I’m in Peru!

Hey guys, it has been awhile.

 

Last time I blogged, I didn’t have all my finances to go on outreach in Peru.  I was still trusting God for a massive amount of money with very little time to raise it.  Yet, God is always faithful, and I was, once again, utterly floored by how He provided for me.

 

Before going into an update on what exactly is happening in Peru, I want to acknowledge all the crazy ways He provided for me.  Looking to outreach, I was preparing myself to charge the rest of my outreach fees to a credit card (with no hope of paying it off until after medical school) because yes, I was that certain I was supposed to go to Peru.

 

I wrote in a previous blog post about how God provided for part of my outreach deposit money (the initial $2500 that was due February 1).  Just days after I wrote about this, one of our staff members offered me a job that I can complete at my convenience.  He is contracting me out for a company to edit a book that was just translated to English by a non-native English speaker—basically, it totally takes advantage of my English major and can be done online whenever I have time.  But the issue was I was super busy with DTS lecture phase stuff—how would I get much of this editing done to make a dent in my outreach fees?

 

Well, a few days after offering me this position, this staff member asked me, “So how much more money do you need for your outreach deposit?”

 

I said, “A lot…let me check the exact amount online.”

 

He said, “It’s not $1400 by any chance, is it?”

 

I pulled up my exact funds, and answered, “It’s $1450.”

 

“Ok, well God told me to front-pay you $1400, so He will just have to provide the other $50 by another avenue.”

 

My mouth was literally in a giant “O.”  I didn’t know what to say as he started typing and then proceeded to pay $1400 of my outreach fees.  There is no explanation for how he knew the amount I needed.

 

Yes, he front-paid me for the work that I promised to do—out of his own pocket, since the company obviously wouldn’t do that.

 

And then the next day, I got a check in the mail from one of my old patients for $100.  My outreach deposit was covered!!

 

Then, I had the rest of my outreach fees due in the middle of March.  A week before they were due, I started feeling anxious again—I had exhausted literally every avenue of funding at that point, yet I still needed quite a bit of money.  Of the whole Peru outreach team, I was the one who needed the most money, and in the last few days, I became the only person who still needed money to go.

 

Yet, God still provided for me.  The day funding was due, one of my Peru teammates’ boyfriend was visiting.  He was staying at a resort, and he felt like God wanted him to go give a lady by the pool a hug.  He ended up talking with her for a long time, and he shared about YWAM and what we are doing in the Medical DTS.  She felt led to give money, and he gave her my payment link.  She ended up giving me a substantial amount of money.  Who would have thought that a random lady at a resort would be the way God would provide for me!

 

Other missionaries ended up giving me money out of the blue, too.  One thing I have learned here is that even as a missionary, you still need to be faithful in listening to the Lord’s voice in giving money.  He will always be faithful in providing money for you, but it’s important that you are faithful in the meantime.  I exercised this principle, and so did other missionaries, with several families donating to me.

 

Even after all this, I still needed some funds, though—about $500.  And then at our Love Feast to celebrate the end of the lecture phase of DTS, I found out that an anonymous donor covered the rest of my outreach fees as well as that of the two other students (on other outreach teams) that still needed money.

 

But here’s where it gets even cooler—by some weird freak accident, I ended up still being $100 short at the last minute.  It was literally the day before I had to leave for outreach, and I still needed $100. Just as I was getting nervous again, I got a notification on my phone that someone had given me exactly $100—the day before I left.  WOW!  It was just like God was reminding me that He is in total control.  He just wanted to prove it to me.

 

So there you go—that’s how I got the funds to be here in Peru.  My next post will be more about what I am doing here– I have limited WiFi right now, but I’ll post a long update soon.

Thanks for all your love and support!  Please pray for my health right now, as I have been struggling with sickness.