You hear of a need. Your heart goes out to it and you want to help. But wait, is it just your emotions talking? Or is it the Holy Spirit prompting you? Sometimes as women, since we are such emotional creatures, it can be hard to decipher between our emotions and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
This is where I have found myself for the past month or so. We support a missionary that has a ministry to the blind. For a week in May they hold a camp and need 'guides' to help the campers get around. In one of their prayer letters they shared the need for more guides this year. I began to pray for them that the Lord would provide, while also praying that the Lord would show me if it was something that He wanted me to be involved in and that if it was His will He would work out all the details. For weeks it was on my heart and I didn't have a clear answer. Was the Lord keeping it on my heart because He wanted me to do it, or because He wanted me to keep praying for them? I finally decided that since I didn't feel strongly about it, I would just forget about it.
Then for several days through my Bible reading the term 'blind' kept popping up. If it was just once I would have thought it only a coincidence, but it was MULTIPLE times! It seemed as if maybe the Lord was saying, "I don't want you to forget about this!" So I decided to e-mail the camp director and find out if they even needed guides anymore. My e-mail was very vague (haha!) because at that point I still wasn't 100% sure about it. I simply let him know we were praying for their ministry and inquired if they had a good group of campers and guides signed up for camp, and also if there were any specific needs we could pray for. The next morning I received a reply back thanking me for our prayers and asking prayer for one matter - they still needed one lady guide! I don't think it could have been any more clear as to what my answer from the Lord was!
But then there was the matter of finances. My week would be paid for by the camp, but I didn't have the money or time to come up with the money for a plane ticket. As I had been praying about it, I told the Lord if He wanted me to go He was going to have to provide the way.
I shared with my parents all that had transpired (I hadn't shared anything with them up until this point), and they agreed that it definitely seemed like the Lord was in this. My dad and I then shared the need with my pastor, and of course he was very excited at the opportunity to help our missionary and told me not to worry about the money. I left with instructions to find out all of the details and then he would talk to the men in the church about paying for my ticket, because it would be a missions trip of sort out of our church. Praise the Lord!
I e-mailed the missionary back letting him know I was willing to come, and after filling out an application we spoke on the phone discussing more details about what being a guide entails. It was towards the end of the conversation he proceeded to tell me that not only were they paying for my week at camp, but they were also going to pay for my airfare! Praise the Lord again!!
It's been neat to see God unfold His plan for all of this. I went from not being sure about it, to seeing door after door open up confirming it was indeed His will for me to go!
In one month I'll be on my way to the state of Texas! I know it's going to be a great experience, and am looking forward to seeing what God's going to do!
