Friday, August 27, 2010

The Latest Good News (Warning! EX-TREME-ELY long post)

So the latest news is.....

Let's see. Since the day of our wedding; I'll start there.

A few days after our wedding A got a call from Campbell's Soup for an interview. This was a long and hard time coming. Last year A applied for a job there but didn't get on. Which made the thought "How are we going to survive another year?" go through our heads. When he did get the call....well....I looked like a crazy woman running around in circles, jumping up and down, screaming my head off....you get the picture. =)
Going back to last year for a second: God had promised A that he would get this job, so in turn we decided that we would give the first two paychecks to God.
When he got the call this year, I started praying about where we should give. I didn't want to give just to give, because we had committed it, I wanted it to be God directed. Pretty much right off, I felt like missions was the right direction. Around that time there was also a major push for missions at church; there was even a group that went on a missions trip with our Hope Core (the Apostolic Pentecostal version of Peace Core). So when he got the call, a little over a month ago, that he had gotten the job, I prayed that God would direct us to a specific missionary. Preferably one that we knew personally. I wanted to be able to hear and see first hand the experience of the missionary.
Two weeks ago yesterday, I got onto FB (facebook) and had a post on there that one of our friends (K) was going to have a car wash that Friday to support her missions trip to Beliz (south of Mexico).
The thought came to me that this might be the missionary that I've been praying about, but I wanted to be certain, so I kept praying. I decided to volunteer my time and when I got there K and another friend of ours, M, were talking about the financial issues of the trip. It struck me as weird, because I had just been praying about that in my morning devotions. "God, let your will be evident." Later on when K's Mom showed up and the subject was brought up again, K's Mom said "like you said honey, if it's God's will he will make a way" and she kinda looked at me as if to say "right?" I immediately knew that that was confirmation of what I had been praying about, right in front of me. I went and called A (my husband) and asked him how much we had left after Tithes. He told me the amount and I asked if he would be OK with us giving that amount to support K's mission trip. He agreed.
I went to K's Mom and explained to her that A and I would like to help support K. She told me that it was so sweet that we would volunteer and that she knew K was right about "if it's God's will he will make a way". When I got around to the amount she broke down and cried. She finally told me that the amount we were going to give was almost the exact amount of K's plane fare to Beliz.

(I'm gonna let that sink in for a second.)

I don't know about you, but the feeling I got when I heard that made me go weak.

Maybe it's because I was on the giving end of a miracle blessing...I don't know.

I have heard all of my life the miracles that people have experienced. Financial, spiritual, physical.

~Just enough money to pay the bills

~The Minister's family sitting down to an empty table and praying over a meal that wasn't there and the getting a knock on the door and the local grocer being there with his truck backed up to the door with a truck bed full of groceries

~Having a flat tire 150 miles from home, putting chewing gum in the hole, and making it home safely (and the moment the car comes to a stop in the driveway the gum stops working and the tire deflates)

Need I go on?

Besides the presence of Jesus, it is the most amazing feeling I have ever felt in my entire life. Whenever I relate this story to someone, I always get chills.

The next thing that happened:
A week ago today, the 2nd check came and on Friday afternoon, about 7 hours before A had to start work, I asked him where he had decided that we would be giving the check to. He told me "All Together Now" (our church building fund). The next morning, I get a text from him at 5:30 saying that he will be staying late at work. I thought nothing of it.
When he got home, he told me the reason why. He was pulled aside by M, the morning coordinator (morning supervisor). He was told that the night shift supervisor had put his name in to replace one of the transferring cooks. M told him that he would be training to be a cook.
So that might not seem all that interesting, until you read this:
A has only been working there for 3 weeks (at the time) AND the cook position (as a permanent employee, which he is not, yet) is the highest paid non-management position in the plant! I freaked when I heard this. God's promise was already coming true. The Lord had promised me last year that if A and I were faithful and obedient, that A would move through the ranks faster than anybody ever had at that company. It's already started.

The last thing that happened was this: The day before A got the call for the Campbell's interview I got a letter in the mail stating that since my parent (a disabled veteran of the the US military) has received their 100% disability rating, I was approved for eligibility of educational funding. This entails: 8 years of full tuition paid to any school in CA and a monthly stipend (income). My choice of career, Psychiatry, will take me 10 years to get my Doctorate. God is an on time, providing God.

So to sum this all up in a timeline:

June 20th ~ A gets the interview call from Campbell's
July 19th ~ I recieve the VA letter
July 20th ~ A gets the call to start work that Thursday
August 21 ~ A gets a promotion & raise

In two months time, God has blessed over and above our wildest dreams. The saying "You can't outgive God" has been more than true in our lives, this is just the latest example.

Thank you for taking the time to read my VERY long post. I hope this gave you some encouragement, uplifted your spirit in some way, or maybe just warmed your heart a little. In any case, I just couldn't keep the wonderful things that Jesus has done in our lives to myself. It's too exciting.