Thursday was my first day on the road and it was a long one. I had a flight to Atlanta but I had no idea that one-way rental prices from GA to VA would be so out of control. I saved approximately $800 by driving the 9 hour drive. The switch to driving had some great hidden rewards. I was able to listen to several great speakers on CD from Catalyst and add a visit with Jay Hardwick to the tour.
During the drive I also received an email from a Pastor asking if we could talk. I replied back and within minutes he called. Basically his first few words were "Tally, our church is going to help you financially. Do you have time to iron out the details in a week or so?" Wow. What do you say to that? Obviously I agreed to talk with him when we return but beyond that it is so encouraging to have God's people take a Kingdom-minded approach with finances. He is an amazing guy and his church is a great church. I'm looking forward to that partnership developing further.
I got other contacts throughout the trip and with every one it's been like God putting wind in my sails. We're a long way away from meeting our fund raising goals but I'm very excited at all that has happened in these first few days.
Another amazing thing happened to me just about two miles from my hotel. It was about 9:45 p.m. and I had left home about 12 hours before. I was tired. I knew I was getting close to my last turn so I was paying attention to street signs pretty heavy when I looked up and noticed a car on the right shoulder. Initially I thought "Maybe they're fine and I can go to sleep." But my second thought was to make a U-turn and go back to "at least check on this person."
Long story short I spent over an hour at the scene. The driver was having a difficult time in that moment thinking through all she had to do. She didn't know what to do. I helped her get the car off of the road, call her insurance company, talk to the police and deal with the tow truck driver. At the end of all of this she asked me what I did for a living (my rental car has Virginia plates).
I shared with her and her friend that I am a Pastor and in town to visit other Pastors. Both of these women lit up. They kept talking about how they were from a nearby Chinese Church and they were returning home from sharing the gospel with someone. They were on visitation. One of the women even has a husband in a 'closed' country right now. She just moved here from another country where she had served over a dozen years as a missionary. I shared a part of her story and her video in a previous post.
I couldn't help but to think that God was teaching me big things on Thursday. As a church planter I'm focused on what we're going to need to do this right. As a Pastor I think I'm doing some good by helping someone in need and BOOM.... God steps into my world and smacks me upside the head. He reminded me that I'm not in a country where what I do can get me deported or tortured. He reminded me that He's doing His work through people who look nothing like me, talk nothing like me and act nothing like me. He's a huge God doing huge things around the world through people like this woman and her family.
This woman doesn't have a blog. She and her husband won't get to tell everyone of their mission as freely and openly as I get to do. It's highly unlikely that the people I think are amazing in ministry will ever even know their names (nor will they know the people I respect).
God has a way of doing that you know... He has a way of teaching us through seemingly random circumstances if we're willing to make the U-turn and obey his still voice.
Obedience is awesome stuff. Obedience always leads to something amazing whether we see it at the time or not.
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Check out TheBaltimoreProject.com for videos and updates. Also if you have Twitter/Facebook/Blog, etc. I'd love it if you would put up a tweet or a post pointing other people our way. If you let me know that you did, I'll do my best to thank you online in return.
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