Allow me a moment to tell you a story, a story of God’s provision and love. I am making it as brief as I can, but even with my attempt at brevity, it isn’t short. I hope that it captures your imagination as your read nonetheless and gives you a greater picture of Who God Is.
Several months ago Tara and I awakened to the reality that God really loves us and has a plan for us. It wasn’t easy or all roses, but it was so good to wake up from the stupor we were in. Part of His plan was letting go of everything we held more dear than we did Him and following after Him wholeheartedly. What that looked like for us was beginning to serve Him as missionaries with YWAM, the largest interdenominational missions sending agency in the world.
After spending three months volunteering our services at the largest YWAM base in the world in Kona, Hawaii, in the Fall of 2006, we returned to Arkansas to prepare our lives for missions training. We didn’t get assigned a location for training by the agency or by any man and we didn’t just do a bunch of research and select a location; instead, we spent months asking God to reveal to us where we should go. We believed that He knew where He wanted us to go and would reveal it to us personally. We didn’t know how or where He would do that, but we prayed, waited, and listened.
I remember the day when I talked to the base here at the King’s Lodge in Nuneaton, England. We had communicated by email previously, and they had informed me they were uncertain where the outreach would take place after our training, but they had narrowed it to Brazil and the Philippines. If you know Tara well, you know she spent four months in the Philippines as a young teenager with her mom and dad. For years now she has longed to return, but didn’t know why as she really didn’t enjoy the experience. The day I called I felt in my spirit that I needed to know one thing: Where would the outreach be. When I asked if they had felt a leading of God, the immediate answer was, “Yes, we are going to the Philippines!”
The instant I heard that my heart leaped within me because I knew God was telling us to go to the King’s Lodge, consistent with the years of longing in Tara’s heart. I called her immediately and she confirmed my heart and we immediately made plans to go.
Part of the planning was putting our house up for sale, so we put a sign out “for sale by owner.” That was hard. We have a nice home that we love. But God gave us the grace to release it from our hearts. Shortly after we put out the sign, our neighbor down the street, Mike Ellis, came to us and asked us if we would like to list our home for sale with his realty, Lindsey & Associates, commission free. We didn’t ask him or anyone at Lindsey about doing such a thing; instead, God simply provided. We were so amazed and blessed.
Houses aren’t moving quickly in Northwest Arkansas, especially not in our home’s price range and during the winter months. One week before we were set to depart for England, we received a call from our friend and board member, RJ Hoelzeman, in which he relayed a phone call he had received:
Bryan, I got an unusual call today. A friend of ours, Jim Bob Duggar, called us today about a friend of his that lives in New Jersey. His friend, a corporate attorney, was being moved to Northwest Arkansas and needed a home temporarily for his family. I’m not sure how long, but it sounds like they may need it for three to six months, but it immediately made me think of you. They haven’t found anyone willing to take them on for less than a one-year lease in anything that would meet their needs.
I had no clue what to think but I answered with this:
RJ, who knows if such a thing could work out, but I am definitely not going to close a door on something God may be doing. We need to pray and ask God about it even though it might mean taking the home off the market during the summer months, the best time to sell a home.
RJ then said, well, there is something else.
What? I asked.
They have 13 children, he answered.
I laughed out loud. I knew immediately that this was not a door I wanted to close. Only God, in his infinite imagination could dream up such a circumstance, so I told RJ that he could let the gentleman from New Jersey know that he could call us if he were interested and that our home was on the internet at the Lindsey website. I asked him to pray for us and that we would be praying for God’s guidance.
Please remember, this is now less than one week before we are to leave our home for 5 months. I get the first call from New Jersey on Friday. The family is a Christian family with a ministry to children who have disabilities. They have nine natural born children and four children that God has led them to adopt, from all over the world, each of whom has disabilities. In my heart I feel quite sure this is His provision, not only for us, but also for this incredible family. They need a home in two weeks and their best solution at this point is a duplex, living on both sides, but only four of their children are 12 years old or older, and they really don’t feel like the duplex solution is God’s best for them. The attorney’s business is going to pay for all the costs, but it doesn’t sound like the business is looking at a very large figure for rental.
Tara and I pray through it and feel like the only way we can do this is to ask for a complete covering of all costs associated with our home, no small figure. In fact, God gives us a figure in response to our prayers. So, on Saturday I send an email detailing what we would need to rent our home. By Sunday and Monday, we were trading drafts of a lease with every aspect of what God had shown us in the lease. As a result we didn’t have to move everything out of our home because they are also renting our furnishings. It radically changes how we have to pack up our home, keeps us from having to burden a friend or friends with moving out the final furnishings and holding power of attorney in the event of sale, and provides all our needs with regard to our home.
The lease? Well, it began two days after we flew out of Fayetteville. It ends two days before we return. All of it guaranteed by a large company.
We have no idea why God is allowing us to maintain the home for now. It still is in His hands. We have released it. Perhaps it will sell in September when we return. Perhaps when we return God will open yet another door enabling us to keep the home and God to use it for His glory. We don’t know. But we do know this: God is absolutely good, loving, kind, generous, gracious, merciful, holy, just, forgiving and more. We also know that when we fear and love Him, making His needs more important to us than our own He provides absolutely all we need and more. And we know that He speaks to us personally when we ask Him for direction.
I pray this encourages you today as you seek to understand more of God’s character. He is absolutely good and you can trust Him. In fact, it is absolutely unreasonable to believe that God will ever fail you. He absolutely craves an intimate relationship with you.
This is just one portion of His story in our lives and how He has held on to our hand throughout this time, even when we have been like a brute beast before Him (Psalm 73:22-28). I will share more in the future of things He has done and look forward to the additional stories He will be writing on our hearts as we go. God bless and thank you for your love and prayers for us.