Wednesday

The week after we left candidate training at Africa Inland Mission in February, we saw the breakdown of our needed outgoing expenses.  The $37,000 bottom line nearly made my jaw hit the floor.  I had guessed that $15,000 sounded like a plenty large enough number to have to raise, on top of thousands of dollars worth of monthly support.  We were thinking that monthly support, requiring churches and believers to commit to a constant withdraw from their bank accounts in order to supply our needs, would be the most difficult thing to raise.  Looking at a that five digit figure made us change our minds.  "Where exactly does $37,000 come from," I thought.  We certainly didn't have it to offer and didn't know where we would encounter that kind of money.

Of course, we didn't expect to find it from one source.  We've made many contacts and faithfully, the Lord has provided through an abundance of sacrificial gifts.  Also, because we don't receive any financial support from AIM until we leave for the field, our monthly supporters who have begun sending to AIM already have helped grow our outgoing account significantly.

A large miscommunication happened over the past months as we have been trying to track the amount of money being donated to our account.  Of course, we've received many gifts which we have passed along to AIM to be deposited into our outgoing fund.  But, when gifts are given online, or as monthly support is sent straight to AIM, we have a more difficult time tracking our financial status.  So, over the past months, as we have prepared to send out our update letters, we have asked our "go-to" person at AIM the balance of our outgoing expenses.  Each month we received a percentage.  And each month we have been blown away at the increase from the past month.  Well, it wasn't until last week that we realized that the percentage we had been given didn't include the car I mentioned in my last post.  We knew about the car, so we thought our percentage included that large fund also.  But, alas, we were being quoted the percentage without the car.  Two weeks ago, we thought we were at 96% on our outgoing expenses.  Then, once we uncovered the miscommunication, we went back to about 55%.

I was shocked.  Jonathan was shocked.  We didn't know exactly where the communication break down happened and it didn't really matter.  What mattered was that $17,000 was still left to be raised in less than two months and we were determined.  Although, I admit to saying, "so much for leaving in January" and crying hard for about five minutes.  Lacking $17,000 and knowing it has to come in within less than two months is an overwhelming feeling.  I like to stay on top of things and I don't like feeling completely helpless.

We made a large number of contacts that night.  We prayed that night.  We set what we thought was a very lofty goal of $10,000 for this month.  Maybe we have a lack of faith since we weren't praying for every penny this month.  We figured, $10,000 this month, $7,000 next month.  I felt crazy praying for that amount of money to come in over a few short weeks.

On Tuesday I received a call from an old friend of Jonathan's family.  I've heard his name over and over again and somewhere in the recesses of my mind I knew that he lived in North Augusta.  He had read in Jonathan's parents' newsletter that we were still in need of financial support in order to move to Africa.  He is on the leadership board of his small church in N. Augusta and was asking if Jonathan could come Wednesday to their leadership meeting.  With less than 24 hours notice, Jonathan's boss graciously let him off of work over the lunch hour to attend that meeting.  He shared with those four men about our heart and plans for ministry in Africa.  He shared our needs and our desire to leave in January.

Jonathan came home from that meeting Wednesday encouraged by the interest expressed by the men with whom he had spoken.  We were excited to see how the Lord would use this unexpected contact to answer our prayers.  That evening, we received a phone call asking where they could send a $5,000 check.

My jaw nearly hit the floor..... again.

Wednesday night, I overheard Jonathan tell Kyle as he put him to sleep, "Okay, buddy, we don't have to pray for $10,000 any more.  Now we only have to pray for about $3,000."  Kyle folded his hands and the two of them proceeded to pray for the remainder of our goal.

It is not even the middle of the month and our prayers are already being answered.  Not including that check, over the past two weeks ~$2,500 has been given in one time gifts.  Is it too greedy to now start praying for the whole remaining amount this month so we can rest peacefully next month? :) Lord willing, about $3,000 comes in for our monthly support.  So, we are past our goal of $10,000 for this month.  $5,000 + $2,500 + $3,000 (October monthly support) + $3,000 (November monthly support) = $13,500.  We might as well move on to praying for another $3,500, see from where God brings that, be done with the $17,000 all together and throw a party.

Our remaining monthly support is down to $450/month.

Even when our faith is small and our prayers are weak, He is faithful to answer us.  "If we are faithless, he remains faithful." 2 Timothy 2:13

Keep praying, folks.  Our God is answering!

~Abby