He goes before us...

I am linking up with my precious friend Linny's Memorial Box Monday posts over at http://aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/  Stop by her blog... you will be entertained, encouraged and challenged to walk out your faith!:)

 

Have you ever gone through those times where you have been praying for leading, direction, and movement of some kind from the Lord.  You can tell the Lord is doing something... you just have no idea what it is yet...

 

Shortly after Levi was born Greg and I started to praying over a certain situation together.  It was something we both felt even though we hadn't really talked specifically about it before...

 

We prayed for months and months.  We had a few instances where we felt the Lord was maybe showing us what His plans were for our family... But time and time again, it was still unclear...

 

Then, sort of out of no where came Uganda and our trips with the Go Team from International Voice of the Orphan... Honestly, upon our return last year, I was ready... my mind was mulling over how we could get the whole family there to do ministry.  Yep, this "I don't think the Lord will EVER lead me over seas to do ministry!" girl had a BIG TIME change of heart!  I was researching online... talking to people... waiting... 

 

Greg, my steady Eddy, was my voice of reason... He felt strongly that it wasn't the right time for that.. maybe someday... not then...   I followed Greg's leading and we continued to wait to see the Lord's plans unfold...

 

Slowly but surely the Lord was revealing His will and plan for our family... but it was not at all what I would have imagined...

 

Years earlier I had asked for prayers for friends from the seminary who had lost a son...

About 9 mos after their loss, our Samuel was stillborn...

About 9 mos. later, Joel, the baby we were going to adopt was also stillborn...

Then so sadly these same friends lost another son, to SIDS just a couple of weeks after Joel was born...
All of this occurring over an 18 mo. time span. 
 

 

Our hearts were broken for them... Here are my words from a post that I actually wrote in July 2009 after returning home from the funeral for their little guy...

 

I can't help but wonder if the Lord has something in store for Greg and Jerry together. What are the chances that 2 out of maybe 10-12 of the men in their same program at the seminary would have 2 major losses in the last 18 months? They certainly will have personal insight into grief and loss like many pastors may not have. I have no idea, maybe the Lord just gave them to each other to support one another through all of this.

This is the same family that we now serve with in ministry here at our new home.  I never in a million years would have imagined that the Lord would call us to the same church to actually serve side by side... I just wouldn't have even thought it possible..., yet in the same breath... I wondered way back, almost 4 years before if God didn't have something bigger in mind for the 2 of them.  Mainly in my head it was because they both had experienced the loss of a child, more than once... (We were so hoping that Joel would end up being ours... I know that is different than losing a child that is already yours... does that make sense?) 

So here I stand in awe of a God that can move mountains to make His plan come to fruition...

I stand in awe of a God who sees the bigger picture and goes before us, always preparing the way for us...

I stand in awe of a God that would place us in ministry with people we can relate to, and really admire... ( I continually pray that the Lord would bind our hearts together in love for each other and His people here in this place)

I am so thankful that the Lord sees the future and knows exactly where He will place us, and use us and when that will happen... Honestly, when I look back I am kind of glad I didn't know all that was in store for Greg and I along the way these past 20 years of married life...

I am just so thankful that nothing surprises our Lord and that all the while He is going before us preparing the way!