"When tomorrow comes....." Oh wait! It's here!!

So for those of you that have been following our recent saga. Here is the best update I have for you. Laurens and the girls are finally coming to Canada!! As our senior pastor at the Meeting House put it: "YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

How this happened was incredible. As you know, we were going to have to go to Dominican to get a visa or wait 19 weeks to get the citizenship visa.....as of this morning. With Laurens' flights booked tomorrow the possibility of them coming this week was looking slim, again.

However, God had other plans. Due to some e-mails we sent (we think) and the fact that they knew of our case after the earthquake, Citizenship and Immigration Canada coordinated with immigration Canada in Port-au-Prince and sent them the approved paperwork they needed directly bypassing the next 19 weeks!!. Praise God. Never did I really think that they would get this done prior to this weeks flight. It was amazing. It made the 5 hours on the phone and e-mail Friday afternoon worth it for sure.

We feel like we have been running a long long race and I can never say the finish line is here, but we have at least almost reached a rest stop. We are so happy to have all we need and look forward to being together in rest.

Thank you thank you thank you to all our prayer partners. We know that you have helped so much. It was so interesting to see the number of e-mails we spontaneously got today of people saying they were thinking about us and praying for us today specifically. God had placed a burden on many people's hearts to pray over this situation today and so many were faithful. Thank you. Thank you for how you have touched our lives.

This morning I was having my quiet time with God and like usual I prayed that I would see the scripture through the eyes of the Holy Spirit living within me and not with my own eyes. Today it lead me to a passage of Abraham's faith. In Romans 4, Paul explains Abraham's faith as believing in God. This is not believing in the sense that He believes God is real, he knows God is real. Rather, it is the believing of when you believe in someone. Like you trust them completely that they will do what they say they will. If God calls Abraham the father of faith and of all who believe in God, then I wanted to know more. In verse 18 it says "Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping" I wanted to know how so I kept reading, Verse 18-19 "- believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, "That is how many descendants you will have!"And Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead - and so was Sarah's womb." OK now this is what gave me hope. Abraham did not give up his hope in what God had said to him even after YEARS. He was 100 and still waiting for babies.....This was very humbling as I had found myself complaining to God about my short end of the stick for 8 months, only 8 months!......So I read on;  Verse 20- 22 "Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. " So this put a question to me. Did God promise something to me? Yes he did. He clearly made a path for us the last 8 months and he clearly laid a path to tell us what He had planned for us over these few months (that is a different story).  So the question was then was I fully convinced that God is able to do what He promises like Abraham? I realized that I was part way there, but I needed to fully commit. I needed to fully believe in the being of God, I needed to trust His integrity, His character, His faithfulness, His power. I knelt down and prayed. I gave Him all of my trust, all of my problems, all of my worry and had a peace come over me as I fully believed in Him, that He would fulfil His promise according to His will and timing. I continued the last part of this chapter and I read in Verse 22-24, "And because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in Him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead." I wanted God to count me righteous too because I fully have faith in Him that he will do as He promises. 

Today I receive righteousness from God. Today He also fulfilled His promise as He knew He would. He did not make it easy. He does not promise to. Look at Abraham, he was 100 when God still had not fulfilled His promise for children! But He did fulfill his promise as He always will in His perfect timing. In recording this for you, as it says here in Romans, I pray that you too will be called righteous for your faith - believing in the person of Jesus Christ, God the awesome father and the Holy Spirit that dwells within you. He is the real deal and you can trust in Him fully. I can honestly say that my faith is stronger because of this and that brings glory to God. I pray that God will be glorified further by our story.