Providence

Providence: a manifestation of divine care or direction.

I found that definition on dictionary.com and we experienced it last night. The providential hand of God in our lives. Sometimes living overseas I feel like people forget about us, I know that sounds really selfish and immature, but true for me. There has been a deep stir in my heart for about year and I keep hearing the words "There's more" in my heart and mind. There's more to living this life, there's more than just walking around in my half-hearted, half-awakened state that I feel like I've been in lately. God reminded me just a few days ago that it does not matter if anyone forgets us because He never will! Never!

"Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your wall are continually before me." Isaiah 49:16

On Sunday we found out that Francis Chan would be speaking in Swansea, South Wales on Tuesday night. It's only about 45-50 minutes drive from Cardiff- you might remember a few posts ago that I went there last week with our friends. Anyway, we were shocked because it's not often that people like this come to Wales- except back in 2003 when I met Anne Graham Lotz but that's another story! Kind of on a whim, almost without thinking about it I told Marc we had to go. We rounded up a babysitter and as we were getting ready to go last night, I was thinking we must be crazy for even doing this. It was Bailey's first day of school and we would be out late. It was a mad rush after school to get them settled down and fed so we could leave at 5:30pm. Marc and I didn't have a chance to eat dinner and on the way to Swansea I was thinking we should have just stayed home. I was trying not to be all hyped up over him being a celebrity of sorts in the Christian circle, but once we got there and he and his wife sat a few rows in front of us I was glad we had made the effort to get there.

Marc hurt his back a few days ago, are we just getting old? So he was feeling really sore and uncomfortable. We loved the fact that before the evening started, Mr. Chan got up and said this is no spectatorship and we are here to hear from Almighty God. An Irish band called Rend Collective Experiment led us in worship and it was truly amazing. Not to mention that I love the Irish accent and have told Marc for the last six years that I would love have been born Irish. But that has nothing to do with this post. As Mr. Chan got up to speak he began praying and I didn't know until afterwards on the ride home that Marc had prayed for God to take his back pain away just for now so he could really focus on what was being said and he asked God to speak/affirm something in our lives. Without going into much detail, we have had an ongoing issue we have been dealing with and it's been really getting us down and discouraged. We truly had been feeling like we were on the right track but had been told otherwise and overall it was just very maddening. We really needed to hear from God, plain and simple.

Mr. Chan begins to speak and Marc's pain goes away. The first thing he tells us is that he was not real sure on what to say. He didn't just want to give another good sermon or a funny story, but he just kept asking God even right before he was up and he said he just felt impressed that God wanted him to say to some people that they are doing what the Bible says to do and they have been discouraged by some people- especially believers- but that he wanted to encourage some to continue in what you know and believe. To have faith that God is able, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power living in us if we believe.

I know this really might not make much sense to anyone, but I'm not writing this for you- but for us so we can come back to this one day and remember how God spoke to us last night.

At this point I had not even been thinking about this certain issue, it was actually the farthest thing from my mind last night. As soon he began saying of all this I sat straight up and my eyes I know were as big as saucers. I looked over at Marc and he might kill me for saying this, but he was choking on emotion. I began to wonder if I was hearing things, but Mr. Chan just kept going and speaking more truth into our lives. God is so amazing- even more so on our "good days." It was like an amazing hug from God (I know, dorky!) but just Him letting us know that He's on our side and He's for us and He sees us, He has not forgotten! There are a million other things I could say about last night but I'm still soaking it all in and just continually thanking the Lord for His providence in allowing us to be there. I'm also thankful for Mr. Chan and his wife, for their obedience to God and the courage to speak out against mediocrity.

I've only seen a few You Tube videos and a few of the video clips from Crazy Love of Francis Chan speaking, although I've read both of his books in the last year. After he spoke Marc and I were able to go up to him and visit with him and his beautiful wife, Lisa...who by the way got up and sang with the band and let me say that isn't is annoying when one couple has so much talent? Ha. She was super sweet- we talked about kids, travel, moving overseas, the States, etc and it was so fun. We got this quick photo, yes I had my camera and like a dork I asked if we could get a picture together. They were both extremely kind and down to earth. In fact, he told us a story about him not having enough courage recently to speak to a girl on an airplane- and I thought "I like you dude, you are real and you will admit it!" I struggle to speak to the other mum's on the school yard at times and then beat myself up for it. I was so encouraged to hear him say that.

Aren't they just too cute?

Media_http3bpblogspot_ewpgp

This is my favorite video clip of him, be challenged!


Posterous theme by Cory Watilo