I've been a little selfish lately, but I want to share some things that have been happening lately, let me explain. As many of you know, I signed up to go on a mission trip to Haiti several months back but I didn't have the money to pay for it. God provided through a bonus check from work, but it was the minimum to go $1500 ($2000 is recomended)...this is where it gets crazy cool...
I'm not ashamed to say that I haven't been that great with money in the past, actually I was pretty bad with it and it got me in trouble. And it still haughts me to this day, or so I thought...
My schedule is extremely busy throughout the week and I have a lot to keep up with. I work a full time job as an electrician, my son has karate practice 2 nights a week, I lead an amazing Home Group on Wednesday nights, I've been put in a leadership role as the Host Team Director at Revolution Church and I serve (which I love and have a passion for) pretty much all day on Sunday at our church. Not to mention all the little things that pop up during the week. So I felt like I needed a portable device (like a laptop or some sort of tablet) to keep up with emails, schedules, and tasks during the week. Those portable devices aren't that cheap, so I was looking to build my credit back up (since its been a few years) by getting a credit card at an electronics store to purchase one of these handy portable devices. I went an applied for a card and they asked me how much I would like to apply for, I said $600...they ran it, it got declined. I was really frustrated that I didn't get what I wanted.
A couple of days went by and I attended church on Sunday like normal, but our pastor preached a message that broke me right there in my chair. He talked about how much more money we needed to raise to start building on the new land when it closes :). All I could think about was how selfish I had been about where I wanted to spend that money. I think I can stick with the old pen and paper for a while. I sat in my chair that Sunday and asked God to forgive my selfishness and I felt like He lifted it from me right there, I felt at ease.
This past Wednesday we had our 1st Wed service at Revolution. We took communion and celebrated baptisms (which is always awesome), but we did something a little different this time. Jason (our pastor) brought the entire Haiti team to the front to pray over us and invited the rest of the church to join us in the front to lay their hands on us to pray. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who came up to show their support...it was an amazing experience.
After we concluded the service, I started walking out, but I was stopped before I got out the door. I had a couple, that I don't think I've ever met before, stop me and tell me how excited they were that I was going to Haiti and they wanted to make a donation to pay for some of my trip. It was a folded up check, I didn't want to be rude and open it right there in front of them so we continued to talk for a while, I thanked them and then we said our goodbyes. As I was walking away I opened it up and was immediately overwhelmed. It was for $500. I went to the back to tell Dan (Haiti Cheri) what had happened, he just smiled. He told me that someone else anonymously donated $100 for my trip...if my math is right, that adds up to $600. The same amount that I was denied for a few days before that on something I didn't even need.
Since Sunday, we changed satellite companies and cut our home phone off (internet only) to save a bunch of money to give even more back to Him to Advance his Kingdom. There's no doubt what God's plan was for that $600. Not for me to be selfish and spend on myself, but for Him to spend it where he needed it the most...spreading the Gospel.
