Lessons of faith and a missions trip

For those who know this and those who don’t, here are the words.. A very old song (from 1787) of the church that is based on scripture.

“How Firm a Foundation”

1st verse: “How firm a foundation, ye saints (Bible word for living Christians) of the Lord, Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word! What more can He say than to you He hath said, To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”

2nd verse: “Fear not I am with thee; O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by My righteous omnipotent hand”

3rd verse: “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall by thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”

4th verse: “The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, thou all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no, never, no never forsake!”

I forgot to add a couple of things earlier. I only add them because I truly feel like a spectator in this whole story. And I hope that you catch a glimpse that God isn’t off at some great distance from us. He’s a conversation away. He passionately loves us and is concerned for our welfare. Had I not gone through this fiery trial I’d never known just how close He really was.

My sinus bones on one side were also crushed and as I lay in the hospital I was in excruciating pain from that injury. I think it hurt more than all my other injuries and I begged God to please take the pain away. I suddenly remembered the verse in the Bible that says, “Confess your sins to one another that you may be healed”
I had a secret sin that I had not asked my husband to forgive me for even though I knew that God had forgiven me. After much thought about it I called him on the phone and made my confession and asked for his forgiveness. He gently and lovingly forgave me. After I hung up I literally felt what seemed like bubbles inside my face begin to move and dissipate. Within seconds the pain was totally gone!

My jaws were also damaged and I could barely open my mouth. It took weeks of adding tongue depressors on top of each other to stretch them.

A friend of ours brought me a special gift one day. Her dad had made me several eye patches that had fringe on one, a tiger pattern on another, etc. I had the best dressed eye for several months.

Just recently a friend told me that after the accident she and her husband had gone to visit my mother to console her. Instead, my mother looked at them and with absolute assurance quoted, “I know in whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day!” Thank God for praying and faith filled Moms who hold up their kids before the Lord!

One day while my Mom was at our house we were talking about our on-going financial crisis and she said, “Just remember that GM is not your provider! God is!” Immediately the focus changed. God had provided that job and He wasn’t bankrupt and never would be. We needed to stay focused on Him!

Now, besides unemployment and a car accident we had no car. We lived way out in the country so we needed transportation. A man in our church sold us one for $1.00.

The one thing that had impressed me the most during my time of recovery were the things I had planned to do but somehow never got around to them. Life was never more precious and I didn’t want to waste any of it. My dream was to one day return to Guyana where I had spent my childhood in remote Indian villages. The next year the missionary nurse was doing deputation and stayed at our house for a couple of days. She encouraged me to make the trip. We had never been more broke in our lives but I knew that if God wanted me to go that He would again provide the means. I didn’t want it to just be a vacation, but I wanted to use it as an opportunity to bring encouragement to the people that I would see. It would be a mission’s trip. I sent out letters requesting prayer and asking for financial support for anyone who wanted to help with my endeavor.

To my utter amazement in no time at all I had every cent I’d need for the trip. People were excited to help.
The closer I got to the date the excitement was almost overwhelming! A dream I’d had for 34 years was finally going to come true.

I was gone for one glorious month visiting the two villages where I had lived 200 miles back into the Amazon jungles, reuniting with the Guyana Native American Indians, riding in dugouts, walking the jungle trails, speaking in their churches, working with their kids, and spending long hours listening and encouraging the people. I had a little bit of Guyanese money left when I got ready to come home and gave it to the nurse before she drove me to the airport in the city of Georgetown. We had both forgotten about the exit fare to get out of the country. The amount I had given to her was the exact amount that I needed. Once again, God had provided the exact amount to the last penny.