Lord, Did I Misunderstand? The Fleece

“Now the Lord said to Abraham, “Go forth from your country and from your relatives” (Gen. 12:1).   “Your word is a lamp to my feet to my path.  I have sworn and I will confirm it, That I will keep Your righteous ordinances” (Psa. 119:105-106).

Hey Gang:  Remember the last “Lord Did I Misunderstand?” began by establishing the fact that I was recording the birth of the Eagle (Boys) Village and vowed it would consist of the truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God?   As I mentioned I received a call from the Michigan contact person informing me that not one iota of progress had been made and the only chance the project had to becoming a reality was for us to come to Michigan and do the leg work.

Remember the new facility with the short list?  As the year in-waiting passed, I confess, my confidence level had all but disappeared.  Yes, it was my heart’s desire to take the plunge and accept the challenge of developing a home for hurting kids, but it appeared that was my dream and not the direction that God would have me go.  BUT, at the same time there was a political battle beginning to heat up about who would be the director of the new facility and I belonged to the minority party. 

It seemed that all the dangling carrots were suddenly ending up in someone else’s stew.  Simply stated, I did a Daniel: ”I made up my mind!” I said to the Lord, “I am willing but not without confirmation from You.” I really felt like it was time to put the issue behind me and seek a new path.  We were secure in a very comfortable home, both had good jobs with opportunities for advancement.

But remember the fleece?  Hang onto your Bible!  Several weeks after I had said, “Your will be done, Lord, but you have to show me your will”,  I was grass-cutting on Esperanza Drive- following the duties listed on the duty chart, for you military guys and gals- when a neighbor from across the street came to where I was mowing and motioned that he would like to talk to me.  I had never met the man, nor did I even know his name. 

After a short introduction and a bit of idle talk he, out of the blue, said, “I understand you are going to sell your house and I am interested in buying it’.  Bell’s began to ring in my mind, not on the offer to buy the house, but on an adage that my rather fugal mother had pounded into my head as a child: “Careful, gift horses often turn out to be lemons”.   

We talked and he made an offer- a very good offer- one that would have been hard to turn down even if I was not in a selling attitude.  Since we had only been in the house for a couple years and, had put minimum dollars down when we bought it, we were fearful that selling it now might cost us two arms and two legs.  There was no question, since we had not mentioned this to anyone, not even our parents, that we were considering selling the house and moving east and, this gentlemen - out of the blue- offered to buy it, we knew in our hearts the fleece had been answered and bonus -his offer included to pay us a few dollars- that was the cherry on top of the Sundae.

With the house issue settled, we now turned our attention to “WHEN”.  Again, time to allow God to make this decision by providing the needed funds to move our family across country and provide the needed vehicles to make the trip.  I might add, this was a hard decision for me. I owned a sports car that was a part of me and, next to the day that we had to sell our Belgian Horses at the Village, was the hardest decision I made- sports car turned truck! My parents needed a newer car and purchased the Nash Rambler. SO, with proceeds from the two car sales, we were able to find an Econo Van and pickup truck that we felt would make the trip and meet our needs for the time being.

Our home was furnished with early garage and rummage sales so returning them to the garage sale system solved the furniture issues.  The beds fit nicely into the Econo Van and the washer, freezer and dryer, fit on the pickup truck. 

The last item on the needs list was money.  We had sufficient funds to get out of town but future was unknown. Unbeknown to me I had accumulated several hundreds of dollars in the Retirement Fund.  Once again, God provided! 1960’s was the time when income tax returns were taking months to receive back, BUT, two weeks after the decision to ‘go for it’ was made, low and behold, our income tax came back!  A little here, and a little there, when added up provided what we felt was enough to get us to Ohio, to my bride’s parent’s home and have some left over.

God was teaching us what He meant by Paul’s words, “And My God will supply al your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).

We were now about to go into “On the job training” with Paul’s words in Philippians 4:12b-13 “I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.  I can do all things through Him who strengthens me”.  

Tune in next time for a fabulous show of God’s provision.

Blessings,

Gramps