He Makes Molehills Out of Mountains, Part Two

Jun 14, 2011 | Stories, The Good Word

Yesterday I was sharing the tale of one of the molehills that the Lord turned one of our mountains into. In His perfect timing, He made provision for our rent, our move, and then some. (Some ice cream, to be more specific.)

Not long before any of that great stuff (from yesterday’s tale) took place, we were facing a different mountain. Our gypsy-like movements over the course of our marriage have not been conducive to the establishment of a nice credit line, as it would appear in the eyes of a modern bank, for example.

Allow me to explain why that matters. We got a free credit report and sent it along to a friend of ours who is a mortgage consultant. Between that and our recent taxes, she was able to calculate what we were likely to be able to get, with regard to a mortgage, when we got back to the States. Our hope was to spend a few months with my Mom settling in, and then look for a home to buy.

{Because after all this time, it would be really nice if we could finally start paying our own mortgage, instead of renting, and basically paying someone else’s.}

So our friend ran the numbers and came back to us with a picture that just. weren’t. purty. The numbers were not looking good. I recently saw an advertisement where people could pay that amount of money for thirty-six months to have one room in their home nicely furnished and decorated. Dang. {Who does that, by the way???}

Although it was discouraging to think that our dream of moving toward owning our own home might still be a dream for quite a while longer, we immediately said to each other, “It’s in the Lord’s hands. Maybe He has something else in mind.” And almost in jest, HH said, “Maybe he has a plan to give us a place to stay rent-free so that we can save up and pay down our debt!”

Though it looked like we were facing another mountain of discouragement, we decided to trust God, and just leave it in His hands.

Not more than two days later, I was on the phone with my Mom and she was telling me about how the rest of her Mother’s Day had gone. (I’d called her earlier that morning to wish her a good one.) She’d spent it with her niece/my cousin/my Mama’s brother’s daughter, and her mother/my aunt/my Mama’s brother’s wife, who live a couple hours away.

As we were about to hang up, she said, “Oh, I almost forgot! {Your cousin} mentioned that you guys could think about staying in your Aunt’s house after you get back. They need to do some renovations before they can sell it and she said if you’d be willing to oversee the work, you can stay there for free. You’d just have to pay the electric bill. Just an idea for you to think about.”

I think HH and I got off the phone and just blinked at each other for a minute. We’d just made the decision to trust the Lord about this, and already He was demonstrating His ability to provide when we just weren’t sure how it would come together.

You can still come back from spying out the land with a good report — even if that doesn’t agree with your credit report! God can make a way where there seems to be no way!

And you still ain’t heard nothing yet! So come back tomorrow for another mountain to molehill tale!

xCC

He Makes Molehills out of Mountains

Jun 12, 2011 | Stories, The Good Word

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…

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

The Conclusion