He is our provider…I am amazed at His provision for us….this is not going to be short for His provision for us has been great! I hope you will stay with me to the end….
“So how long did you live in Africa? Did you go there as missionaries?” is the question that is often asked. And I always answer, “No, we were not missionaries to Africa, South Africa is our home country, we were born and raised there and spent most of our lives there.” Yes, my great, great grandfather went as a missionary to South Africa many, many years ago….and although we didn’t go as missionaries to Africa ourselves, and although we worked in the corporate world we still were missionaries in many ways, reaching those all around us.
We had it all – a wonderful house, nice cars, we could buy all that we needed and wanted for nothing. My husband had a great job and I was at home, homeschooling our children and we had enjoyed attending our home church for many years and we were blessed in many ways.
Somehow I knew that as we left South Africa that our lives would be forever different, that it was going to be a faith-walk all the way. I remember that last Sabbath in church the hymn we sang was “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
Now we are missionaries in the USA and our lives have changed in many ways. We no longer have a great job in the eyes of the world, there is no retirement fund, we don’t own a house, or fancy cars, we both work and earn just enough to get by, but we have endless opportunities of to see God’s work in our lives and to experience how He can provide for us.
Last night we sat and spoke about our future and how for the first time in our lives we have no idea what it holds and that our security and hope is founded on God and God alone.
But as we look back over the last 18 months that we have been here He has been faithful to provide…
When we arrived here almost nothing was as promised….it felt like our world was falling in around us, we had left all, believing we were following God’s will for our lives and then this! Yet how many times as tears of frustration and fear filled my eyes He would whisper to me and say “Look up – don’t focus on the problems, focus on Me.” One of the first nights we were here as I was preparing my family’s clothes for the next day, crying out to God He again whispered to me, “I have died for you, don’t you think I will provide for you?” And then the words of a familiar song drifted through my mind…”He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine, he owns the valleys and the rock and rills, the sun and starts that shine. Wonderful Saviour more than tongue can tell, He is my Father so they’re mine as well, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, I know that He will care for me”.
And then in February last year my husband fell 16 feet and broke three ribs and collapsed one of his lungs which resulted in a four day stay in hospital….And in those days I saw God’s loving care over and over again. I saw God’s hand knowing that God turned him mid-fall and allowed him to fall in a way that saved his life and saved him from paralysis or more serious injury.
That night at 10.00pm my late-teen children drove down to see him, in a car that was given to us and that we had not realized was unsafe, and He made sure they arrived safely home after travelling the dark freeway after 11pm at night. The next day when they came down to the hospital to visit him and were about to leave we realized that there was a problem with the car and God sent someone from where we work just at that moment to pull into the parking lot and he was able to help us in a situation where we didn’t know what to do!
And it was no coincidence that in the previous week God had prompted me to refill my calling card to South Africa, knowing I would need it to call family there. And it was no accident that He had prompted me to buy a meal ticket for the student cafeteria on campus just the day before so that our children would be able to eat during the days I was with my dear husband in the hospital. And in the long days that followed we were blessed by those who prepared and sent food over for us…provision when I was taking care of my dear husband and too tired to do it myself.
The same day when calling my parents in South Africa I received news that their house had been burgled and things stolen in the short period of time that they had been out on a walk, after my mom had spent the afternoon alone at home. And I knew without a shadow a doubt that God had kept is hand over them so that they would escape unharmed. I don’t think I could have handled anything else right then.
The health insurance promised when we arrived in the USA had not materialized at that stage, we couldn’t afford the $35 000 hospital bills, but God provided everything. My God shall supply all your needs and we saw him do it over and over again during this time.
At this time our son was attending the Amazing Facts College of Evangelism and doing their four month training course – we didn’t have the funds to send him, but God provided. After that he wanted to go to the community college in the summer and fall, but because we had not been here a year yet out of state tuition was charged, equivalent to ten times local tuition, and out of the blue we got a call asking if he was going to be able to go to school and someone volunteered to pay his way and our prayers were answered, and God had provided. Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door will be opened.
It had been our daughters life-long dream to go on a mission trip, so when the academy she was attending planned one to Mexico she desperately wanted to go, and God provided all the funds she needed to raise and more, and she was able to go and she was blessed. And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Then she followed in her brother’s footsteps and wanted to attend the Amazing Facts College of Evangelism, and God provided the money to make this possible. We saw God’s hand over her life when during outreach time a speeding motorist narrowly missed hitting the car she was driving, totaling his car, but leaving her unscathed. The angels of the Lord encamp around those who fear Him and He delivers them.
And then in December last year our daughter had kidney stones, which meant doctors visits, xrays, ct scans, two night-time visits to the ER. Now we had health insurance, but no money for the large co-pay and once again God provided.
Our children wanted to attend the Generation of Youth for Christ meetings held in Louisville, Kentucky and God provided the resources needed for the flights and stay there. And when my son’s return flight had been accidently incorrectly booked for a month later we saw God’s hand intervene as he made a few calls to airline management and explained his situation, and all of a sudden there was an extra-ordinary approval for him to go on stand-by for 24 hours and we saw the Lord bring him all the way home that night, without any extra expense! With God all things are possible.
He had solutions and the funds for us when not enough money had been deducted in taxes for us, and when we needed to pay our car insurance for the next year. He provided. Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.
Our son is turning 21 at the end of this year and his visa expires and at this stage we need to get him on a student visa, but we had to prove that we have $16 000 for him to be able put in the applications for the visa, we don’t have those kind of funds, but the Lord has provided a sponsor who did this for him and God is still providing. Next we will submit the documents to the USCIS and we will pray and we know that God will provide.
In the work we are both doing we daily see His blessing as our prayers answered and His provides all we need – these words seems so small when He is so faithful and His provision is so big! Although we work faithfully with what we are given, we have never been more aware of the fact that it is not about what we can do, but about what He can do and is doing! To God be the glory great things He has done.
How many times in the last 18 months He has calmed our fears, given us hope, comfort and peace. I stand amazed at His goodness and love towards us. Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God My Father…
One of my favorite authors penned these words: "We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history."
We have always loved and trusted God, but I had no idea how much more we would have to learn to trust, but surely ‘tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, just to know thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him, how I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust Him more.
We don’t know what the future holds, but we know GOD WILL PROVIDE.
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16
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