We have desired through this entire process to go where God leads and do as He calls us to do.  Any goals we have set were set with the information we had at the time and things change, God reveals more of His plan.  A year ago we had our own “March Madness” we felt God had called us to-to pray earnestly, seeking Him to increase our financial support by 20% and our prayer team by 20 people.  And pray we did! At no point did we feel like we were praying outside of God’s will and we had several people confirm that for us.  If you’ve followed our journey you know that we did not see either one of those increases last March.  But I don’t believe that means we were praying outside of God’s will or that He doesn’t have every intention of fulfilling exactly what He called us to.

Fast forward to this March.  We have been faithful to God’s call on our lives and persevered despite everything that’s happened that could have easily caused us to give up and stay home.  In order to get to the field late this summer we have a fairly compact time table (we could potentially be boarding a plane 6 months from now-YIKES!) in which to get things done that still need to get done.  And here’s the kicker-we pretty much need a 20% increase THIS March.  I don’t believe God wastes any experiences we have and I don’t believe He calls us to do things without a plan to bring them to fruition. It’s just not in His character, which is why the result of last March was so hard to figure out.

When we were at the missions conference last weekend we had the joy of speaking to both the middle school and high school Sunday school classes.  During both hours each of the pastors had their students gather round us, lay hands on us, and pray for us.  A beautiful, humbling experience and one we will treasure.  And during both hours the wives of the youth pastors prayed the exact same verse for us-Psalm 50:10 that says “for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.”  The Bible has plenty of verses about God’s provision, but they both prayed the exact verse Toffer included when writing about our calling to pray last March.  And we originally felt called to pray as we did last March as a result of the missions conference we were at last weekend.

I’m not one to believe in coincidence.  I think things happen for a reason-God causes or allows them to happen or they happen because of the choices we make.  I might be making more of the way things seem to have lined up, but I’m cautiously optimistic that God fully intends to bring the 20% increase to fruition this March and we will be on a plane six months from now.  Here’s to waiting and praying and hoping for a really amazing testimony about how prayer works.