Guatemala, part 1.5

No, I haven't gone to Guatemala, yet.  In fact, we leave exactly ONE MONTH from today...allow me to pause for a mini-freak-out-session.

I meant to write this as a two part series only, with the second part chronically my experiences in Guatemala, but I feel like it is my duty to let my readers know of God's extreme faithfulness over the past two weeks.  Thus, I give you, Guatemala 1.5.

So, anyone who knows me know that I am a sucker for a good story, and I am known to tell quite a detailed story, myself.  I would like to begin with a reminder of one of my favorite stories in the New Testament, found in Mark 6.

The Story of the Fish and Loaves (as paraphrased by me)

Jesus and his friends needed a break from life, so they decided to go to a remote place for some peace and quiet.  But God had other plans.  A group of people saw what they were doing, and followed Jesus and the disciples.  Jesus had compassion on them, for He was their Shepherd, and they were His lost sheep.  After some time had passed, the disciples came to Jesus and said, "It's late, send the people home so they can find something to eat."  Jesus, ever the Good Shepherd, said "You give them something to eat."  The disciples were confused.  "Should we buy food for everyone here?"  To which Jesus asked, "How much food do you have?"  When the disciples looked at their food, all they found were five loaves and two fish.  So Jesus had the people sit down on the grass in groups of 50's and 100's.  Then, Jesus, blessed the food, gave thanks, and began passing out the foot.  Despite the scarcity of food, 5,000 people were able to eat until they were full.

Ok, holy-moley, this is a great story.  And this past couple of months have been my own little lesson in God's provision for this medical trip.

Two weeks ago, as I wrote my first Guatemala post, I was in a low place.  I was doubting.  I was asking God what His plan was.  I was asking God if He forgot about us.

You see, our fish and loaves were a limited budget and scarcity of medications.

How can you go on a medical trip without enough medication?

I was terrified.  I thought about throwing in the towel and giving up.  All I could see was failure ahead.  And I do not like failure.  All I could picture was crowds of people, and us with our up-turned hands saying "No more."

But God had other plans.  We prayed.  We prayed some more.  We asked others to pray.  And we brainstormed.  And lo and behold, not only did we find a new company where we were able to order all of our medications with LESS than our budget, we also found out we had overpaid, and actually had twice the budget we initially thought. AND we were given medications from a previous trip that we needed and are completely free.

Praise God!

God has more than provided, He has given us an abundance!

What are your fish and loaves in your life today?