God Loves to Stack the Deck

And God told Gideon, "Son, you have just enough men to think that you're a big deal. But you're not. I am. So what I'm going to need you to do is stack the deck against yourself. Let's get rid of most of the men in your army. I'll leave you with a handful of platoons. There's no way you can win against an army with a few hundred men."
And He was right, as He always is. But to the glory of God, the battle was won anyway. Not because Gideon could possibly win given those odds. But because God can.

Speaking on this very story in Papua New Guinea. The two containers are full of rice. The first has 300 grains and the second approximately 135,000.

Elijah knew this tendency of God to prove himself. So when he was finished mocking the prophets of Baal who begged their god to send fire for hours and hours, Elijah poured gallons and gallons of water on his alter, before calling for God to burn it up. The Lord decimated it. I mean, I think we all cognitively know that stones can burn up, but have you seen it? All you would have seen after this inferno was a charred hole in the ground. 

Jesus heard that his beloved friend Lazarus was dying. So he didn't go. Healing the sick is so beginner's stuff. Any prophet can heal people! But nobody can raise the dead. Nobody. (Except Elijah, but that kid never even died so... He deserves to be an exception.) Even Mary. who knew and believed in Jesus' ability to heal, thought this was beyond him. Jesus waited until Lazarus had been dead for four days, hit the stinky gross level of dead, to come over and say, "Ok, Lazarus. The sun is shining, let's stop napping." And the dead man got up and hobbled out of his tomb, saying "MMmm MMM mm! MM mMM mm!" Which roughly translates to "Why am I tied up [in burial linen]? I can't walk!"

Sometimes God stacks the deck against Himself, so that when His will prevails, despite all odds, His power will be seen and He will be glorified. Sometimes the deck is already stacked against Him: David vs Goliath, Moses vs Pharaoh, Peter vs The Sanhedrin. And He prevails nonetheless. And sometimes He just provides in a crazy way. 

The widow who didn't run out of oil until all her jars were full. 

A few loaves of bread and a couple fish feeding 5,000 men (not including women and children)

A fish having enough money is his mouth for the temple tax x 2. 

God loves to be glorified! And He loves to make sure that there is no doubt that everyone knows that it was Him at work by making it impossible by human means. 

So the multiple times this trip has been pushed back for reasons beyond us (POC requiring infants to be 6 months and POC canceled in May being the last two issues), while I was frustrated that we were further delayed in getting to PNG, I was even more frustrated that reaching 100% of our budget would take that much longer. Because I know that God loves to stack the deck against Himself. 

The last time we went to PNG, we were expecting a $2500 that at the last minute fell through. The day before our trip, Jacob got on the phone and raised it all. We had been raising funds for this trip very slowly for a very long time and pulled in 25% of our expenses the night before. Let me assure you. It was not because we were fantastic fund-raisers. 

God provides, but He's not concerned about my stress levels in the meantime. 

We have 10 days to raise 6% of our funds. 

We have worked full-time for 365 days (yes, a year ago today, we arrived in Virginia, launching our full-time PD-trip) and raised 58% more of our budget. That's just more that 1% a week.
365 days - 58%

10 days - 6%

My, my... This is not looking good. 

Our last deadline at the beginning of July was not met because we raised the money we thought we needed at the hour we thought we needed it, but it was met nonetheless.

God made it work for us and He made the possibility of us bringing our support in in time even slimmer!

Now we have a new goal date, July 21st, and I think we'll make it somehow. And if we don't have 90% of it by then, I know God will work it out some other way. 

Guys, I know it. I feel it. In my heart of hearts, I have felt such peace about it. 

We're leaving in September. 

God is going to make it happen and He is going to look amazing doing it!

So let's glorify Him now for all the things He's already done, for me, for you, throughout history. 

And let's pray, because God loves it when we turn to Him for our own needs and for the needs of others. 

And when He's finished the finale of bringing in our support, let's glorify Him again. 

(If you're thinking of joining our support team, please don't read this as reason to wait until the 21st to share your intentions... That's not what we're going for here.) 

6 people giving $46/month

12 people giving $23/month

1 person giving $275/month

275 people giving $1/month

100 people giving $2.75/month

Whether God finds one person who's able to give a lot or a legion of people who have little they can give, we are so excited to meet the rest of our team.