God's hand is in it all

Wow....I can't end the fundraising part of our missions trip story without telling SOME of the ways God used us to touch his children and them to touch us . What a personal God we serve! He is sooo one on one isn't he! Of course raising the money, not just for 1 of us but for both, a month before it was due is amazing enough ,but there is so much more to the story than that. I told you of the letters we wrote and how we were blessed with different amounts of money..but I didn't tell you that while my aunt and mom were praying for our finances to be met God laid upon my aunts heart that someone was going to give us a check for $1,000.00. Sure enough it came to pass. No, they do not know each other,they even live in different states. The only way they are connected is they both know Chas and I.....and no, the family who gave us that check had no way of knowing what had been said. We do worship a supernatural God. Soo cool. While egging we had 2 older ladies invite us in...they had no cash to give , except coins in jars, of which they poured out into plastic bags to give to us, insisting we take it. They also took our names so they could pray for us and the trip:) WoW. Do you not think of the poor woman giving all that she had,although it wasn't much ? How Jesus saw it and had it written for us all to read in his word. How pleased he had to be on this day. Pure Love. Having so many people give to us in small and huge amounts was so amazing, and warms my heart to think about it now..I'm sure it always will.We had a family invite all of us up on the porch, while egging, and they had everyone in their family come out of their home and we all held hands while the husband/dad of the family led us in prayer. What a blessing in itself, but his prayer was confirmation of the devotion I had done with Chas on the sacrifices she was making for God, for this trip, and he truly touched on it the same way I had done, again that supernatural way that only our God can orchestrate. After leaving a man's home who refused to egg us,(still gave us a $5 bill ) we started on down his road. Turning back at the end, we saw him walking towards us. You could see he was not in walking shape. He walked slowly and deliberatly. He gave us a $20 bill and come to find out, he was an evangelist who was no longer able to get out, he said God brought us to him so he could give his offering to the Lord. I always tear up when rembering this. What an amazing, amazing love our God has for us. And we thought we were just fundraising for our missions trip.The plans God has for us are soo much better than we could ever ever dream of!!While selling our mixes in front of wal-mart, I was able to speak with a young lady about her own dreams of being a missionary, yet feeling she wasn't good enough.I felt like we were placed there just for her. A older gentleman was also able to reach out to us for help, because he knew we were Christians. God set us there for his child, who had no one,after losing his wife.Just because we are Christians. With great power comes great responsiblity. There were countless others who would not just give their money , but words of encouragement, that truly blessed us and gave us what we needed to get through those draining days that seemed to be so hard at the time. BAM, God would use one of his children to speak to us at just the right time with just the right words. Being told that a lady didn't have any money to give but that she would put us on her missionary prayer list was sooo cool. Just being called a missionary set both of our hearts on fire, making us ready to go to the next door and the next...until there were no more doors! This happened alot. In person and even in prayer over the phone. May we all allow God to work through us as well as to us! Thank You Thank You Thank You My GOD!!!!!! We kept a coffee can with all our missions money in it. After paying our first payment it left our can empty. It was such an overwhelming feeling to think we would have to fill it again, and again, and again. My sister talked to me right after the can was empty for the first time. After praying, she said she was sending us a check to get it started. Even better was her god given idea to take a piece of paper and write REPLENISHED on it, because that is what God does for us.I did it, (on a heart shape actually) and everytime the can became empty I was reminded of how God would fill it again.It would start out a paper heart on the bottom of an empty can and end up being on top of a pile of bills,checks, and coins making up all we would need everytime.. I will let God use that same lesson and word in other areas of my life. It, like the other wonderfully God touched things that happened during fundraising ,will be carried on in our everyday walk. And I thought we were just raising money for our missions trip. Just the tip of the iceburg......Praises and thanks to you Father God :) !!!