Africa

I wanted to get this down for myself as a reminder of Jehovah Jirah's provision in my life, specifically for this trip to Mozambique with Iris Ministries. He is SO faithful.

To be completely honest, it all started with a dream back in February. I knew it was from God, since I woke up praying in the Spirit. In the dream, I saw a face with a name, and had no idea who it was. A friend of mine was in the dream, and I later called her and she confirmed that she knew this "unknown" person, who happened to live hundreds of miles away. About two months later, the person visited our Church, and God had all my attention, since I knew the dream was of significance. The person and I got to talking, and we spoke in depth of our lives, and I mentioned that I have a heart for orphans in Africa, and the person told me about Iris Ministries and how I should check it out since it sounded like something I'd have a heart for.

That night, I went home and googled Iris, and as I was checking out their website, I opened up a new tab to check my e-mail, and a friend of mine from Philly e-mailed me and asked if I had ever heard of Iris Minitries because she thought I'd be interested in their mission with orphans. As if that wasn't providential enough, 3 days later, I got a prophetic word spoken to me by my pastor at Bible study. He said, "God is going to use you to be a pioneer with orphans. You're going to work with orphans in a way no one has before." Ah! Then, the VERY NEXT NIGHT, I was at the high school youth group I'm a leader at, and a co-leader came up and handed me a book to read because she thought I'd enjoy it, called "There's Always Enough", by the couple who started Iris Ministries. Seriously? I think I'm dumb, because God just has to place things on my lap til I'm staring it straight in the face to believe it's for me!

Two weeks later, I visited a friend of mine and we, plus 5 other missionary girls, went to the beach for a weekend of retreat and relaxation w/ Jesus. One of the girls invited her guy friend down for the day who ended up asking all of us, "So, where are you going next?" When he got to me, I spoke it into existence and said, "Mozambique!" and briefly mentioned all that God had done up until that point. He replied, "Go! God has called you. You need to go where He's leading!" So, with those words in mind, I started scrubbing the bathroom, since we were leaving the beach house the next morning, and I heard a voice say, "He is going to be your first supporter. He's going to give you one hundred dollars." I brushed it off as my own voice. How many times I've been a fool and have done that. But God intended it build my faith through my unbelief. The guy called all of us out to the living room where he was and said, "God tells me when to support people, and he has told me to support you girls!" as he held out a one hundred dollar bill over my wide eyes. I started crying and said, "No! Not me! I'm not a missionary!" But he reminded me of God's calling and that I needed to "drop my nets", so to speak, and follow.

Since then, God has opened wide the gates for me to follow where I know He's leading, where I know He wants me this fall. I got accepted to the Harvest School beginning of September and have been in a mad rush to collect the funds to go. I was at my Church last Thursday, meeting with the lady who is helping me with all the technical stuff, and she asked how much I've raised so far, and if I'd have a definite way of getting there, like $ from my Dad or something, and I said I'd raised $400 and that Jesus was my only definite way of getting there! Ha! She got scared. Then I got nervous! The killer was when she asked me when I needed the $ for the tuition by, and I said September 26th. All hope went out the window when her face dropped. My heart started racing and I started pleading to Jesus as I told her, "Well, a friend of mine e-mailed me and said she sent a check to the Church last week. Did you guys get it?" She opened the safe and found a letter w/ a check inside with my name on it. She opened the letter and said, "Michelle. How much did you say your school was?" I told her $2400 and she started laughing uncontrollably and said, "This check is for $2500!!!!!!" I haven't been in shock like that in a long time. I started laughing and jumping and crying. All I could say was, "Seriously, God wants me to go!!"

So, I'm going to Africa! And nothing is impossible with God!!