My Provider

I am so amazed at the goodness of my God. I believe Abraham first called Him Jehovah Jireh in Genesis 22:14. From my limited research I believe that is the only time that specific name of God is used in the Bible. I just love the Hebrew language for He was so much more than "God" to them. He was their everything, like He is my everything, but their language is so much more expressive and all encompassing. Today and everyday He is my Provider. The Chinese proverb says, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." As we began this Love's Journey it was knowing that we desperately needed God to be our provider. It was scary because we didn't have large sums of money lying around waiting for us to find something to do with it. We began this journey knowing that we were going to have to rely on Jehovah Jireh to provide in very real ways. We had no idea how He would provide, we just knew that He would see this journey through to completion. (Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.)

Mustard Seed Faith Jesus's parable of the mustard seed is recorded in Matthew 13:31-32, Mark 4:30-32, and Luke 13:18-19. He told us that if we have the faith of a mustard seed that we can move mountains. Maybe mountains is literal, as in if we really had the faith we could tell Mount Everest to jump into the sea, but definately mountains are figuative. We all face mountains in our life. When Craig and I were looking to buy a home when we got married we bought the mustard seed house. I mean literally our house is white with mustard yellow trim and it took all the faith we could muster to put in a contract and buy this house. It seemed so huge because it was at the very edge of our budget. However if we had waited a year or two we would not have been able to buy a house, or at least not one that fit our needs so perfectly. And because we bought our home when we did we were able to build up equity. The equity helped us meet the requirements to adopt from China to begin with.
I am no stranger to mustard seed faith. I was raised in a mustard seed faith family. My mustard seed faith has allowed God to bless us with a home and allowed our son to come into our family. However, there were times in this journey when I felt perhaps, this seed was not viable. Maybe this time it just wouldn't work. I mean how many times can I ask and expect an answer. Do we run out of miracles? Do we start out our life's journey with a finite number or things we are able to ask or expect of God? "Of course not!" we hasten to encourage friends. However when my wonderful husband suggested we hold a yard sale to raise money, I was less than enthusiastic. I mean we don't have a lot. What could we sell?Craig was not going to let me loose my faith and he said, "we'll ask our friends." So that is what we have done. We asked our friends, and our friends asked their friends, and our friends asked total strangers when they were out yard saleing themselves. So we will have an AMAZING yard sale this coming Saturday, October 30th at our church, New Life. The address is 2740 E. Michigan Avenue, Orlando, FL 32806.

We are so blessed because not only did we grasp on to our mustard seed of faith and step out into this yard sale journey. Our friends have taken their mustard seed of faith to help us raise the money we need to bring Aryn home. I am completely amazed and blessed beyond measure as I see the way our friends have given of their time, thier stuff, their energy, and themselves to encourage us in our adoption. Today at church we went into room 5 where the church has been placing things people have brought for our sale. It is packed! They have had to place some items in other places! I don't know why I was amazed because when we were in the middle of Isaac's adoption God totally blessed us beyond measure in 2007 when we asked friends to donate to us. But this time I wasn't really expecting Him to do it. I mean I knew that He could, I just wasn't sure that He would. I feel ashamed to admit that, but it's real. I am just so completely and totally blown away!

And it's not just things that people are giving to us to encourage us in our endeavors. We have been blessed in the past week with over $200 in donations. One man doesn't even know us! He was fellowshipping with friends of ours and I guess they were sharing about this and that and in the process our adoption came up in the conversation. What a blessing!

The amazing thing is this. At the foundations of the Earth God knew that He was going to create Craig and I. He knew that in order to build a family we would have to turn to adoption. At the foundation of the Earth He had already planned how He wanted to bless us.

There is a verse about God doing more than we could ever imagine. This isn't the verse, but it's close. If you think of the verse please let me know. If I can remember it I will come back and update the blog.

Ephesians 3:20-22
20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

So did you ever wonder what a tiny mustard seed can grow into? I mean what type of plant can this tiny seed yield anyways? I mean I've seen various types, but I like this picture the best! Are you ready? Because this is AMAZING!

Wow!!! Wow!!! Wow!!! Who knew??? Wow!!!