HE did it again!!

...and not for the first or last time. We had been accepted as candidates with HCJB, but couldn't afford the air fare up to Florida for the Orientation.  The missionary community, our friends and co-workers, all chipped in and paid our way.  So at the beginning of our eighth year in Shell, Germán and I left our kids with friends and flew north.  The Orientation was interesting, we learned a lot, and met new people who were also seeking to be members of the mission.  At the end of the two weeks, we were told that we had been accepted unanimously by the committee. SO...we'd arrived!  Well...not quite.  In fact, not by a long shot!

Now we had to plan the hardest part: raising missionary support.  As I've mentioned before, it was a daunting task. However, first we had to untangle our roots in Shell.  The children had already started the school year, so we decided we wouldn't leave for the States until the next May.  (By then we would have been in Shell eight full years.)  Until then, we could work on preparing deputation material, selling whatever needed to be sold, and packing away in barrels that which we would want to have in Quito, where we would be stationed when we returned.
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I want to pause for a moment and share with you some other occasions in which God has "done it again" for us, financially. These all happened at various times while we were in Shell.  (He has done it again and again since then, but we'll wait until our story catches up to tell you about them!)

1.) The first year in Shell, when it had been decided that Dan would be accepted into the little missionary school for first grade, Germán went to pay the first semester's tuition and was told, "Someone already paid it for you."

2.)  I was needing a few items of clothing, and had saved up money from giving Spanish and piano lessons. (*)  Around this time, (this was before my collapse), I was asked to be a speaker at a national women's convention/retreat out in the jungle.  Debbie was 17 months old, so I had to take her with me. I calculated that with what I had saved, I would be able to pay the air fare on MAF's airplane and still buy at least the more important items of clothing. A close Ecuadorian friend of mine wanted to go, but I knew she wouldn't be able to afford the air fare.  So I offered to "help" her, figuring I could afford to pay a part of her ticket.  My friend misunderstood, and it became obvious that she thought I was offering to pay the whole thing!  Well, that would have left me without enough money for the clothes; but I didn't want to disappoint her, so I let her think it was what I had meant all along!  Somehow it seemed more important than the clothes.

We returned from a lovely time at the retreat; not much later, at the end of a ladies' Bible study, the hostess asked me to stay behind. Then she took me to an unoccupied bedroom, handed me a HUGE bag of clothes and told me to try them on!  They were in great shape, but she couldn't use them anymore.  So I went to work. Most of the things fit me fine.. Pretty much all the different things I had meant to buy were represented there, plus a whole lot more! I walked home in a daze, carrying this enormous bag of clothes (I had to hold it with both arms, it was that big), so much more than I had planned to buy.

3.) Do you remember the missionary convention I talked about a while ago?  (The one that held the contest for a theme song, which I won.)  Well, one had to pay to go to it, and the church in Shell was going to pay for all the deacons to go.  They couldn't afford to include the wives.  I thought that was a shame!  A good friend of mine, whose husband was a deacon, couldn't afford to go, so I told her I'd pay her way. She was thrilled.  Once we got to the Christian camp, it was determined that, since I had won the theme song contest, I shouldn't have to pay.  Great!  So paying for my friend turned out not to be any more than we would have paid anyway.  That was a help...but it didn't end there.

After we returned to Shell, when I checked our mailbox one day, I found an envelope of money - no name to tell us who it was from, or writing of any kind.  Maybe you can guess how much was in it?  Yes, the same amount we had payed for Germán and my friend...plus a little extra.

4.)  Both of our children had to have their tonsils and adenoids out while fairly young.  I can't remember with which one this next happened...I think it was Debbie.  She had her surgery, in which all went well.  Soon after, a friend stopped by to see me and handed me an envelope with enough money to more than cover the cost of the operation!

So you see...when omnipotent God supplied the means for us to go to Miami for Orientation, He was just doing what He does!  (Why do we worry about things?  Probably because we're finite humans, and that's what we do! We don't always make much sense, do we?!!)

God bless you till next time.
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 *For those who don't know me: I speak Spanish fluently (and not because I'm married to an Ecuadorian! I spoke it well when I met him.) and had eight years of piano lessons as a young girl. (Now I mostly play by ear for enjoyment or accompaniment, and for composing now and then.)