The day it started to rain

Metaphorically for myself, but literally for Noah.

(If you are into this sort of thing, check out the sermon on Noah that my pastor did when going through the Life of Faith series. http://realitycarpinteria.com/thelifeoffaith/)

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be Noah? Everyone on Earth is partying and doing their own thing. There's no churches, or support groups, or small remnant of Christians. It's just Noah and his family. Then God tells him to do something crazy. At least, it would have sounded crazy to me. God was going to send this thing called rain, and He wanted him to build something called a boat? It had never rained before, and they were hundreds of miles from a body of water big enough for a boat that size, so no one had ever built a boat before. But he faithfully worked on that boat for 120 years. The things that people must have said to him.

I love the way my pastor describes it from the 39-41 minute mark in the video. If you don't want to watch a whole hour long sermon, check out that section.

I just imagine the day that it finally started to rain as a wonderful day. (Then later terrifying.) That was the day that God's word proved true. That was the day that all that hard work finally paid off.

A while back, I heard a call from God. I set out to start working towards that. Some days were good, but most were not. I'm a perfectionist, and I hate failure, and it was hard for me to deal with not being able to raise enough money to answer God's call. I started to wonder if I heard correctly. Did God really call me to Romania? When would God's promise to provide prove true? When would the rain come?

A friend of mine from Romania told me about how God blessed all her supporters. I wanted to believe her, but I didn't. Then last night, I was talking with some good friends of mine. They told me a quick story about when they bought their house. They borrowed some money from their family, and were working to pay them back. Somewhat unexpectedly, the person to whom the debt was owed decided to cancel the debt! I don't know how much it was, but my friends decided to use the extra room in their budget to support me very generously.

For the first time since I started fund raising, I can picture myself going to Romania. Once I sell my car I'll be nearly there. For the first time I can see God's promise to provide for me. I can see the rain.

The goal I'm about to reach is my minimum goal. With it I can eat, sleep, pay my bills, and do ministry. If I got more money, it would go towards, health/dental insurance, the occasional book to read, tithing, and likely supporting other missionaries that are trying to raise support to do exactly what I'm trying to do.

I'm getting excited! I'll be around for at least another month or two, but I don't think much longer than that.