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Do you believe in coincidences?  Well I don't.  I believe that everything in life happens for a reason.   When I look back over my life and the lives of my family I can see times when God brought multiple events; sometimes rather large and other times very seemingly insignificant, into our lives to speak to us.   In light of a recent totally unplanned, unexpected invitation we received to help with a ministry trip this summer to Uganda we again have been moved by events God has orchestrated in our lives.  I really want to share some of ways God has been working over the past few months and weeks.  For simplicity's sake I will give you a chronological list today of a few very recent events.

February 23^rd: I received an email offer from eBay.com to list 7 items for the next 7 days for free.  (This is the one and only time I have ever received an offer like that.) So I decide to list a few of my older paintings and see if I get any nibbles.

February 24^th: I talk with Tim about changing our plans to go out West this fall to celebrate our 30^th Anniversary.  We have been trying to save a little money each month to put towards that and since we didn’t really do anything special for our 25^th and we didn’t take any type of trip last year, we thought we would be able to do this.  We were both totally excited about seeing the South West as neither of us have been there before  But when we talked it was a simple discussion that ended only a few minutes after it started with the decision to put the trip on hold and instead do something which would take less money, with our young adult children. 

February 24^th & 25^th: We run the idea of renting a cabin in Tennessee by our kids.  They all are in favor and each offer to pitch in for the trip.  We already know what cabin we want to rent….one we stayed at several years ago and loved!

February 26^th: I am thrilled to see that my paintings on eBay are getting bids and tell Tim I want to use the money that comes in for something special.  That evening we talk as a group with kids about the cabin and get on line to see if it available on the dates we could do the trip.  (I can’t remember why, but we decide to wait to actually rent it, even though I was on the page and nearly did reserve it.)

February 27^th: Tim and I both get a message on Facebook from a missionary named Ryan Williamson who is on the staff at Word of Life Bible Institute.   We worked with Ryan several years ago when we were both on leadership team for the high school youth group at our former church.  Ryan told us we had been on his mind and he asked us to think and pray about joining him on a short term mission’s trip to Uganda this summer.  I replied to Ryan and told him humanly speaking there was no way we could do it, but that we would definitely pray about it.  The first major obstacle was for Tim to be able to get off work for an extended period of time, which the company normally does not allow at all!  The second was my schedule.  Last summer my schedule was totally packed with multiple workshops/classes and doing art fairs during the summer.  The months of July and August were totally books with activities and commitments every week!   After receiving the dates for the trip, I looked at my calendar and was totally amazed to see that I would only have to miss one event, which was a free paint out.  I had applied to a new art fair right in the middle of that time period, but had not gotten accepted.   As I looked at those 3 weeks with virtuallly nothing written on them I remember how last fall I told Tim I didn’t know why, but I felt I needed to pull back on the class schedule, I had actually turned down more than one invitation to teach workshops without having any idea that this trip was in God's plans!

February 27^th, afternoon:  Tim calls me to tell me that his boss cheerfully told him he can have the time off from work for something like this!  That very morning his boss had read a devotional that fit right along the lines of our going on this trip! 

So, even though things were looking promising, there was still a lot to consider!  I will continue in my next blog entry.  Thanks so much for reading!  Come back and see how things work out.  Because as I write this, I have no idea how God is going to continue work…but I know He is working and that is all that matters!