This will be Looooong...but I hope it will help someone as we have truly been blessed by it...I wrote this to a dear friend 3 weeks ago...at the end is an update...I have tried to delete names of persons mentioned so as not to bring light to them..just to their story. I would love to hear stories from you guys of how you have seen/felt the Hand of God move in your lives....
We had an awesome guest pastor at our church today and I just had to write a note and share what he inspired me by. Here goes the story
its an actual story
this pastor used to work in Washington, D.C. and became very familiar with the faithful men that are behind the scenes and not often talked about. One particular was *******
.the pastor said he was one of the most unheard of Christian leaders because he refuses to write books or put his name out there
******, a legislator, now working in a role as a big whig in the political realm threw out a question to ******. He asked him when it says in the Bible if you have the faith of a mustard seed, can you literally move mountains or is that just a figurative saying? ****** asked **** if he knew much about Africa. ***, wondering why his answer would lead him there, replied Not much. Well, **** went on to say that Africa is a continent in trouble, millions with AIDS, children suffering, nations at war
he asked him to pray for 45 days getting up first thing in the morning and on his knees and pray that God would move a mountain in Africa. He said if within 45 days he did not see an answer clearly, then *** would pay him $500. *** was all for it, and accepted the challenge.
A week into his praying, he had to attend a formal dinner with leaders from different countries. He noticed a lady at this meeting and went to her and asked her where she was from. She replied, Uganda, Africa
immediately hes a bit intrigued
and the lady picks up on it and asks him if hes ever been to Africa
he didnt tell her about the prayers but just asked more questions about her. She was in charge of an orphanage in Uganda and was in the capital to try and find supporters to help the orphanage. She realized he was interested and knew he was a political leader so she asked him if he would be willing to travel to Uganda to see the children. He was a bit intrigued and decided to go. While on his trip, he was broken at how much those poor children were in want of. He vowed to himself to make something happen for these kids. Immediately upon his return, he pulled some strings and had a shipment ready to send that included clothing, food, toys, and supplies for the orphanage. A week after the shipment was received he got a call from the lady in Uganda. She said the children and the orphanage were just overwhelmed with how his actions had pulled together such support soo quickly, and the children had planned a special thank you event for him and was there any way possible he could return to Uganda for his thankyou gift? He was on a plane that week. Word had gotten out through that nation of his quick response to their need and when he arrived the folks at the orphanage told him the President of Uganda had requested a meeting with him.
He was stunned. The next day he headed to the presidents office where the president apologized and said something had come up and they could not have their meeting but would he like to ride with him so they could talk in the limousine. Along the drive, he was looking out the window and saw a huge area surrounded by barbed wire and swirling clouds of dust with many hundreds/thousands of people suffering within. He asked the President, what in the world was that set-up? The President responded that those people were political dissidents, they were against his regime and he had no facilities to properly imprison them so they made this corral out in the dessert. He was incensed and told the President that You cant do that to human beings
its not right
the President asked him what he should do and he just reiterated forcefully, They are human beings, you dont treat them like cattle
.they are your brothers. The discussion went no further and no mention was made of it. He returned to the states, and still within the 45 days that he was praying he received notice from the State Department that he was requested to attend a meeting where he would receive an honor. He couldnt think of what he had done, he said he had just arranged to supply an orphanage in Uganda with some necessities
not something that deserved recognition from the State Department. They informed him that he had received credit from the President of Uganda for doing something that liaisons had been trying to do for years. The ambassadors to Uganda had been urging the President to stop imprisoning political dissidents, but nothing had worked. The week after he had left Uganda, the President had released all prisoners and done away with the barbed wire compound.
He had moved a mountain
.the story doesnt end there
**** was speaking to a group of young businessmen that attend a seminar there in D.C. He told them each to think of some mountain in their life and see if God did not answer it and gave them the $500 offer as well
if they did see a mountain moved, then he expected them to pay him $500. 19 of the 20 sent in their checks with amazing stories of how their mountain had been moved. The 20th wrote in a few days later than the others and said his mountain had not been moved but the 45 days of kneeling and committing the start of his days talking with God had been a mountain in itself to overcome. So he sent in his check and thanked ***** for making them take the challenge. **** gave all the funds away, he never wrote a book about it, its all just by word of mouth of those who have first hand knowledge.
But what this pastor shared today was an answer to prayer. I have strongly felt Gods hand in my life the past few weeks
Ill quickly share some signs that God is involved in the least little details of our lives. Last fall, the kids and I were reading through the Little House on the Prairie books
in Laura Ingalls Wilders books she shares many refrains of songs her Pa played on the fiddle. Each time Id get to a part in the book where a song was, my daughter would beg to let her sing the tune
.she often questioned me on how it should go but I told her I had never heard that song and to do the best she could. I began to think that somewhere, someone must have had the idea to research those songs and put together a CD. I searched for weeks
never found anything of the sort. I kind of wrote it off.
This June, my 82 year old grandmother had a birthday, never in my life have I ever remembered her birthday. But somehow, this year I mailed her a card and called her (her card reached her on her birthday and my call came the day after)
the day I called her I found her just tickled pink. She confided, that for years many birthdays had gone by with very few friends/family remembering (I felt about wee high knowing I was guilty)
but this birthday there were over 12 cards in her mailbox on her birthday
.and she had received over a dozen phone calls. I asked her who all had called and the first person she mentioned was Cousin ***. Now, I know she had a large family but I had never heard mention of a cousin ***. She went on to tell me that she and Cousin *** were first cousins. *** was now 90 and living with her son/daughter in law in Georgia. She said for decades they had written/sent pictures but they have never met in all their years. **** was the last living child of her mother and my grandmother was the last living child of her mother. Their mothers were sisters. Theres even a longer story of the life of their mothers, but I know this is going to be a 4 pager already. Well, the cousin had called and they had just had a grand time talking. I hung up with my grandmother and I thought or I like to think the Holy Spirit put a thought into my head. Why dont I take Mamaw to see her! I called mamaw back and she was beyond excited..but didnt want to get her hopes up just yet. I had to track her down and mamaw couldnt find her number. I googled for the sons name and phoned the number. A man answered and I said, Do you have a mother named *** living with you? He was kind of taken back and said, Well, yes I do. Then I said, Youre my cousin! After a few weeks of talking back and forth we found a date to go (July 24-26)
the plan was for me to pick up mamaw and take the kids with us. Then mamaw said my aunt **** would love to go to, she could drive down from Nashville and we could all drive together. It was all working out great!
I picked up mamaw and aunt got here and we all went out on the road. As we were heading into the Smoky Mountains, my aunt said she had a CD that had been given to her by a professor in her department at Vanderbilt. He had given it to her about 8 months ago and shed never bothered to listen to it. I said, Sure, pass it up and lets hear it
she went on to tell me that this professor had researched Pa Ingalls fiddle songs and put together a CD with prominent country singers in Nashville. I about fell out of my seat!!! This professor was in charge of American Studies at Vanderbilt and had spent a few years putting this together. I think my aunt thought I was crazy about how I was just so excited to hear this song
I told her about our reading all the books (she had no idea) and me trying to find those songs. It was a surreal moment when we heard,
In the sweet in the sweet
By and by by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet in the sweet
By and by by and by
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.
We were touched by the words as we traveled over the smoky mountains and headed to the home of my grandmothers cousin who we knew that this would probably be the only time they meet before she dies. Shes going blind and her lung collapsed two weeks ago..so we were shocked to see her soo healthy looking when we walked up to their house. Within that trip is a whole slew of blessings I need to write down.
But Ill share just one last blessed moment. Today I went on my long morning walk
I happened to see a runner Ive seen before and she just stuck out in my mind. I then passed a house with 3 children out riding bikes in their yard (it was 7am so I thought this was pretty early..I commented to their father what a cute crew they were.) Well, later at church, this couple sitting in front of us looked so familiar. At the end of this amazing service I shared with you, I touched her on the shoulder and asked her if she had run that morning
.and if she lived off ***** road. Her eyes grew WIDE and she said, youre the gal walking in the orange shirt! We realized we only lived a ½ mile from each other. But it doesnt stop there
she asked where how long we had visited the church and I told her we had just moved here and had been there about 5 times. She asked where we had moved from
I told her Collierville, TN
her eyes got like saucers and she said, YOUre NOT going to believe this
we had dinner with **** (the gal who sings in the church band) and she told me just last night that she was from Collierville
and they have had dinner many times and **** had never mentioned Collierville before
but it stuck out to her (the runner) because she asked her to spell it because it just sounded funny. Well, she just had to have me meet **** and she came over and was tickled that we were from Collierville
she asked what church we went to back there and I told her Collierville Bible and her eyes got HUGE!! She said, thats where my husband and I got married 6 years ago and my parents are members there!!!! Now heres where it gets funny. When we first told our church family in Collierville we were moving
two families came up to me that were fairly good friends with us (we all taught a childrens program together and had a lot of fun discussions about horses and such) and said their daughter/and the other familys son were married and lived in Madison
.they said we should hook up with them
but they didnt have their phone number on them because they had just gotten cell phones and didnt use a land line. And weve been so busy and no way to contact them. Well, I made the connection and I said, Youre the son of the ****family and ****, your mom helped me in Awana!!! It was just toooo funny, that weve been going to this church and all along Ive listened to their daughter sing each Sunday and never knew it was her.
Oh, gee weve just had things happening left and right
I KNOW God is in control..but theres that part of me that gets a bit discouraged when I think of how our house has not sold
that is our mountain in our life. Its been on the market 16 months without an offer, so my dh and I are committing to getting on our knees for 45 days and asking God to move that mountain. Another simple but profound statement that pastor made this morning was this
.another pastor had asked him, ***, what is your work for God? *** thought about it and threw out some answers Bringing others to know him? Giving to the needy? Discipling with others to help them grow in their faith? All these the pastor said no to. He said to turn to John 6:29
.there when Jesus was asked by some people after the five thousand were fed...What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
.Jesus replied to them and said, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. All that God requires of us is to believe in His Son
its not the number of parent meetings we attend, its not the hours we commit to community service, its not our tithing, its not all the other areas that we tend to measure what we DO for Him
its that we simply believe in His Son.
An update
weve been praying on our knees for 21 days and last week we received an offer on our house
we will close 8/31
He has moved our mountain...and what has happened is a habit to seek the Lord the first minute we arise and talk with Him. I hope this has helped someone today.
Tara
He grace sure does amaze me.....How about you? Are you still amazed by God's grace?
