My love for travel exceeds my budget. I dreamed of tiptoeing through the tulips in the Netherlands. A sweet dream that I always had.
And then my precious husband planned a trip to Holland (Holland, Michigan), for the tulip festival!
It’s like God surprises me with the most joyous things. I gave Him the desires of my heart, and He brings them to life!
The beauty of the tulips was breathtaking, and their memory of love to me is lavish.
Kathy
I think of our first foster child. A drug addicted newborn picked up from the hospital on his third day of life.
Ayden was in our custody for 12 1/2 months. We did not know if he would be returned to his troubled parents, adopted by a family, or if God would clearly tell us to adopt him.
The court quickly determined he would not return to his parents and that he should be adopted, but to whom? Both parents wanted a Christian couple; the court wanted an adoption through the state, most probably to a homosexual couple.
We prayed unceasingly. Friends prayed, our church prayed.
After much prayer, God changed the judge in the morning of the determination from a judge agreeing with the state, to a Christian judge who decided to choose foster parents.
Aiden is almost 40 now and was raised in a beautiful Christian home with parents who adore him and raised him in the nurturing admonition of the Lord.
Stephanie M
Where do I begin? There have been so many times when God has made the impossible possible. One of my powerful stories is our family’s teen challenge and a Christian-based rehab program in Brockton, Massachusetts.
My middle sister’s son got into terrible trouble with a friend of his. They were headed to jail. I prayed God would move the mountains, as it is written in scripture.
I went to court with both boys, explained about the teen challenge program, and not once but twice, the judge said, “Yes, they need to go there. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but yes”. God moved the mountains. What I specifically prayed for!
It was a time in my life that I believe He, the great I am, showed me Himself!
My relationship has grown deeper and deeper because I believe in the impossible.
There was a time my husband told me he didn’t believe in God. This broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. He was brought up in a church his grandfather was a Methodist minister, yet he still didn’t believe in God.
He used to believe, but through misfortune we lost everything and he turned from God. He allowed the enemy to put thoughts in his head that if there was a God, we wouldn’t have lost everything.
His straying from God, led him to stray from his family and our marriage. At this time, I grew closer to God. What satan meant for harm, God turned into good.
In my journey with God, He out many wonderful God-fearing people in my life. There was much healing and growing that I needed to do. I needed to get closer to God. In this journey I learned to release my husband to God through prayer.
Not only was I praying, but as I shared my story, others prayer for my husband, our marriage and family. These prayers were heard and answered by God. He chased after my husband’s heart.
After many years of running, my husband accepted the Lord and was baptized. We were baptized together.
There are still many struggles, but little by little, much healing is occurring and a relationship is being built by my husband’s choice, not by pressure from me. A miracle!
Jennifer
Seeing God at work in the ordinary things of life
Our experience of leaving our home in South Africa in 1997 to relocate to Australia held many challenges. One of them was selling our house. It was during this time that we saw God at work for us, in a wonderful way!
Moving house is never easy. And leaving one’s home to go to new country is not for the faint hearted. The house went on the market, and we received an offer. The offer, however, fell through and so we started looking for another buyer. Time was marching on, and it got closer and closer to our departure date, and we had no one to buy our house. We were getting panicky. Our other option was to rent the house out, but to rent and be far away from your property is never a good idea, so we were hesitant to go down that path.
Finally, the departure date had been set. We were getting on to the plane to go to Australia on a Wednesday. The week before our departure, the removalists came to pack up all our goods. There were boxes everywhere, dust, packing tape and paper- it was a mess. The Friday afternoon before we were to leave, someone came to our gate. It was a lady with a bandage around her knee. She said she had visited the doctor for her sore knee, and he had told her that our house was for sale. He was a colleague of my husband’s, and they lived not far from where we lived. She wanted to see the house, but the house was not in a great state! I agreed she could have a look through the house, but did not hold out much hope that this would be the answer to our prayers. She hobbled through the house with her bandaged knee, walked around the property, and left. Well, I thought, that is the end of that.
But, to my surprise, we had a call from this lady over the weekend. She said, “I want to make you an offer on your house”! It turned out to be a very reasonable offer and a cash offer at that. We were delighted! On our way to the airport, the next Wednesday, we signed the papers to exchange ownership and received our money into our bank account. In our minds, this was a miracle. It could not have happened without God’s intervention. We were desperate, but he supplied our need. This experience remains one that strengthens our faith!
Deanna