It all started back in December 2009. We had been invited to perform a Christmas program for a local church and the pastor's wife was a staff nurse for our local Pregnancy Care Center. How the Lord works in mysterious ways!
Not four months before, No Great Joy Ministries had just released a new book for unmarried women called Preparing To Be A Help Meet. I had been radically convicted to get a move on in my life and start DOING for my Lord, instead of thinking that I was serving the Lord completely by staying home doing laundry.
Let me explain.
Doing laundry for a family of 9 is certainly a work for the Lord. In fact, 1 Corinthians 15:58 states that our "labour is not in vain in the Lord." But as a single girl with no family of my own, I must look to the things of the Lord.
"There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband."*
The Lord had placed an interest to minister to other young women in my heart long ago, but I didn't quite know how to go about it. I felt burdened to help girls realize that there was One man Who would love them like none other. It grieved me to see that so many of these girls were 'losing their way' and didn't know where else to turn, except to their boyfriends or drugs or alcohol.
When we met that pastor's wife and she began sharing her role at the Center, I felt that God was opening a door. She told us about their volunteer counselors and about the great ministry going on there. God was truly working!
The Lord didn't make a way for me to start volunteering until several months later in July 2010. By this time, I was sure that God wanted me to make it a point to go there and do His work. He had brought several friends into my path who encouraged me to go through the training to become a peer-counselor for the Center (knowing nothing of my long-time interest in doing that very thing!) saying that I'd make a great counselor.
In September of that same year, I was praying like mad. I had also felt the burden to return to India, too, but also had a heart for the girls of my own country. Which did He want me to do?
In the meantime, I learned about the counselor training. The costs, the times, the classes. When I discovered it would cost me $30, my heart sank. I didn't have the money and if I wanted to sign up, I'd have to come up with the money pretty quickly.
A week before the training was to begin, however, one of the ladies came and told me that they had one scholarship left if I wanted to take it.
I almost melted into one emotional heap! It was clear to everybody that God wanted me to go through the training. So clear, that it was as if He told me face-to-face.
India? That would have to wait. Maybe for months, maybe for years, maybe even for decades.
Flip the pages to a year and a half later. Per the wisdom invested in my dear parents by God Himself,I was encouraged to pray about getting a job and balance the time I volunteered myself with the time I earned money to serve God through various means.
I agreed to pray, but wondered what in the world the Lord would have for me. I'd been working once a week babysitting for a friend but it was far from sufficient. Yet, I thanked God for His constant provision -- even in the little things.
It's funny how we can get so caught up in 'searching' when He is there all along. He never leaves me, He never abandons me. He's always there. Always.
I had advertised myself as a nanny on two different web sites. I had a couple interviews, but they fell through and I began asking God that famous one-word question: why?
God's plan for my individual is so much bigger than I can see! Why do I ever doubt Him and His capabilities?
I found an ad on one of the websites seeking a full-time nanny for her 3 year old boy. It was one of about ten dozen ads I'd answered and I was growing weary. Surprisingly, the person had listed two phone numbers and instead of applying by email, I called her. And surprisingly, she answered. She told me she would call me the following Monday to set up an interview, as she was very interested.
Monday came and went without a phone call from her. I told the Lord that I would sit tight and just give it all up to Him... I'd do whatever He wanted me to do. Three days later, she asked to meet me at a local Starbucks. And the rest is history -- HIS-Story.
Over the weekend, we were invited to clean out a house going to be foreclosed. The friend who invited us, in a random way, asked if we needed some vehicles. She went on to say that her son had two vehicles for sale. We called and talked to him and went to look at them the following day. Right away, we girls were impressed with the great price and how well they worked despite their looks! By Monday morning, we girls went to the bank and filed for our first loan. (But that's a totally different story...) We were working against time because I was needing to leave for work very, very soon.
But just as we climbed into the car on our way to go pick up the two 'new' vehicles in the last 20 minutes of my time, my new employer called and told me to come an hour later than planned.
Tears formed in my eyes. My Lord God had blessed me again.
And that brings me back to my work at the Pregnancy Center. My new schedule allowed only two hours to volunteer when I had been accustomed to 8 hours. I knew that something had to change. I longed to continue volunteering, but it was clear to me that God had other plans.
It was time to turn another page in my life. The Lord had used me and now it was time to move on. Move on to a woman and her three year old who are starving for God's truth.
May He use me completely.
I know I should never be surprised at what He can do, but I am continually amazed...
He
never
fails.
Forever His,
Christy
*1 Corinthians 7:34
