God is Faithful

This is a follow up email about us needing to come up with $500 somehow before this weekend because we thought we would be moving.

A few days before I spoke this need and asked for prayer I read this in my devotional:

2 Kings 4:1-7

1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves."

2 Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil." 3 Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side." 5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing.

7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

We had one hour of overtime to this point. I told God that I didn't have much, but I would list on ebay what I had if He would provide buyers. I told Him that I had nothing, just like the widow but asked that He use what I did have and multiply it. I think I had 4 things to sell total. I listed them all and tried to forget about it. After the 3 day auctions ended Friday morning I walked away with a total of $204.61. Praise God! That was almost half the money I needed and every item sold. I continued to pray that I didn't know how the money would be provided but I asked that it would be.

Well wouldn't you know it that on Thursday afternoon one of the plants Phil travels to went down. It's about an hour from here and this was his week on call. He stayed late that night to see what the problem was and if they could get it fixed. Now I don't know what all these things do but I know the general jist of what they have to do. There is a big machine (not sure what it does exactly) that has 10,000 glass tubes in it. The glass tubes got covered in anti-freeze (this is the real problem, why is it leaking). These tubes will shatter if there is any foreign substance on it including finger prints. They had to remove all 10,000 tubes, remove the components inside, clean all the glass tubes, re-assemble them, and re-install them. They have been working 12-13 hr days since Thursday and so far they have all the tubes out and only about 1/4 of them cleaned and re-assembled. This is with guys working 24/7. Everyone in Phil's main plant is chipping in. Every single guy is there working (probably about 15 guys) round the clock.
Can I just say how amazing God is. We had one hour of overtime on Thursday. Week (pay period) ends today at midnight. We will close out this pay period with 40 hours of overtime. The most we have ever had. Not only will all the bills get paid but we can also pay for the move and be able to pay for some fun next weekend when my parents come. I feel bad for Phil and we miss him so much. He is a little crabby from the lack of sleep etc and I don't blame him. The job is pretty tedious and boring. Who would want to do that for 4 days? They probably won't be finished with all this until Wednesday which means we should fulfill our overtime needs for the next pay period all in these next few days.

We have some tough choices to make in the next couple of weeks and I am praying for $5,000. Crazy I know, but I want Phil to see that God can provide and will keep providing. This won't be "fun money" it's strictly for bills. My goal is to get us to a point where we are living on just his base pay by the time Caroline arrives. This is a big feat. I know we will have so many more bills once she is born diapers etc. and we aren't in a good place right now wishing and praying for overtime. We have already cleared up $300 a month in a loan we had out, we sold his Jeep because it was a gas hog which is saving us $200 a month and we also had a rates drop for insurance since we no longer have the jeep. That saved us about $60 a month. That's a grand total of $560 per month and we need to clear up $700 more per month. (Can I just say that this wasn't extra money we now have to apply towards other things. This was money he needed to make somehow in overtime.)I know its crazy! But when you go from your husband making $98,000 a year plus a car allowance of $700 a month to making $48,000 you have to make some major cut backs. Does it seem possible? NO! But did it seems possible that God would provide us with this other money in such a short amount of time. NO! But He did. He came through in a BIG way! So boldly I am coming before Him and asking him for the balance so we can live on base pay alone before Caroline comes. Please keep that request in your prayers if you think of it. We have at the most 17 weeks to make this happen and when I think about it I start to panic and freak out. There is nothing that I can do to bring in more money except to sell the things I have. That's ok with me if God will bless it, let it sell and provide the funds. At this point it's not worth having the "things" if we are riddled with worry about making the bills.

God of the Impossible. I think this is the theme to my life this year. It seems when things look grim God is really showing up and showing off. I always hate the timing of things (in my opinion he waits far to long to show off ; )but He knows what's best. He is God. His timing is perfect.

And if He can make this happen, He can make the $5,000 come through as well.

Oh yah, and most importantly I've learned something through all of this. No matter how much money you make....never, ever spend all of it per month. You never know how long that will last, or how long that job will last. You could be in a position where you are making less then half your pay and your left with lots of stress and worry. NEVER AGAIN!

If you have time take a look at this Bible study. http://bible.org/seriespage/widows-oil-when-bad-things-happen-good-people

Though the woman with the oil is a story about a widow and her sons, I still feel like it applies. God promises to fulfill our needs. Sometimes it's hard to trust that it will all work out. We've all been there. This touches on a lot of those points. And I find that everything I go through makes me more aware of others that may have greater needs then I. My miscarriages helped me to really understand what that experience is like. The new children are a testimony to God's faithfulness and mercy. He has used that experience to allow me to help others who have gone through this and I really have a heart now to help in anyway that I can.
Also, this whole money thing is putting into perspective how much I really have. How much I can still give to help others who have much greater needs then myself.
Perhaps this is the reason for all of this. If someone else is able to see how awesome God is through all of this then it's worth it.