Be careful what you wish for...

A full time job, and full time grad school... I know, I know, we've talked about this before. But last night as I was sitting in my room diligently pounding away at my Numerical Analysis homework I wished that I could live my life on less sleep.

Well, God provides and I have been up since 3am.... Car alarms started going off in a parking lot next to my apartment... and apparently, I am now a light sleeper. Once, a girl who could sleep through a thunderstorm, now a daughter, falling into the footsteps of her mother; waking at the slightest sound.

I know that part of this is because of life's recent happenings and a few other things I don't really share with everyone. But hey, God is working and He will provide.

A memory came to mind after writing yesterday's blog, and I would like to share it with each of you. If you don't remember or didn't read, I talked about following God's will, and how the devil will attack when you are striving to be more like Christ.

Well, since I was 16 years old I have went on the Coffee County Baptist Association Summer Mission Trip. There have only been two separate occasions where I have missed this joyful experience, but that's not the point. In the Summer of 2008 my team was spectacular. We just had a different level of dynamic that year... we were all close and we all jumped deep into our lessons and worked hard to impact the kids who came to our bible club. The week was great, not only did we reach children for Christ but our team grew as individuals and as a team... Friday is always the last day of bible club and our big decision day push. Teams left our base church at varying times from 6am to 7:30am. Our church was rather far from our base church so we left early as usual. And on the way that morning something unexpected happened. Bro. Phil, our team leader of course was driving the Mount Pleasant van with our team scattered throughout the van, some sleeping, and the rest of us just waiting to get to the church.  

Bro Phil protected each of us, when a truck hauling a trailer began to fishtail and overturned, stretching across the road and heading straight for our van full of students. Bro Phil, with only the work of God's hand was able to maneuver the van just far enough off the road not to flip into the ditch and for the truck to only hit the van in the back near the tires.... By God's hand our van didn't overturn, and all us crazy students who were not wearing seat belts were all ok. Thankfully, the couple driving the truck were also ok, and we were able to get one out of the truck, but had to wait for the ambulance and the police because the passenger was trapped.

We were able to call the Pastor of our Bible club church, with whom Bro Phil had a great relationship. And as in all Indian cultures, they new someone who was family that could work on our van in order to get us home. We then, continued on to our Bible club, thankful that parents and volunteers were watching the children until we could get there. As we all piled out of the van we stretched out in pews and in the isles of the church. Our bodies were aching, we were in a state of shock. But we new we had work to be done. So with the work of a team led by God's grace and mercy we got up and finished the bible club with an outstanding finish. That day, they devil tried to stop us from reaching those kids. We could have easily been killed or just went back to the base church after such a traumatic experience and cancel the last day. But we, as a team, pressed on because we knew the kingdom work had to be done.

Now, I pray that something crazy or catastrophic has to happen in your life... but just know, that when you are facing hard times, God's grace and mercy is enough. Keep doing the work, keep the faith, run the race. God won't give you anything you can't handle. Trust Him, and let Him lead, even when times are tough, He is there.