Our Alaska mission team had saved, sorted, baked and priced items for a yard/bake sale this past Saturday. A few of us gathered Friday evening to unload a few things at the church and price the last few items. The forecast was favorable for a morning sale...not too hot, not too cold, and rain holding off until late afternoon.
The next morning, around 6:00 AM, we began set up and it was, indeed, a nice morning. Right around 7 AM, treasures all set out, I was putting the last few baked goods out under the canopy tent. A strange sound came from above as I was standing there.
Plop...plop...splat!
I looked up at the roof of the tent (as if that was going to tell me anything). In disbelief, I stepped out from the shelter.
Raindrops cascaded down from the ominous clouds that now hung directly above our heads and yard sale items. Several things went through my mind in those few seconds I stood there out in the rain.
There was no rain supposed to be in our area at 7 AM.
This cannot be.
It cannot rain now.
But, in spite of my state of denial (which is more than a river in Egypt, by the way).
Forecasted or not, rain was present.
It really was raining.
And, it can rain when it wants.
Apparently, it wanted to rain right then, right there...on all of us and our hard work of the wee morning hours. I had no control over it. I just had to work through it. I had a few moments where disappointment set in and it was apparent. I leaned on my team and they helped me remember that our plan isn't always going to work and that God has a better one in store. We worked through it together and thanks to an awesome idea from one of our friends who stopped by we had an even greater way of re-storing our now wet and holding water items for "next time" that saved us alot of time and alot of manual labor!
Thank you, God, for Rachel!
We had made 3 sales before the rains came pouring down...a total of about $15, I think...and we had our baked goods remaining. We decided to sell the goodies at church the following day (Rachel again helped us out with purchasing a few of those from us before she left that day. She's awesome, I tell you.)
Leaving the parking lot, I was wet, a wee bit tired, and more than slightly disappointed in our not happening sales.
Fail.
Enter God's plan.
The next morning I arrived a few minutes before Sunday School began and was wonderfully surprised to see a table already set up with our remaining goodies on it and some boys having a grand time selling the items to our church family as they walked through the door. The goodies for sale, by my estimation, would have been around $80-$85 if we sold them all.
God multiplied that by 2 and gave us $163 for our time and goods by the end of services that day.
A double blessing from His hand through His people.
"God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours."
Hebrews 11:40 [The Message]
When reading this I just smiled, knowing you would have a special ending! There was a song that I sang a long time ago. "Not by might" it was a beautiful song to me. Came from scripture. ZecharIah 4:6. Not by might not by power but by my spirit says the Lord.
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