What?!

So it's another day... and another blog entry! Who would have thought it would be another one the very next day? But today, I wanted to post about God's provision. 


For a number of reasons, the past few months have been tight financially. Though I have to admit, failure to properly manage my money is one reason (and possibly the main reason), it is not the only reason. And things have been tight for me both here in the Czech Republic and in America, with the funds I have to pay my obligations there. But God has hugely shown His faithfulness to me by providing even for small things.


The first thing I want to share is how he sold my car. I had been going back and forth about what to do next year because I would need it if I went back to America, so I should try to find a way to pay for it until I got back. But it would have made things so much more difficult if I had to find that money-because it really wasn't there. And honestly, I want to be back here. I love living in the Czech Republic and would love to find a way to be back next year. But I couldn't decide-I had just gotten here. I wasn't actively trying to sell my car at all because I still didn't know. One day, I was talking to my mom on Facebook and she mentioned a friend who asked her if I was still selling my car. I emailed this friend and within a week and a half, my father was handed a check and I paid off the car and now we are waiting for the title so we can transfer it to them. When I had stopped selling the car, and started to pray about what to do next year, God sold the car. It is such a relief, though honestly I miss owning it. I don't miss the headache of paying for it when I can't use it and things like that, though. I also believe this is confirmation that I am not done here yet. I'll talk more about that in a later post.


Like last year, this year I have funds to raise for ESI, the organization I am here with. This year, I had only about half the amount of last year, though. Over the summer, I had hoped to finish raising money for last year and get a good start on this year, if not raise all of it. And while God's people were generous, I didn't quite raise enough to finish for last year. So I was stressed this year, that I wouldn't raise it all and that I would have to pay it back on my own. I was pleased to find at least one or two new monthly partners, though, and some willing to give larger lump sums like last year. But on the same day my car was sold, I checked my account and found that I only owed $1600, and then found that a friend who was in the Czech Republic last year and had a surplus in her funds, donated some of her surplus, or maybe all of her surplus to me! It was over $5000!! Praise God, one less thing to worry about! It was so amazing to me.


For the past week, I have had enough money to buy tickets to get where I need to go, but that's it. But in the past week alone, I had a friend ask if she could buy me a snack at church, a friend give me a ticket for the tram, a friend take me out to dinner, two friends buy me snacks at film night, and I was given money that I forgot I was owed. My roommate was having similar problems, and thought she had also run out of money, but last weekend, she was looking where she keeps her money and found an additional 2000 crowns! More than enough to ensure that we ate more than just pasta with butter for the week while we waited to be paid! In some cases, people knew my situation and offered to pay, but in others, the friend didn't know at all. It has been so amazing to see how God provided. While it has been stressful to not have and sometimes wonder where it would come from, it has been an awesome lesson in God's provision, reminding me that "He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" (Rom 8:32). And, probably also quite fitting is from the song that has been stuck in my head all morning, "His eye is on the sparrow and he watches over me."


How has God provided for you when you least expected it or most needed it?