Several weeks ago, the Hubs came down from an extended rendezvous with the magical spreadsheet of glory. That’s the one where he keeps track of our incomings and outgoings, and our multiple bank accounts in three different countries and three different currencies. Inside the multiple tabs of awesomeness, he can type in the latest exchange rate and everything will update.
Sorry this post isn’t about that, it’s really just a thing of organizational beauty, and just one more reason why the hubs is a hero.
Moving on.
The Hubs came downstairs and said we probably had a decision to make: rent or health insurance. The numbers didn’t indicate that we were going to be able to pay for both in the coming month. Which was kind of concerning since we also have an international move in front of us. And those aren’t cheap. Part of the problem was that our health insurance hadn’t reimbursed us for the cost of the 9 minutes of labour and delivery which were the arrival of Baby Brother.
Waiting on several thousand Rands worth of reimbursement, which were the result of a data entry error on the part of our gynecologist’s assistant, and seeing that the assistant was in no hurry to correct her error, the picture was a little bleak for getting things sorted out. (And even with the reimbursement back in our bank account, things were still going to be tight.)
We knew that it wasn’t just a matter of rent or health insurance, though. We knew behind door number three, God could come through and do something to make a way for us. We decided to pray and trust that He would lead us. We prayed, and felt like we should wait.
After church the next day, we arrived home to a message from a friend on Facebook who had shared about our ministry and our move with a foundation back in the States. The news: they’d met the night before and decided to send us a gift. A big one. If it came in in time, it would cover our rent, our health insurance and the cost of shipping our stuff to the States. And we’d have money left over to buy the Bear an ice cream cone, his daily request when he sees the ice cream shop while we’re on the way home from the gym.
We knew this was God’s way of answering our prayers. It was like He was saying “Hold on, help is coming…just trust Me and hang in there.”
But four weeks later, there was no sign of the big check.
It started to feel like we were facing the mountain again, with everything ahead of us and no certainty on how things would come together. As doubt grew in our hearts, we knew we had to hold on to God. Whether or not the check comes in, God is our portion and our provision.
In God we trust.
We didn’t have the funds at the beginning of the month, and our gyne’s assistant was dragging her feet about the reimbursement. Our bank contacted us to find out what they should do, since we were about to be in overdraft. When we explained our situation, they were kind enough to simply wait a couple of days for the reimbursement to come through and square things up…free of charge!
We knew somehow God was saying it was going to be okay, and, indeed, it was.
There wasn’t a huge mountain tumbling into the sea moment — it was more like we just stepped over a little molehill in our path.
Finally, about five weeks later, the check we were expecting arrived in the P.O. Box of the ministry that handles our gifts. We were incredibly encouraged that God came through and made this provision for us — and as our job is about to transition, this is the perfect timing for this gift, to cover our moving costs and help with the time we’re between homes and jobs. And we can get the Bear that ice cream.
In God we continue to trust.
“Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; That the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see {it} together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” {Isaiah 40: 4&5, NAS}
In SO many ways provision has been magically appearing and things have been coming together for us in this transition. I’d like to share a few more stories of how God has been paving the way for us, on our road to North Carolina…so come back tomorrow for Part Two!
xCC
This post turned into a bit of a series! Here are the links to each part…
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He is awesome and greatly to be praised!