The Exodus: The Deliverance of God

The Deliverance of God

“…and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry and, and the waters were divided” Ex. 14:21b

“And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.” Ex. 14:31

The children of Israel were hemmed in by the Egyptian army on one side and the Red Sea on the other.  It seemed to them impossible to escape, and fear reigned in their heart though they had just seen the great miracles by which God had delivered them from Israel.

We had a couple local meetings in the area which we were able to travel to in our van.  Our RV was parked at Woodlawn and were adjusting to a new lifestyle.  At the end of July we had meetings scheduled in NJ, so we were going to be traveling in it for the first time.  We were so excited about our first “adventure”.  We packed up the RV and we were going to go by Chad’s mom’s house to  take "real" showers before we left.  On the way to Lisa’s, the RV began to smell like something was burning.  I got the kids going with their showers and Chad was out trying to figure out what was wrong.  After a while he came in and said he thought the brakes were just sticking from lack of use.  He said there was a free pump-out on 95 just 15 min. away.  He said we’ll drive there and pump-out and if there is a problem that will be a good place to head home from.  So we held our breath and drove out there.  Everything seemed fine, so we kept driving.  We had a 3 hour drive to the church we were going to be parking at.  After we’d been driving for about 30 minutes the smell returned and an intense fear came over me like we were going to die.  I felt like Satan was trying to kill us right then.  I didn’t say anything to Chad, I just got up and went to the bedroom to pray.  I got on my knees and begged God for our lives.  I was shaking and cringing in fear as if death was around the corner. I knew that Satan was not pleased that we wanted to go to the northern DR to spread the gospel.  I knew that Satan would kill us if he could.  I prayed for God’s protection.   It seemed to me that we had reached an impenetrable wall of difficulty.  I wasn’t sure what was making that burning smell.  I feared that the RV could explode since we were driving with a full tank of propane and I didn’t know if we were on fire.  I’m not sure how long I prayed, but I prayed until the fear lifted.  I still was a little worried, but I didn’t feel that intense desire to pray.  I texted some close friends and asked them to pray for us.  We finally arrived to the church and got hooked up.  Afterwards Chad came to me and said that he thought the brakes were going out.  He said the brakes were going to the floor while we drove but he didn’t want to tell me. 

A week later we had to drive back home and the brakes were smoking awful.  The burning smell was so strong, we kept looking out the window to see if something was on fire.  Chad said it seemed like the brakes were stuck and wouldn’t let go.  Chad called our church's mechanic and asked him to please meet us at church.  Though I didn’t have the same sense of fear as I did on the drive up, we still prayed the whole way home.  When we got to church the mechanic was there.  When he pulled the tires off the calipers and brakes just fell off!  The mechanic looked at us in utter disbelief and said, “How in the world are you still alive?  You’ve been driving without any brakes at all!”  I ran nside the RV, feeling so shaken by the danger that we were just in and overwhelmed by God’s protection of our family. I prayed and thanked God for the miracle.  Yes, Satan would have liked to have killed us before we ever got to the field, but our Mighty God intervened on our behalf.

"...I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." Jer. 1:8

We serve a mighty God who is able to protect us from any danger that Satan may bring our way.  We need only to give ourselves to prayer and trust Him.



The Exodus: Singing or Sighing

The Exodus: Singing or Sighing

“…I will sing unto the Lord…”

No doubt when the children of Israel left Egypt it was with great rejoicing!  After so many years of praying for God’s deliverance, it was finally here.  Though they could hear the wailing in Egypt because of the Passaover, and though they had many unknowns in their future, they left Egypt with a triumphant shout, singing, and laughing.  Rejoicing in the Lord. 

Our family had gone through a few years in the emotional turmoil of trying to find the will of God for our lives.  It was a restless time for us as we waited on the Lord for clear direction.  And after two years of prayers the answer finally came.  There was much excitement and liberty in knowing God’s will, and it seemed that as soon as the decision was made God miraculously began opening doors.  Things got moving much faster than we ever imagined possible.  God was working everything into place and we began filling up our schedule right away.  What great comfort there was in knowing that it was God who was moving on our behalf.

Even in the midst of all the excitement I had to work at keeping myself singing and praising God.  It’s all too easy to become tired and start sighing as different unexpected circumstances that come our way. 

We were at our very first out of town meeting.  The church was HUGE and I felt so small and lost in the midst of so many people.  My husband was off talking to the church folk, our three oldest children were at the playground with friends and I was dutifully standing next to our table with Steven trying very hard not to look as intimidated as I felt.  I was talking with some ladies when I heard a child screaming, “PEOPLE, PEOPLE… WE NEED YOUR MONEY!”  I broke out into a cold sweat, and prayed that that wasn’t one of my kids.  I turned around to see Steven (3) holding a coffee cup and screaming again, “PEOPLE, PEOPLE… WE NEED YOUR MONEY!”  I know you’re laughing, but I wanted to melt into the ground.  Everyone in the foyer had stopped and were looking at this little missionary kid begging for money.  I grabbed him and held him and tried to chuckle off my embarrassment.  We had recently let the kids watch the Little Rascals, and there was scene in the movie after the kids clubhouse burned down that the kids were out begging for money.  Steven thought this was hilarious, so of course when he finds an empty coffee cup he knows what they are for!  When I relayed the story to my husband I was so red-faced from embarrassment, he put his hands on my shoulders and said, “Laugh before you start crying”.

After a year of deputation, I come to find more and more that this was really good advice.  There can be many stressful situations on deputation that can be alleviated by just laughing it off.  Deputation is a long journey and we just can’t take everything too seriously, we’ll lose our minds if we do! 

There was the time my boys were throwing the football around in the parking lot and almost decapitated the pastor!

Or the time when Steven told some people , at a church we were just visiting, that we didn’t have a house and we lived in our car.  Those poor people were sooo concerned!

Then on one occasion, someone gave Steven an etch-a-sketch.  He was completely convinced that it was an ipad!  This was all fine and good, until he went into a church one day and started telling the people there that he got an ipad.  By the time we got into church, people were whispering and staring.  Finally someone came and asked me if I really thought Steven was of age to have an ipad! 

One Sunday we stopped in to visit a church in the area, and as I was dropping the kids off to their Sunday school classes I see two lice run across Becca’s bangs.  We got the kids out of class and excused ourselves with the pastor and told him Becca wasn’t well.  Of course, Becca chimes in, I’m fine….

Recently, we were at a missions conference.  The international banquet spread was huge, and the dessert table looked wonderful!!  Steven inhaled his food so fast he gagged himself, stood up, and threw-up all over himself and the table.... when we he was done he loudly says, "I finished all my food, can I have dessert now?"

Life is full of these kinds of embarrassing situation.  We can lose our minds if we take things too seriously.  We can choose to step back and find humor in our uncomfortable/awkward/embarassing situations.  Laughing is considerably better for our health and state of being.  “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” Prov. 17:22

Let’s find opportunities to sing and laugh, and enjoy the wonderful life God has given us.

The Exodus: The journey begins

The Exodus

The Story of our Deputation Journey and the lessons we’ve learned

Introduction

As we travel on the deputation trail, I can’ help but think of the children of Israel and their journey to the Promised Land.  With each new experience my mind is drawn back to Exodus and how the children of Israel learned many of the same lessons God is teaching us.  It was a little over a year ago that we began our deputation journey, making our way to the Dominican Republic; our “Promised Land”.  The land that God has called us to! 

I hope these experiences aer an encouragement to you and that your faith might be strengthened by reading how many times my faith faltered just before God’s deliverance came.  Through these experiences my faith has grown day by day.  I remind myself of these experiences often to encourage myself to keep trusting the Lord.  We serve a most amazing God who sees great value in the trials he allows us to go through.  Each difficulty He allowed was in His plan and had a purpose.  His timing is perfect and He is always faithful. 

The Journey Begins

“And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required…”  Ex. 12:36

We returned from BIMI’s candidate school the second week of June.  The lease was going to be up on our house in August.  As excited as we were about this new calling in our lives, I was filled with anxiety about the unknowns.  I tried to push away the thoughts of “Where are we going to live?”, “How are we going to get meetings?”, “How can we afford deputation?”, “I don’t know how to be a missionary wife!”.  I just kept telling myself over and over, “If God called us, He’s going to provide.”  We started packing everything up.  We wanted to sell everything by the second week of July, in time for our first out-of-town meeting.  And so began a marathon of yard sales and open house sales.  It was exhausting, and emotionally draining to sell everything in our house.  Selling my beloved china tea sets, which had brought so many hours of pleasure to our family and friends, for pennies seemed a cruel torment.  Watching our furniture disappear out of the house while we were still living in it, and selling the kids toys and bikes was almost too much.  But my greatest heartbreak came when it became clear that no one wanted my antique piano.  This piano had been a direct answer to prayer and I loved it.  It was the centerpiece of my living room. When my husband told me he had to take it to the dump it broke my heart.  I cried as they loaded my beautiful piano knowing that in a few minutes it would be shattered to bits.  It seemed this process would never be over.  Through all this emotional whirlwind, I loved my Lord and I was so excited that he had something for us. And I knew that it would be better than anything I’d ever had before.

At the end of June we had our first meeting with Chesapeake Baptist Church.  After the morning service, a family took us out to lunch and told us the Lord had laid it on their hearts to give us their RV!  We were stunned, we really hadn’t told anyone we wanted an RV.  We had been talking to a friend and making plans to rent their RV, but this was completely unexpected.  This was the first concrete confirmation that God was going to take care of us.  The family brought the RV to Woodlawn and gave us the keys.  I was in utter disbelief, but in my heart I knew there was nothing to worry about because God was going to take care of everything.

It took 6 yard sales and numerous trips to the good-will and the dump to completely empty our 7 bedroom house.  We then packed up the RV with our essentials.

Our first out-of-town meeting was to be in West Virginia.  The pastor called and made arrangements for us to come and stay at a hotel for the weekend.  The weekend of that meeting was to be our last in the house.  I remember standing outside of our home as Chad locked it for the last time. What an strange feeling that was.   I was on the verge of tears, but I wanted to be “excited” for the kids’ sake.  I bit my bottom lip and fought back the tears as we drove away.  I thought, “What are we doing?  Are we crazy?  We just left our home, and everything we own, and a good job, and we’re leaving our friends and family!  We spent all our savings on our survey trip and for our missionary supplies! What are we doing?”  I felt a panic start to creep in, but just when the tears were about to flow, I felt the gentle whisper of the Lord say to me, everything is going to be fine.  I took a deep breath, and I felt Chad reach over and hold my hand.  I looked over at him and he said, “Thank you for all you’ve done!”.  The look in his eyes reminded me of why we were doing what we were doing.  I wanted to go to the D.R. and share with the people there God’s salvation.  My heart settled down and we drove to WV.  When we got to the hotel, I felt emotionally exhausted from the day.  When we walked into our room, there was a HUGE container overflowing with cookies, candy, chips, drinks, books, anything a kid could ever want!  The kids were screaming in excitement as they looked through the container.  I could hold back the tears no longer.  They flowed down my face as I looked upon my children squealing in delight.  Then Chad found an envelope with our names on it.  It was a letter from the pastor along with a check for $500! Then I just melted and began to weep uncontrollably.  I began to thank God for His goodness and faithfulness to us.  I asked God to forgive me for my lack of faith, worry and doubts.  I knew there were exciting days ahead of us, and that this was a journey God would make with us.  From here on out we would be on the road with God. 

When God calls you to do something, He WILL provide everything you need to accomplish His will!