This the second post of a three-part blog post about some of the lessons God taught us in 2014. Check out our previous blog post to read the setup and to hear about Lesson 1: It's His Plan, His Work. Not Ours. Below, we cover two more lessons God has taught us, and we'll cover two final lessons in our next post.
Lesson 2: Wait For the Lord; God Leads, God Guides - In His Perfect Timing.
One year ago, our constant prayer was asking God for guidance for our future. Where did God want us? Should we relocate to Pennsylvania when Trey's group at work closed down their Maryland operations? Should Trey seek out a new job in the area? Trey hoped to pursue graduate school... but when, where, and what should he study?
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
- Psalm 32:8
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
- Psalm 32:8
Knowing that changes were on the horizon, in February, we talked to each other about our interest in missions work that had stayed constant for several years. We asked ourselves: What if "What if we did missions work?" became a real question - not just a hypothetical? Doing full-time missions seemed daunting, but taking a year off of normal life and away from our normal jobs to serve full-time seemed like a good way to explore the possibility, if God wanted this and would open doors for us. We began to explore opportunities and probe for open doors across the world.
Wait for the Lord;
Be strong, and let your heart take courage;
Wait for the Lord!
-Psalm 27:14
Be strong, and let your heart take courage;
Wait for the Lord!
-Psalm 27:14
Through continued prayer and conversations, and as the timing of the layoff became evident, we began to believe that God was indeed leading us to do missions work for for a year. However, we had no idea where we would go, as there were about 10 countries all over the world where doors were open. We asked God to make it clear to us where we should go, but He was quiet and we didn't sense His leading toward any place in particular. Believing that God did indeed want us to spend a year doing missions, Maggie notified her company that she would be leaving in the summer. Trey turned down the offer for relocation to/employment in Philadelphia, as well a couple other unexpected job offers that came his way in the following months, thus solidifying the fact that he would be without work after the layoff. For a couple months, we kept praying and asking God to help us know where to go, but He was silent.
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
'This is the way, walk in it,'
whenever you turn to the right hand
or whenever you turn to the left'
- Isaiah 30:21
'This is the way, walk in it,'
whenever you turn to the right hand
or whenever you turn to the left'
- Isaiah 30:21
Not knowing where we were going was hard for both of us, but not having a plan was especially challenging for Maggie, whose job centered around helping companies understand the importance of early planning for their projects! But God wanted us to know that our confidence had to be in Him, not in us, and not in our plan. In June, Trey was laid off. Maggie was planning to quit her job in July, and we were hoping to leave for a year of missions work around the end of August. Since the time was drawing near, we decided that we needed to pick a place, start moving in a direction, and trust that if God wanted to make our destination clear, He could and He would. We decided to serve at a church and teach English in rural Nepal, as the opportunity seemed to be a good one, and our contact seemed very hospitable. One night in mid-June, we decided that the next morning, we would email him to ask him a few questions and to tell him we would most likely come help in his village. We woke up to an email from Maggie's relatives in Ukraine whom we had emailed a couple months before. In addition to them just expressing that they would be happy to have us aid them in their ministry, there were numerous specific things they mentioned that made it abundantly clear to us that this was where God wanted us to serve. For example, unbeknownst to Maggie's relatives, on numerous occasions in the previous two years, Trey had expressed his desires to have a big garden someday and to work with his hands and learn to do construction. In their email, the Blessings expressed a desire to have our help with several different tasks, two of which were helping with their large garden and working on small construction projects on the ministry house they are in the process of building! A few other things in their email happened to perfectly align with our desires as well. After a long period of silence, when God taught us about waiting on Him, He made it perfectly clear where we should go. How wonderful that God is faithful to lead us, and that we can trust Him to do so in His timing!
Lesson 3: God Provides - In His Perfect Timing.
We were hoping to leave around the end of August, so as you can imagine from the timing described above, once we decided to go to Ukraine (in mid- to late-June), we really needed to hit the ground running with planning, as we were less than 10 weeks from when we hoped to leave. However, in the month following our decision, Maggie had business trips to New Orleans, Calgary, and Los Angeles; we also had a week-long family cruise and were helping lead a week-long missions trip with about 20 high school students to the Dominican Republic. Because of all this travel, we could do very little planning before Maggie quit her job in July. We had to trust God that He had allowed this timing, that He would enable us to get everything arranged in time, and that He would provide the finances for our trip. We started working on a budget immediately after deciding on Ukraine, and contacted the Blessings for insight into living costs in L'viv and to start making plans.
And my God will supply every need of yours
according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 4:19
according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 4:19
We finished gathering addresses for a support letter in early July and we completed our initial budget and support letter draft at the end of July. We told our landlord we would move out by the end of August, and we bought plane tickets to fly out on September 2nd, trusting that God would provide the finances. With the help of Maggie's family, we addressed and mailed out our support letter at the beginning of August - one month before we would leave. This seemed like an impossible timeline to raise enough financial support for a whole year overseas, but we knew that God was sovereign over the timing He chose, so we trusted that He would work it out. We didn't get a official financial report from the Blessing Ministry until we were already in Ukraine, but it turned out that the last of the support we had requested in our letter came in the night before we left! Praise God! (As a side note, thankfully, God prompted several people to contribute to our trip after this time as well, because some actual costs have been a bit higher than we estimated, and we forgot to budget for a couple of things, so our initial budget would not have been sufficient for the year.) It was humbling and wonderful to watch Him provide through so many people. How wonderful to worship the same God that Abraham worshiped thousands of years ago; Jehovah-Jireh - the Lord will provide.