favor in His eyes...

So much has happened since my last post that it's literally taken me this long to process His grace! No, really. I have already been forewarned that posts are better kept short so I'll go ahead now and apologize for what's about to be a novel. It's my blog and I need to document my thoughts so you can truly see God in my story. Somehow, after all my prayers for the last 5 months, I have found favor in His eyes. So this one? THIS ONE'S A MUST READ!

I must first thank each of you for your prayers and donations and kind words and for entering the Radical giveaway and for keeping me in your thoughts and for sharing my journey with your friends and for sending me an ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF VISITORS and for loving my run-on sentences! Seriously, people, I've had like 500+ visitors since I posted the Radical giveaway...and I went ahead and blocked my own IP address so I wouldn't register on the tracker! Oddly enough, I've only had 30+ entries to the contest. But the donations? Oh, I've had more donations from perfect strangers than I have from people I know, even if they are just Facebook friends. It's the craziest thing I've EVER seen. Crazy, but all God-orchestrated! And believe me, every little bit helps! So if God has laid it on your heart to be help me serve His children by donating to my mission trip fund, DO IT! When you see the pictures that I post during my trip, your heart will smile knowing that your donation helped get me there! I am sooo thrilled that you all want to be part of my journey God's journey through me. So again, thank you!

Now, if what I'm about to share with you does not completely have you sitting here with your mouth open in awe of God, something is wrong! :) As many of you know, I had 2 trips to choose from. One was the trip to Uganda with One Way Ministries that I talked about in this post. I was waiting on that team to return from a mission trip in Guatemala. Then Sheryl was going to check with their travel agent about finding me a flight and adding me to the trip. Then one night I was chatting with my friend Rachel, whom I met on Facebook, about her upcoming trip to Uganda. She was excited to find out that we would be there at the same time and contacted me to find out the details of my trip.

It was during that conversation that she would utter the words that would change the course of my life. She said, "if that trip doesn't work out, you are more than welcome to go with me!" I admit, at first I blew it off because she was going alone and although she mentioned living there for 3 months last year, I was thinking the safest route would be for me to go with a team. I was discussing with her the completely overwhelming feeling I had about having to raise $4000 to go on the other trip and how I was struggling trusting God to provide and she said, "You are great and I know God is preparing you for great things! I know how it is to raise money, I have done it LOTS for missions. God ALWAYS provides, He has never let me down." We talked some more and before she had to go, she left me with this: "Remember that God owns a thousand cattle on a thousand hillsides and He can sell one for you, bye."

That was at 4pm on Friday. God was working in my heart for this girl! He burdened me with stepping out in faith and not giving up on the one girl that had provided more insight into His own heart than most people ever know. So I waited patiently for her to log back onto Facebook (which I will from here on out refer to as FB), and she showed up after midnight. I was sooo extremely intrigued with how God placed her on my heart that I was desperate to find out more about her trip. If you haven't already figured out, my heart is the ruler of everything I have done in the last 5 months. That is where the Holy Spirit dwells within me. And like I saw on a church sign not too long ago: If God is your co-pilot, swap seats! So she finally signed back onto FB and we chatted for probably 2 hours about anything and everything. She has her Masters in Public Health and lived in Uganda for 3 months last year during which she did health assessments on villages so that she could return and implement solutions for them. So this is the trip where she will make good what she promised them last year.

During our conversation, I was toggling back and forth from FB to my blog when I noticed I had a new comment. The new comment read "I too live in Birmingham and just found your blog. I hope this will cover your trip!!! God will ALWAYS get his family to help each other out!!!" It was like 1:30AM and my brain was barely functioning so I had no idea what "I hope this will cover your trip" meant. It took about 5 mins before I even THOUGHT to check Paypal. But when I did, I found God! He had really worked some love into my account from a sister in Christ that I had never met before and had NO friends in common with on FB. Seriously, HOW did this woman find me? My blog was brand spankin' new and it wasn't even searchable in Google. I was floored! I immediately shared my good news with Rachel and she filled me in on who sent the woman...GOD! And she was right! The woman added me on FB the next day and sent me a message. I confirmed her as a friend and immediately inquired about how she found me. Her response: It must have been God. Seriously, people! God has this thing rigged!!!

But the story doesn't end there. Stick with me, I'm a talker. I try to paint the story exactly how it was imprinted in my heart so if you want a 2-3 minute story of just the highlights, you have come to the wrong place!

It was now 2AM and I had a yard sale to be running in a few short hours. I said goodnight to Rachel and tried my hardest to go to sleep but I couldn't. My mind was running with thoughts of this mysterious woman finding me and about Rachel and her enormous heart for the people in Uganda and about faces of the children on the Agape Total Childcare Center website that she sent me right before we said goodnight. This is the orphanage where Rachel said I could spend some nights. These are the children that I could tuck into bed those nights. These are the faces that I would see as I woke them up in the mornings and served them breakfast before they left for school. I finally fell to sleep that night but it was not easy. I must've gotten 4 hours of sleep when Derrick woke me up to get ready for the yard sale. I was dragging. Oh, was I dragging. Then I remembered the night before and all of a sudden, I had a little spring in my step. During the yard sale, I shared my story with every single person that walked up. I told them about how I was "living radically in my sister's basement" so I could save money for a trip to love on who Jesus refers to as "the least of these" and how I had just recently found out about a second trip that I could take if the first one didn't pan out. People walked away from the yard sale promising to pray for me. It was nothing short of amazing.

On Sunday, Derrick and Melinda went to take Alex to Alexander City, our hometown. He was sooo excited to go stay with Derrick's parents so he could take swimming lessons this week. So I had the day to myself to pray about God's will and let Him know that I was fully ready to surrender to His plan for my life. I was ready for Him to pick my destination. And let me tell you, that is no easy feat! My mind started to get the WHAT IF SYNDROME! What if I pick the wrong trip? What if I can't meet anyone and share the love of Jesus? After all, this trip is not only about hugging some orphans or providing a lap for them to sit in. This is about spreading the Gospel to the lost, even if that means sharing it with the orphanage workers who will, in turn, share it with those that are too young to understand yet. Sure, I'll hold them and love on them but my purpose was so much bigger.

Sunday afternoon was my first of 4 Impact classes at church. David spoke to our class for an hour out of that time. Since the classes last from 4-5:45, we will be going to the 6PM service for the next 3 weeks. The class let out and we snagged FRONT ROW SEATS!!! Check out what we get to see while Dr. David Platt preaches the Gospel! Nothing fancy about it is there? It looks like the dump of some of the poorest nations in the world!



And get this...his sermon was entitled "WALKING IN WISDOM" and the very first thing in our notes was: The Question We Anxiously Ask... What is God's will for my life?

Like, are you kidding me, God? Is this man about to preach on what we've been discussing all weekend? Is he about to shed some insight into how You are going to lead me if I will only ask? So yes, after 1 1/2 hours of me with my mouth hanging open, he closed with this: The Answer We Gladly Receive...God desires for me to know and follow His will so much that He lives in me and leads me to accomplish it. I was blown away!

So I spent the rest of the night praying and asking God to give me wisdom that I so desperately needed and to guide me in His wisdom wherever He wants me to go. Another sweet friend-I've-never-met signed onto FB chat and while we were discussing the 2 trips and how I wish God would just give me clear direction, I shared the link to the orphanage website with her. It was then that I ran across a picture that rocked me to my core:



Like, seriously, God??? Does this say Alexander City Water Tap? I mean, what clearer direction can you give? I've asked you before to send me an email but this...this is too much! If you'll remember a couple paragraphs back, I am from a little city in Alabama called Alexander City! I told Alaina to go to pic #11 and she said, "Hey, isn't that where you're from?" I still stand amazed at how she just recalled that from my profile in an instant, as I am friends with so many new people that I can't tell you in an instant where they're all from. So yeah, we decided that God was at work here! He had heard my prayers about needing clear direction and He knew my struggles with not wanting to pick the wrong trip. Instead, He knew that I wanted Him to give me my destination. Wow, when He is serious, it gets serious! I looked for Rachel but she wasn't online.

The next day Alaina sent me a FB message that said, "Isaiah 30:21. I thought of this verse this morning when I was praying about which trip you should go on." So I went to my Bible and found that Isaiah 30:21 says, "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." I immediately added it to my blog header and it serves as not only how He was about to direct my next steps, but it also ties into my whole Compass In My Heart theme!!! I spent the rest of the day making a futile attempt to play out some pros and cons in my head. My mind kept going back to Rachel and her heart for these kids and I longed for her to sign on so I could figure out this whole Alexander City Water Tap thing! That's when even crazier things started happening! I made 2 comments within a short amount of time during which the security/captcha thing contained the word Uganda and I typed it in and clicked OK before I thought to get a pic of it. The very next one said...


Yes, God, that is my goal - defend the ones who can not defend themselves and I will do it with all my heart! Then, as if the day couldn't get any crazier, I got this one...


Again...seriously, God? I can't breathe here! I thought You wanted to help me, not land me in the ER. I get it, you can stop now. This is too much for one day...too much! When Derrick got home, I decided to take a break from the computer and run check my PO Box. Yeah, God wasn't done with me. In there I found this:


There was no return address or anything, so I immediately posted the pic to FB and asked who was responsible for the tears I was crying! The package was from a guy from my hometown, Daniel, and his wife. She had these made for me so I could use them send letters from Africa, or maybe request donations from some local business owners. WOW! This kinda stuff just DOES NOT happen to me. Like, before this new life, get gifts, I gave gifts! God is REALLY blessing me!

Rachel signed on that afternoon and oddly enough asked if we should do a pros and cons list. I'm NOT kidding. But before that, I had to know about this Alexander City Water Tap thing!! So here's her story: "The guy who owns the orphanage is from Rwanda and he came here to Alabama as a refugee. He had a very lucrative construction business before God called him back to Uganda to develop and run an orphanage. The people that helped fund the water tap and drilling of the well were from Alexander City, AL." Did you catch that? Did she just say that the people who drilled the well were from my hometown? Have you picked yourself up off the floor yet? I'm in awe as I type. I could re-live this moment over and over and over again! Alexander City is a small town and how in the world someone from there ended up drilling a well in Uganda is craziness! Is it possible that God sent them there before me to do this so it would provide clear direction for me? You know, He DOES go before us and make a way! God is at work here, people!

It was in that moment that my decision was made. I tossed the whole pros and cons and told Rachel that I'd be joining her on this trip. It was in that moment that I made the crazy FB update that said "I am DONE. God has just spoken to me for the LAST time today. I can't take it anymore!!! Oh, this is too much!!!" Under my update, my friend Kelly wrote "Hang in there sweet friend!" and Keri wrote "Thinking about you constantly. It is exciting to see God working." and Jennifer wrote "He is speaking loud and clear, My Dear! :)" but they had no idea what was going on right now!!! I spent the rest of the night searching for a flight that matched Rachels. It was no where to be found. I went to bed with mixed emotions. Had God brought me this far to turn me away now?

That night, I dreamed this and posted it as a FB status update:
I dreamed I was teaching little brown hands how to correctly fold the corners of the wrapping paper on Christmas gifts. Soooo, either I will be in Africa again for Christmas or I will be at one of your houses. But please, people, don't fight amongst yourselves. There's enough of me to go around! ;)

After breakfast, I turned the TV on for Marlie so I could continue searching for a flight. One small problem...I didn't have the money to book the flight. I mean, collectively I had enough but some was in Paypal, some was in my savings account, the other was in a check I had yet to cash. I couldn't possibly get all that worked out at that moment. To make matters worse, the flights had gone up from $2400 to $2700 and that was before taxes! An angel then appeared to me in the form of an email from a friend stating that I could use her credit card to book the flight and just pay her back! Sure, she'd offered that before but it was several months ago when I was planning to go to Haiti! AND it was for a plane ticket that was more like $700, not $2500!!! I was stoked! I spent the next few hours praying and searching but coming up empty! I sought out prayers on FB and decided to take a much needed break from the computer. I prayed and the computer kept calling my name so 45 mins later I decided to give it another look. I found the flight and tried to book it but I failed to get the exp date from her. I called her...no answer! I sent her a FB message AND a text...and then the unthinkable happened! The session timed out! I frantically searched for the flight but it was gone! Then I got a text with the exp date! 10 mins later I found not just a comparable flight but I found the EXACT flight...AND it was now $2300+ ($2500 TOTAL)!!! I won't bore you with all the other edge-of-my-seat details that made up the next hour of my life but it was CRAZINESS! It was then time to make the best post yet on FB:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! I submitted my travel request to God & HE APPROVED! I have a playdate with some orphans in Uganda, the lost in the villages that practice witchcraft & the street kids that don't know they have a Father who loves them! A dear friend stepped forward & allowed me to use her CC to book my... flight. She's the SAME friend that gave me my very first donation for Haiti...which is now Uganda!

But it didn't stop there! I posted a link again for my "Radical giveaway" because I had just stepped out in faith and committed all of my donations thus far to a plane ticket and really needed God to move some hearts to donate to the remainder of my trip. So when I went to post the link, guess what popped up! Check THIS out...


I have no more words...