The month of March was a month full of steep, steep inclines
that felt never ending. Some days I felt like we were sliding back more than we
were gaining by trying to go forward. I have never seen these kinds of lows and
lowers in a month. H.O.N.E.S.T.L.Y.
By the 3rd week of the month, I was ready to get
to April. I was ready to move on. I was ready to let go of March and start over
with a new, shiny, better month that wasn’t going to try and kill us. But yesterday,
the 31st of March, changed how I see this entire year.
The 31st of March is typically the day we enjoy a
delicious meal and some kind of amazing chocolate dessert, as it’s my dad’s
birthday. Along with getting to celebrate with him from the other side of the
world, we celebrated major miracles that we now see God has been working on,
just for us.
There were so many things that came together yesterday that
I am still having a difficult time trying to wrap my head around everything.
First off, we’ve been trying to send some money to China to purchase some much-needed
construction supplies that we are unable to get here. The process to send money out of the country has been a
nightmare and we’ve been trying since Monday to do so. Finally, Thursday came,
and we were able to send the money, no problem.
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| Despite the challenges, the building continues! |
Then, the only vehicle we have, our van, suddenly healed
itself! The van is used as not only our work truck (since our truck was stolen
in January – more on that later) but as our only means of transportation. We
noticed a few weeks ago the van was idling when in park, and we started to
worry a little bit. We consulted with a mechanic friend, we did the suggested
repair, and it still didn’t stop. We changed filters, and did a few other small
things, but nothing. Suddenly, it stopped this weird idling yesterday, on the
31st. I was so thrilled! We sent money that needed to go, and then
the car fixed itself. But the day kept getting better and better.
We’ve been feeling overwhelmed by how much we have on our
plate, and we’ve been trying to figure out a way to cut out the unnecessary. As
of yesterday, a long, stressful drive each morning (on a terrible road) has
been cut down to a short and sweet drive, just taking minutes for me to get to
school each day. Then, a student I’ve been tutoring decided to stop lessons after
yesterday, so I definitely took this as a sign that God is lightening our load
for us – we didn’t even have to make any hard decisions!
Another miracle is that we’ve been waiting on a check from a
previous employer, and we were starting to think it wasn’t ever coming. But
miraculously, on the 31st of March, we received news that the check
arrived and was deposited for us. Seriously, after all the wonderful news and the
miracles, I was starting to think that the last day of March is the best day EVER.
And then God just blew us out of the water with more…
We purchased a small truck back in November, and when it
arrived in Nampula, we decided it wasn’t something we really needed, so we
decided to sell it. To make a long story short, it was stolen during the
process of selling it. Ouch. It was heart breaking. This happened the middle of
January, so by now, we had just accepted the truck was gone, and we gave it
over to God.
We had kept in touch with the detective helping us with the
case, and they had given us hopeful news last week that they knew where the guy
was that stole the truck. So, yesterday, March 31st, we received a
phone call that the thief had been caught. We went today to the police station
to confirm it was him, and sure enough, it was the guy.
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| I promise there is an electric post back there! |
And lastly, God
topped March off with one more huge miracle. Many of you know we have been
waiting and waiting and waiting for electricity to be installed for the
orphanage. We have gone to the electric company and asked for help, begged for
assistance, gone from the top to the bottom and back up again, and then had to
ask for more help!
God amazingly helped us to raise the necessary $1,000 needed
to do the installation in less than one week. Seriously?! How amazing is
that!!! God is so good. And after we had been waiting to hear from the engineer
for over a WEEK on when it would be installed, the workers suddenly showed up,
YES – MARCH 31st – and made it happen. We now have power!
After all of the amazing things that came together yesterday,
I was thinking back on all the crazy, frustrating battles from the other 30
days. And the truth is this: God never left us. When everything felt like it
was falling apart, and we were asking God to gives us strength to keep going
& not give up, He was sustaining us. BUT – He was also working on our
behalf, breathing life into the dark places, and setting fire to the things
that He wanted to use to show us that He is God.
You blew us away, God, with your goodness and careful
attention to each detail yesterday! The fact that God’s very character, LOVE,
can be seen in each miracle, the big and the small, in the mundane and the
miraculous, makes me appreciate the mess that was the month of March. We walked
through some hard stuff, but God never took a break. If anything, our faith and
trust has been refreshed, renewed, and built up, because God never fails.
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