The Back Story...According to Mary

Lindy and I found out that we were going to Slovenia sometime in February. When we each found out we left messages on each other's phones, screaming in excitement. Both of us were still juggling school and work so after mailing in the required documents Slovenia was forced to the back burner for a while. (I did change the background on my desktop to a picture of Lake Bled though :).

A few weeks later we began the letter writing process. We each wrote personal letters to family. Next, I sent out letters to 15 local churches. Then came the GSCC barrage, 6 hours later on a Sunday we had 165 letters, response forms etc. in the mail, phew! (Thanks Matt, Jenn and Kristin for helping us :). Last came the letters to teachers, co-workers and friends at school. Then we waited. Support came s l ow l y... The end of March came and neither of us had passed the 25% mark. I asked everyone I knew to pray.

Despite the crazy odds of getting over $4000 more in by the middle of May, Lindy and I felt peace about the situation and each still felt confirmation that God wanted us there this summer. Support continued to come slowly, and we began to call all of the people we sent letters to (over 200!!). We got a lot of answering machines. Meanwhile the stress of finals for Mary and work for Lindy brought us to our knees many times as we struggled to find time for "Slovenia Prep" when we had papers and shifts keeping us so busy. So many people were faithful to pray for us during this time and the Lord taught us a lot about prayer and faith and trusting Him. Every time we wondered if it was His will that we get all of our money in, He seemed to bring someone to each of us to encourage us. He used the sacrifice and generous gifts of a few people in the beginning to remind us of His faithfulness.

The last week of school for me was crazy: finals, packing, checking all my girls out of the hall, saying goodbye to friends and fellow RAs, still making phone calls about our upcoming deadline, still worried about the $3,000 left to come in. God is faithful. I made it home to some much needed rest. I had the opportunity to catch up with Lindy and spend some good time with her. Every day God was teaching me more about Himself, His faithfulness, His wisdom, His unchanging nature (I re-read The Knowledge of the Holy by Tozer). The more I focused on who God is the more peace I found. I realized that I will never be disappointed by trusting in God, even if things turn out different than I expected. If I follow God's plan, whatever it may be, I can have peace. God's plans, like Himself are wise and flow out of His wisdom and goodness and desire for my best interest. Enduring peace set in with one week till the deadline. I had the privilege of being prayed for in person by several people of great faith who I look up to. We continued to pray boldly and trust that the Lord would provide.

Through the generous and often unexpected support of peers, co-workers, arents, church family, our church corporately, as well as support from my own team mate (!) I saw all my money (plus $300 extra) come in by the deadline. $2500 came in in one week! Praise the Lord. He gets all the glory for that amazing work.

Lindy still had $900 to go. We continued to pray that the Lord would provide 100% for her as well. We waited. As we went into the last weekend before she had to wire money to the office in Chicago (this past weekend), she still needed $700. After the first service of Commissioning weekend, a woman, who we didn't know before, said she was touched by Lindy and felt that God wanted her to give money to her. She handed her a folded up check. When we opened it a little while later we were shocked to find out that the woman had handed her a check for $500! Our God is not intimidated by the barriers we face. He is more than able to provide. Over the course of the rest of the weekend more money came in for each of us, and Lindy ended up going over $300 as well.

Praise God for His willingness to bless His children. Early on, when I was stressing over our lack of financial support a friend from school reminded me that sometimes God chooses to bring in support at the last minute to teach us to trust Him and remind us of all that He can do. This sets us up with a strengthened (super-charged)faith as we go into our time of service for Him. Amen to that. Now that we have seen the Lord provide in no less than miraculous ways, we are prepared to see Him work miraculously in student's hearts. We are going into the summer with that amazing work fresh in our minds and on our hearts. God is faithful again and forever. Praise Him with us.

Mary

for the MaryLindy team :)