Luke 5:5-6

Sometimes God is silent. There are times when I pray that I look around the room and wonder why it feels like my prayers are hitting the walls and bouncing back towards me. I wonder how long it will take for God to work, move or speak.

Sometimes when God speaks it is so soft that it is easy to miss. In those times, I have found that what it takes on my part is to simply trust that God is moving and take the next step...I put one foot in front of the other holding on to the fact that in the deepest of my heart I know I am doing all that I am doing because it is my aim to please God.

Sometimes when God speaks it is so loud it shocks me. I have yet to hear the audible voice of God (although my Grandfather has had this privilege), but I have had very specific times in my life when  I was extremely certain I heard God's voice and it was life changing.

1. When I was called into missions. 
2. When God told me to stop being afraid and to follow him. 
3. When God  told me that it was okay to live in the United States and that I would be doing different types of ministry throughout my life for him. 
4. When God told me to be a pastor. 

Then, there are times when God speaks to me about my every day life and situations. For me, He often provides a Scripture passage or a devotional passage on the exact day/time/prayer that I ask or need it. There are times I open up my devotional and the subject is on the very topic that was burdening my heart. There are times when I pray, wait for a verse reference to come into my mind, turn to it and it speaks immensely to the situation I happen to be going through at that exact time. There are times in my daily Bible reading when I am simply reading along and sometime will jump off the page and my spirit will prompt me to stop reading, sit and meditate on those words and God will often speak to me through them.

Last week was one of those times.
Planning the mission trip has been very challenging and very intense. There are moments when I want to sit down on the floor and cry and ask for the adult to come and take over now. There have been some unique challenges with my situation because the people I have been working with to plan the trip have changed three times in the last year. Since two of those people were brand new to their jobs and I am brand new to planning a trip there have been things that have been miss-communicated and in some cases missed.

A couple of weeks ago there were still things for our trip that were not settled that very much needed to be settled. I was a hot mess on Monday. I met with my prayer partner Monday afternoon and she prayed a lot and I cried a lot we prayed. (BTW, quick side note. I love having a prayer partner. I have found that I see more answered prayers out of my time with her than any other time. I would encourage everybody to get one!) On Tuesday night, I got into bed and read my daily Bible reading. I came to Luke 5:5-6 and it was as though God took a giant stamp and stamped the word "Thailand" right across the page. This is what the verse says...

"Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let the nets down again." And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!

Jesus is asking Simon (Peter) in this verse to go out and fish even though Simon has already been out fishing and caught nothing. As I read this, I felt exactly like Simon. I had worked so hard (not all night, but for a year) on the mission trip and was at a point of feeling like I had caught nothing. Yet, God was saying to me, go back out there, get up tomorrow and work on this again, I am going to do something amazing, your nets are going to be so full they tear. I was so certain that God had spoken to me through this verse. 

I love when I feel like God is promising something good to me! :D 

The next morning, I received a call from the head of the mission department for our entire denomination. She had spent her morning reading every single e-mail I had written (70 pages in a word document) and she realized that there were unresolved issues with my trip. BOOM. She spent the next half hour going over all my questions, giving me advice, providing me with resources and helping me work on the unresolved issues I was facing on Monday. It turns out that the lady I had been working with was out of town, her boss (probably because the lady I was working with was new) was checking her e-mails while she was gone. This boss saw one of my e-mails and called me. Apparently, after our conversation this boss contacted the big boss and sent a copy of all my e-mails and whammo it all worked out. The relief that came from this phone conversation left me with a joy that lasted all day. 

I imagine Simon Peter running around yelling, "We got fish! We got fish!" I spent my day running around yelling, "God answered my prayer! God answered my prayer!" I was/am so thankful that God had been with me every step of the way on this mission trip. I was reminded again that it is not my trip, but that God is truly the one in charge. For that, I am so glad! 

Happy face!