Our God is Amazing!

I was challenged just over a week ago by a comment a friend made.  He was telling Kerri and I of how he has learned to pray very specifically for things he has needed, and even for things he has not needed but simply wanted.  He explained how, since God is like a father to us, that He wants to show His love towards us in very tangible, even extravagant ways.  He commented how if we would like to see specific answers to prayer, we should be specific in our prayers.

That night I spent some time praying and decided to be very specific.  I told God how excited I was feeling about moving to the Philippines, but that I was nervous about the finances we needed.  We have been trying to raise the necessary money for a couple months now, and while we have seen some definite progress, we still had a long way to go.  I then asked God a very specific thing; I asked Him to provide us with half the needed amount to be in our account by the end of March, so that we could commit to the school for this year.  The specific amount which I asked for was $30 000.

I am not sure what I was expecting.  I have seen God answer prayers before in my own life.  I have heard stories of how He works miracles in many different situations.  I have not often seen such an enormous request answered in my own life, perhaps because I have never asked for such a huge thing.  I'm not sure whether I really believed that God would answer that prayer.

Over the next week God showed His faithfulness.  In a span of one week we have received over $21 000 in cash donations, and had a commitment for monthly support totaling $9000 over the 30 months we will be in the Philippines!  We now have almost $30 000 in the bank, plus over $15 000 in monthly support when we go.  God has shown His faithfulness by not only answering my specific prayer, but by doing so almost immediately!

We still have a ways to go before we have raised the total amount we will need, but we are well on our way.  Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far, either through donations or through prayer.  We appreciate it so much.  Simply saying thank you doesn't seem like enough to express our gratitude, but we mean it from the bottom of our hearts.