Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Moving From Kansas To Honduras

It has finally happened, the house in Kansas sold. The furniture is packed and the move to Honduras will be completed soon. I spent almost two weeks in Kansas preparing for the move. I am so glad to be HOME in Honduras again.

It has been a series of miracles to see this come to completion, but God has been immensely faithful and helpful to me! My family and friends rallied around me and have helped tirelessly as I made preparations to move everything to Honduras.

Preparing for the move I happened to be reading the New Testament and found that Jesus' adult followers were stuck in a rut and suffered from never-ending lack of imagination. Their minds were shackled by traditionalism. They saw things only from a traditional human point of view. They didn’t see things from God's point of view. When a huge storm threatened their very lives while at sea, they were terrified. They woke Jesus up and He calmed the wind and waves with “a word”, and then Jesus rebuked their lack of faith.

Reading this story I felt a twinge of dissatisfaction at how I was preparing for the move from Kansas to Honduras. During preparations for this move, I found that my mind needed to be set free from traditionalism. I called the traditional movers and they wanted $28,000 to move my furniture to Honduras. For over a year, I thought about this quote and continued to tell myself that this was ridiculous! Maybe I should sell the furniture and return to Honduras with nothing. But I could never get peace about selling everything. So, I prayed, I fasted, I read my Bible and I continued to ask the Lord for an answer.

Again I read that a short time after seeing Jesus feed four thousand people with just a few loaves and fish, the disciples started complaining about not having any food for their journey. His response was not exactly sweet as he corrected them saying, "Do you not yet perceive or understand?" Mark 8:17-18. "Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?"

I thought I needed a loaves and fishes type of multiplication of money in order for my household items to be moved. I was wrong! I didn’t need money, I needed a divine idea, a miracle from the Lord. I went to a Christian man in Honduras, whom I greatly respect and I asked for counsel. I explained that I needed to move my furniture and that I needed $28,000 to do so. “What can I do to make that kind of money in a month?” Since he is in the car business, he said that I could bring in 25 cars and sell them and have the money to make the move. As I sat there speaking with him, I was suddenly inspired. Can I bring down a truck? “Yes,” he replied. “Can I bring it down full?” I asked. “Si.” He responded. “But,” he continued, “Right now I need to buy several trucks to sell.” “How about if you look for the trucks when you are there, find what I want within certain parameters, send me photos via email, I will approve of them or not and then you can load your stuff in them. He continued, “My friends and I will drive them to Honduras and you will have your stuff here and I will have my trucks to sell.”

For a year I had been fretting when God had everything planned out way in advance. My mind had been shackled with traditionalism. I needed to think “outside of the box” and by praying and reading the Word of God I was able to do so. I didn’t need money, I needed an idea from the Lord. Several truck purchases later, Marco's trucks are purchased and NO they are not all full of my stuff. (I learned about wire transfers from another country in the process and the reluctance of Honduran banks to let go of money.)

A word spoken in faith can calm a storm; a few fish and loaves can feed a few thousand; continuing to look for answers from God in untraditional places can make a 3,000 mile move across 5 countries that should have cost $28,000 become free. Today I am blessed and I encourage you to look to the Lord for answers in untraditional places. What seems impossible to us is more than possible with Him, as long as we listen.

Yesterday someone left a HUGE bag of pecans on my doorstep! I was completely out of pecans and didn’t have any space left in my suitcases when I returned from Kansas. A missionary brought them to me. This means I need to bake some Oatmeal Pecan cookies this afternoon and that means you will have my favorite Oatmeal Pecan Cookie recipe on tomorrows BLOG! If I only had some maple syrup, I would make a pecan pie. I might make one anyway in honor of my son-in-law Rene Maldonado who loves pecan pie. Even though he doesn’t rate my Pecan Pie as the “BEST” in the world, every time I make it I think of him. Maybe I will have time to bake both.

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