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!