We Serve a Big Big God

Wow!  I just want to start by thanking God for His provision over the past three weeks.  So so much has happened and God has provided for us over and over. You don't want to skip reading this one!

It all started about a month ago.  Micah and I were coming to the realization that we kept telling people we were going to be here for two more years.  Once the adoptions were finalized and we waited our two years we would be going home!  Well, it has been more than half a year and we are still waiting for our adoptions and for our "two years" to start... We had come to the understanding that our short term stay in Cambodia was no longer short term.  We are here for the long haul.  That being said, we were still living in the short term intern housing.  We were fine being there and had made it comfy but we still had the short term mentality.  We decided that it was time to start thinking about finding our own home.  We wanted to wait until the end of July after all the teams had gone home.  After talking to Mark about it we decided that if we did go ahead and move out there would be extra rooms for the teams to stay in. So we sent an email to a guy we had had previous contact with just to have him look around for something affordable and close.  Within two days he had found an apartment that was exactly what we needed.  We met with the landlord on a Tuesday and moved in the next Wednesday.  (Moving in is a story for another day.)

PROBLEM:

We didn't really have the money to move. 

GOD'S PROVISION:

God put it in Amelia Park's heart to have a garage sale to raise some funds for us.  The amount she raised was exactly what we needed to be able to move and equip our major needs.  (I realize now that Micah already blogged this part... bear with me.)  

PROBLEM:

We thought God was awesome to provide for our needs but after our deposit of three months rent plus our first months rent we were going to be squeaking by the rest of the month.  No big deal just a few sacrifices here and there.  

GOD'S PROVISION:

Our landlord came to our meeting on the day we moved in and said that rather than paying a three month deposit it was only going to be a one month deposit!  YEAH!  Then we got hit with a big expense.... 

PROBLEM:

We had forgotten about our visa's!  Micah thought they were for a year while I just completely forgot about them.  When our landlord asked for a copy of them for the paper work we realized they had expired in March!  AHHH!!!  What do we do? So we prayed.  God told us to just take it to our church families.  We called my mom on Sunday morning and asked if she could make a few calls.  We needed $1000 dollars to get to Thailand, pay our fees ($5 a day per person for 69 days, you do the math) and get our new visas.  We just told God that we were going with what ever He provided and hoped to find favor with the border patrol.  

GOD'S PROVISION:

Yeah, we have a big big God!  Over night, He supplied us (through our churches) with more than enough money to take care of what we needed.  Every time we thought God had already given us more than we deserved, He came through and provided even more.  Every time we thought there is no way God could give us more or that we had drained our options He pulled out a new trick.  WOW!
PROBLEM:
We didn't have a washing machine... there are places here where you can take your clothes to have them washed but I have only heard bad things about them.  They use the same water over and over and your clothes sometimes come out worse than when they started. (or so I am told)
GOD'S PROVISION:
With the extra money that was given we were even able to get a washing machine! (It took me two days to get caught up after two weeks of not washing anything but a few pairs of underwear at the Benz's.)

WE SERVE A BIG BIG GOD!