Life; an adventure, a journey with Jesus!

Unexpected Blessings!

Have you ever wanted something really, really bad? You’ve prayed about it. You’ve determined how it would work out, the benefits to you and those involved, what would make it affordable, and all the other variables involved. We were in that very situation. We had it all planned, were actively working on the details, but it just wasn’t to be! Ummm….a little disappointed to say the least. We knew we could make it work, but we also knew we didn’t want to make it work, but we wanted to know that it did so because it was in God’s plans.

After researching the opportunity for about 8 weeks, it became evident it was no longer affordable. We recognized the cost was becoming more than we budgeted. Did we want it bad enough to change the criteria we previously established for ourselves? Or were those criteria something we felt we needed to stick to. We finally came to the conclusion, that our plans were not God’s plans. We were okay with that, because as you often hear me say (or read what I write) “Father knows best”!

You see, our hearts desire was to return to the states for Christmas. It’s been 3 years since we spent the holiday with our family. We wanted it so bad, we could taste it! Last Christmas one grandchild even asked Santa to bring us home for the holiday! But the airline fees continued to rise beyond what we felt we should spend to fulfill a personal wish.

Once we had given up on the whole idea, God chose to bless our socks off! We received an email from some friends from our home church that they wanted to provide us with air miles so we could return for Bridgeway’s 20th Anniversary Homecoming event! This was even better than we could have imagined. Some of you reading this journal know the rest of the story, but for those of you who don’t, let me share a few details with you.

We planned to surprise our kids and grandkids, so we chose not to share our visit with very many people. We didn’t post anything on FaceBook. We kept emails to a bare minimum. We made arrangements to borrow the Sewell’s car, stay at the Kubler’s home, and spend one week with our children, grandchildren, and church family.

A day after our arrival we were travelling through our hometown, Duluth, and stopped in to say ‘hello’ at our doctor’s office. She is a personal friend and emails us regularly. Upon seeing us she insisted Don visit his cardiologist because she was aware of his recent medical episodes (fainting spells) in Peru, and really wanted him to get checked out. She made an appointment and within a couple of days he had some tests completed. They didn’t find any answers to their questions so they scheduled him for additional tests at the local hospital. As they, too, were inconclusive, the next step was to do a heart cath where they discovered he needed two stents, and after reviewing his file, the files sent from Peru, his episodes, etc. they scheduled him to receive a pace maker.

The cardiologist in Peru, primary care physician in Duluth, and cardiologist in Lawrenceville, were all taking steps in the same direction, but being we were here in the states, the steps were taken to complete the necessary testing and procedures immediately.

At the beginning I said, we wanted to return to the states for the holidays. At this point in time, we believe that God orchestrated the visit for this specific day and time. We once pondered whether or not we were to return to the states. We now know the answer to that question was ‘yes’, for this moment in time. We know it was because we needed to be here, now. God’s timing is perfect. We were in the right place at the right time. When Pastor Doug and his administrative team set the date for homecoming, our friends provided air miles, the Kubler and Sewell families took care of our needs, our three doctors were all on the same page, what more could we ask for? Nothing! We could never have ‘made it all work out’. Only God could do that and would do that for us because He knows best!