First of all I would like to explain the meaning of the name of this blog.... "Putting my yes on the table." I read this book called Sent by Hilary Alan. It is about this family who gave up the "American Dream" and moved their family to Southeast Asia. It is an awesome book and I would recommend it to anyone. It really brings light to a completely different culture from ours and really how well we have it. But it also shows how a radical and scary step of faith brings blessings and rewards that money can't buy.
But in this book when her and her husband first felt called to move, her husband, Curt consulted with his pastor, JD. JD said at the time, "Just put your 'yes' on the table, Curt. 'Yes, Lord, I will do what You ask me to do and go where You send me. No conditions.' And then wait for Him to answer. Your job is to put, and keep, that 'yes' on the table, because believe me, if you do that, He is going to answer." So I pray everyday that no matter what it comes to that God will help me keep my 'yes' on the table concerning every matter of my life. 'Yes, Lord, I will do what You ask of me.' The no conditions part is whats really hard. We all tend to want to say, 'I will Lord but only if.....' I pray that I will just simply say 'YES.' Here is a picture of the book in case you want to get a copy. 
So anyway, back to our confirmations on Africa. We knew our next step would be a short term mission trip. The Africa trip was a trip that we had briefly heard about but I dismissed the trip because it was a 10 day trip as opposed to 7 & for me at the time that was out of the question. Not to mention is was much further away than say Honduras or Nicaragua. My 'yes' definitely had some conditions.
We signed up for a class at church at the suggestion of our GO (global outreach) pastor, Jeff. It was called 'Let The Nations Be Glad.' This class was obviously about mission work and was led by one of the other missionary couples that would soon be moving to Uganda, Tommy & Marci. At the end of our 2nd class meeting we ran into our pastor, Mike. As we began to talk about the class and what we thought of it he brought up the Africa trip. He really seemed to think this trip would be a good trip for us as our first mission trip. I, of course, voiced my concerns about the length of the trip and he assured me we could come back early if we just couldn't be away that long. So the Africa trip became an option for us and we began to prayerfully consider it.
A few days later I was driving to my Mom's house while David was at work and I was listening to Big Daddy Weave's song 'Overwhelmed.' If you have never heard it I urge you to look it up and listen to it. It is an awesome praise song. It basically talks about how overwhelmingly great God is and His creation. Now, I have literally listened to this song 100 times before (I just love it) and thought I was well past the crying phase. (You know when you hear a song that moves you and makes you cry but eventually you finally can hear it and not cry anymore?) But this particular time I literally just started crying and worshiping God right in my car (with 2 kids in the back and driving down the road.....yes, people beside me at the red lights must have thought I had lost it). For some reason I had the greatest urge to go on that Africa trip. I literally would have gotten out of my car and boarded a plane right there. It is so hard to explain the enormity of what I felt that day. God's presence was all around me and it was, as the song states, overwhelming (in a magnificent way)!
Now, when I get a "feeling" about something I most definitely like to get confirmation from God on it because lets face it, our feelings can be deceptive and the Devil loves to use them against us. Once again God didn't make me wait long for that confirmation.
When David came home from work he told me he had been praying all day about the Africa trip and for God to give us guidance on that. On his 40 minute drive home he was praying the whole way home and he said this song came on the radio that he had never heard before. This awesome worship song. During that song he said he got this overwhelming sense that Africa was the trip we were meant to be on. He said the experience he had was indescribable.
I reluctantly told him about the experience I had that same day. I say reluctantly because honestly even though I felt the urge to go I knew that once I revealed my experience to David that it would seal my fate and there would be no turning back.....I would be going to Africa!
A couple days later we were in church on Sunday morning and our choir sang this song. It was amazing! They did such an awesome job! I had chills all over. At the end of the service as people were leaving they were playing the song in the background and David said, "That's the song I heard in my car that I was telling you about." God was confirming David's feelings to him. Thanks to my shazam app on my phone I learned the song was called 'O My Soul, Arise' by Sovereign Grace. Here is a link to this incredible song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtFzhLGJAPg
So sometime shortly after all that happened we scheduled a time to meet up with our GO pastor, Jeff (who is also going on the Africa trip) and discuss the details. We were going to Jeff's house on a Saturday evening to sit down with him and his wife and another extraordinary thing happened.....
I began using my direct sales business to raise money for our trip right away. I had made enough to get our passports so the week leading up to our scheduled meeting we got all that taken care of. After paying for 2 passports our "Africa Account" had only $60 in it. On Friday night I prayed to God and basically questioned if this was really what we were meant to be doing. I mean we need about $4,000 and only had $60 at the time. It seemed like a major undertaking to get enough people who were willing to help fund our trip. Lets be honest, I didn't have enough faith that God would pull through. I was doubting and worrying.
The next morning, Saturday and the day we were meeting up with Jeff, I had a message on my facebook account from an old friend whom I had not been in contact with in years. She wanted to donate money to us for our trip and wondered if she could stop by our house that day and drop it off.
For those of you that know me well you know how hard it is for me to take money from someone. I am proud and I want to work for everything I get. But David told me I was going to have to get over that and let people do what they feel called to do.
So I texted her and she stopped by my house that afternoon. Her and her husband amazingly felt led to give us a substantial amount of money for our trip. WOW.... I am still in shock about it! I would have been thrilled with $5 but God knew that it had to be something greater than that to wipe the doubt out of my mind. It was just so astounding to me! I think I walked around in a state of shock for a few days. I don't know why I am so surprised that my God can do great things.
I would like to add a little side note here, who and how much you give is a private issue between you and God so for that reason I chose to leave her name and the exact amount out of this blog.
Some other awesome people have stepped up to help us out in our fundraising efforts in one way or another. We are soooo grateful for each and every one of you. My mobile spa business has brought in about $800 (thank you to my awesome hostesses & customers).
I did an online Celebrating Home party. Another amazing individual bought me a kit to sell. So whatever I sold out of that kit I made 100% of the sales price. As of right now we are still working on raising $1,300 more. T-shirts will be our next avenue that we are going to start working on soon. So stay tuned for those.
It is so exciting to see God work!
"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)
He can do way more than we can even begin to imagine! Just look outside and see His creation and what He has already done. Think of how perfectly your body works to keep you alive, or how massive and amazing the galaxies are, or how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly! I could go on and on about how wonderfully He created us and this Earth. He did all that and yet I had my doubts that He could provide for us financially to go to Africa. It seems so silly of me when I think of all that He has already done including sacrificing His son for us.
Stay tuned, I still have more ways God confirmed our trip and what about my kids? I haven't left them for more than 2 days so how in the world am I going to leave them to go to Africa for a week? I'll tell you about how God spoke to me concerning this matter too.
I would like to add too before I go, I didn't create this blog to make much of David and I. I created it to be an encouragement to those who read it, to be a testimony that God is still in the business of performing miracles, to make you remember times in your life that God moved mountains, to make you more aware of Him and to pay attention to those times that He is trying to guide you, or to introduce you to my God, if you don't know Him yet, and to share the greatest news with you. That God sent his son, Jesus to bear our sin and die on a cross so that we have a way to Heaven.
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