart and told me my son is absolutely READY for this! The Lord has prepared him, my boy, His boy, our boy..... HE.IS.READY. That is such an incredibly peaceful place to be!
Second testimony:
Because I've been less than shy about our financial adventures and all the fundraising chaos we threw together, I have to share this story too. Just the other day, I realized we're completely at the "end" of the fundraising 'fun' as I was gathering the last of the money to deposit, sending out the last of the bracelets, tshirts, no more bake sales, garage is long emptied from the maddness of yard sales yet two bracelets remained unspoken for. They both say "thankful" and I knew that was by no mistake. You see, I had chosen one that said "hope" to carry me through this faith journey as a daily reminder and Zach had chosen one that said "loved" which I shared about in an earlier post how I felt was significant for him, but I secretly wanted us to each have another one to give away to someone special we might meet in Haiti. I decided if there were any bracelets left, that's what we'd do with them. So as I looked at the two remaining bracelets that say "thankful" I thought these are not my first choice of words to give away as an expression of our love to whomever we meet in Haiti. I seen a picture in my mind of us giving the bracelets away to that special someone and that it would be a proclamation over their destiny, the word they wore around on their little arm, that they most likely would never be able to read in English and I envisioned having it say "hope, blessed, believe, loved"...something that would remind them of Jesus' great love and would inspire them to dream bigger than their circumstances. That's when I looked at these two "thankful" bracelets for a second time and suddenly the Lord spoke to me and said "one is for you and one is for Zach to be reminded daily of this journey and to know the depths of unspeakable gratitude. Thankful for Jesus; Thankful for those who supported you; Thankful, as a proclamation over your own life; this was our tangible, daily, visible expression to wear our humbled hearts "on our sleeve"...a declaration that would inspire us to always dream beyond our circumstances! THANKFUL! Then I realized, right from the start, God had saved "hope" & "love" to be the bracelets we give away as something "special from our heart" as these words we clung to as promises all the months leading us to this place but all along we didn't realize "thankful" would be the one that would best describe our true heart!
That leads me to this final testimony: When we signed up for the trip I knew the cost was an estimate, but I never really even entertained the idea of it exceeding the initial number of $4600 for both of us because that was enough "sticker shock" for me. As we were nearing the end of our fundraising, the actual costs did exceed what we had anticipated and that put a rather large lump in my throat for days. So when our fundraising goal suddenly jumped to $5352 and we had no more "tricks up our sleeve" I felt like I had two choices; mental breakdown from this pressure or that I just really couldn't carry this around for one more minute so the Lord would just HAVE TO SHOW UP because there is no other plan. So with every donation amount that came through me to send in, I'd pray for who's "account" it should go toward, mine or Zach's. Today, when I signed onto our fundraising site and surprisingly seen the most beautiful number $0 under the fundraising goal for Zach's account I just couldn't believe my eyes, I wondered if there was a mistake so I looked under his contributions page where it shows the donation amounts that came in and to my lovely surprise each donation that came in...
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| tallied to the EXACT number he needed: $2676...to the penny! Zach is fully financially supported for this trip!! Without doubt, we are indeed...THANKFUL! | |||||||||||
| ps. I'm almost there too! Just over $400 left for me and I'll see that same beautiful number soon! | |||||||||||
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