France: A Lesson in Faith, part un

We returned from a week-long trip to France to catch a vision of what God is doing and wants to do in a small town located on the Cote d’Azur. From the beginning, this trip was an exercise in faith-building 101. Mike had challenged us to consider the yes stowed away in our hearts that we were not yet giving to God and France was the last place in my mind that I would have perceived God’s call in my life right now. But I prayed and wrestled with the socketing void in which He and I were dwelling. Boldly, I asked for the time off, knowing school is coming up soon and thinking they wouldn’t give me the time off, and my boss didn’t flinch when she said, “yes.”

Work was the biggest obstacle I could foresee with going on the trip. Intrinsically, I knew He would supply the provision to go. And then, I started talking to people about the trip. The overarching responses received was that other people decided not to go because “they would enjoy it too much; they needed to go someplace hard; remember you’re not going on vacation…” things of that strain. These responses baffled me a little but I felt strongly enough about going that if I couldn’t raise support because people thought I was going on “vacation,” I would take care of the end result.

God had other plans. One Monday, I checked in with the church to find out how much had been donated, so I could begin thank you notes and found out that in addition to two supporters I was already grateful for, an anonymous donor in Texas supplied the entire amount. I felt so excited for the generosity of spirit of the anonymous donor and that they chose to not herald with trumpets that grandiose beautiful gift they were giving back to God. Very cool.

In the end, our team raised more than the support needed and we will be able to supply the church planters in France with a check to help with ministry expenses. Blessed to be a blessing indeed…