Faith Week!

So here I am back at the base, looking back at the week and feeling very humbled and amazed at God's provision. Last saturday my team (Catherine and Joshua) and I were dropped off about 10 miles out of oxford with $60 dollars and only knowing we were going south. None of us had ever hitchhiked before and we had no idea where we were going to stay for the night or when our next meal would be. The whole idea of this week is to rely on God to provide for every need. We weren't supposed to use the money on ourselves but use it to bless others. So technically we had no money! I was worried about sleeping outside because it is getting close to winter here so it gets a little cold at night. God came through and we never had to sleep outside! It would take forever to tell you everything that happend but I will try to summarize the highlights. We hitched all the way down to bluff which is the southern most tip of NZ without taking a ferry to Stewart Island. The first night was in Rolleston, then 2 nights in Dunedin with a Korean pastor and his family, then down to invercargill, then to Queenstown were 21 of us stayed in the same house, then to Timaru for 2 nights, and back home! We covered a lot of ground, ate at least one or two good meals everyday and only spent $2.00 of our $60 on ourselves. God is good. I learned a lot about God's timing. The first night after we had asked the Church, supermarket and pub for a place to stay and we were exhausted, that is when He came through and miraculously provided a place to stay. I think God lets us get to our most desperate and that is when we know that it is Him rather than ourselves doing the work. Every time He provided it never came in the way we expected and it was always better than we thought. It was so cool to see God come through in the litttle things like giving us KFC when we were craving it and sending a ride even when we weren't hitching because we had a long way to walk. I had to let go of a lot of pride that I didn't know I had! I am so used to providing for my self and it was hard to depend on others for a place to sleep and food. I felt like I was being a burden. I finally realized this is an 0pportunity to see God as my provider and how He can bless us through others and we in turn bless them by serving them. It was cool. On friday my group had the opportunity to just serve and bless a family that we stayed with for 2 nights. They were former directors of a YWAM base in Auckland so we had some great talks about God and advice they had for us. They told us not to waste the time we have here and to really press into God to find out what all He has for us. I came back from faith week a little tired but with a different perspective on God. God is so good!

Mat 7:11 "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!"