Faithful Friday – When the Plan Changes

Welcome to our first Faithful Friday post! God is so good to us and we want to share the stories that will inspire you to remember moments when God has been faithful in your life.

 

Today, HOPE Oliphant, a parent at HOPE Academy shares her story of God’s calling, and clarity for her family.

 

 

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I was willing to go. I had resigned from my current ministry position, our family’s home and belongings were for sale, and after numerous skype interviews my husband and I were officially hired to be the Directors of the GYTTE (Give Ye Them to Eat) in Puebla, Mexico.

There it was written in black and white laid out for me in my study, a message so certain that I could not be mistaken. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” This verse in Proverbs 13:12 was the confirmation that I so longed to have!

The assignment was the perfect opportunity for us to use our gifts to teach life skills and share how to develop sustainable agriculture at a facility named “the Tree of Life“. This scripture was the confirmation I so desperately needed to move ahead in faith.

Though so many people didn’t understand our calling to the mission field, including my older children, I knew God had anointed me to bring the good news to the poor.

 


 

Waiting to see how our journey would unfold took a while, but finally I felt like we were on the cusp of answering this call. The day we were prepared to make the trip to visit our new home in Mexico, I found myself unexpectedly sitting in a hospital room in the United States.

During a freak accident my husband fell down our front steps that morning, tearing a tendon above his knee cap. I sat wondering how my husband’s fall might alter our plans, “Surely we were still going, perhaps just a little later than we had originally thought.”

Much to my surprise, doctors told us that not only could he not fly on a plane, but also that he would not be able to work at all for at least 6 months.

This timeframe didn’t work with our position with the mission, thus causing us to give up our assignment. To add insult to injury as time passed, my husband confessed he really didn’t want to move now and that he felt it wasn’t right for us at this time.

I was hurt. I was embarrassed. I felt foolish for being so bold. I doubted what I had heard.

Filled with anger, I wondered why God would bring us so close to what I thought was our calling, or maybe I should say my idol? You see a good thing had become the ultimate thing for me. Only God can be our ultimate thing.

God is faithful though and He gave birth to a new ministry just nine months later right in our home town of China Grove, North Carolina.

Main Street Mission began a new empowerment initiative right in my own backyard, and I was asked to head it up.

I resigned for a second time from my current ministry position, took a leap of faith and accepted this call unsure how financially this would work. God was faithful. Our mission, just a few months after my acceptance received a grant to fund the initiative as well as pay my salary.

I look back now at Proverbs 13:12 and realize that the scripture was God speaking to me. It’s just that I did not have God’s wisdom to read and fully understand the first part of that scripture. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is the tree of life.”

I cannot begin to tell you all the ways that God orchestrated each piece of this journey, but I am so thankful for God’s faithfulness and sovereignty. God knows the deepest desires of our heart. He simply wants obedience. Seeking God above all else, surrendering our own plans, allows God to prove faithful always.

 

Now it’s your turn to share! How has God been faithful to you?

We can’t wait to hear, please leave your comments below.

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