Missionary: FAIL, God: WINNING!

I messed up.  Nothing new.

At the end of the year, it is common for missionaries to remind supporters that their ministry would be happy to receive a Year-End Donation!  I forgot to do this.

Actually, I did remember…

On December 30^th I realized I should send a year-end plea.  Oops.  Obviously, it was too late now.

“No bother” I tell Michelle, “we’ll PRAY IT IN!  The famous missionary, George Muller never asked for money but just prayed.  The Brooklyn Tabernacle started with miraculous stories of God’s provision.  We could be like them!”

So I set to praying.  I decide that I should pray about a specific amount.  Our current support is in good shape and we don’t have any immediate need to direct me as to a figure.  Nevertheless, the amount should be big enough that it could only be the work of the Lord and not just an incidental donation.  Three thousand dollars.  Yes, $3,000 in Year-End Donations with absolutely no requests to individuals could only come from God.

I prayed about this figure multiple times per day, every day…for about a week.  That is when I calculated that year-end donations would have been received in our home office, processed and posted.  So, I checked our support account…no year-end donations.  Well, maybe with the holidays it is taking a little extra time to process.  So I prayed some more, but less fervently.  Several days later I checked our account again…no year-end donations.  Oh well, I’ll be sure to send a reminder to supporters next year.  Then I quit praying.  Oops.

A week later, I was reviewing some budget info and noticed a large donation.  Wow, what a generous gift!  Hey wait, here’s another year-end gift from someone we haven’t talked to in a couple of years!  Oh, and a couple of our regular supports have given additional donations!  What do all of these year-end donations add up to?  $3,048.

This mission work thing is truly God’s work.  We are simply blessed with the opportunity to be a part of it.  We mess things up.  Good comes out of it.  God gets all the glory!

God’s provision through the generosity of others allows us to receive the language training we need and will fund our ministry and church planting efforts in Honduras.

 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!                Matthew 7:7-11