Monday, February 18, 2013

God is abundantly GOOD!

Sometimes, most times, I am overwhelmed with the goodness of God. To be honest I don't understand it. It doesn't make any sense. I haven't done anything to deserve it, yet He continues to shower it upon me!
Here's what I mean:
So a few weeks ago we got the opportunity to go on a mostly paid for European cruise! The pastor of the church we have been attending is a travel agent and he approached us on a Friday afternoon telling us that he, his family and some other pastors and friends of some sister churches throughout Romania were all going on a cruise out of Italy for 11 nights and 12 days. The kicker was the cruise was on the following Wednesday which meant we would have to leave on Tuesday to drive for 14 hours or so to get there by Wednesday. Some of his friends that had booked it were not able to go at the last minute so he offered their room to us and the price was SUBSTANTIALLY lower than the regular price. We were sort of taken back and unsure of what to do. While it was a great opportunity and like ridiculously cheap for a trip like this, we still didn't have the financial resources. So we just offered it up in prayer and asked the Lord what on earth to do and asked for Him to make a way because it was the opportunity of life time. Then He made a way! We had someone donate money to us that wanted us to specifically use it for that purpose!
It really came at such a good time for us. Honestly the past year and half or so has been a little tough to say the least. We had had a baby and were still figuring out how to be parents when we moved to a foreign country to lead and live with a team of people we had only known a few short months. The chance to get to go on a trip like this as a family was seriously just what we needed. The Lord had really been speaking to Matt and I both about the importance of our marriage and our family and the necessity to make it a priority over ministry which has been hard for us. It's hard to live with people, lead them in ministry and still spend time together as husband and wife and also with Kylie as a family. We really needed this.
The ship was beautiful and it was really sweet to get to spend time with another married couple who also has a child (our pastor and his family). They are so sweet and worked so hard to help us to get to go with them. Since our cars are old and would never make the drive there and back he worked it out so that we could drive his company car!
Words just can't express how thankful we were for such an amazing opportunity. Without the Lord's help we would have never been able to experience something like this. I mean our room even had a balcony! Trips like this can easily cost around 5000 dollars! It was such a great reminder of how important our marriage and family is the Lord. That He will spare no expense to ensure that we remain strong in Him and that our marriage remains strong as well.
It was soooo much fun and so amazing to get to see so many beautiful places! Plus Kylie had a blast. She was the most popular girl on the whole boat. She made friends with everyone, made sure to say hi to everyone she happened upon, she held peoples hands, gave hi 5's and blew kisses. She is definitely not shy and LOVES being around people. It was so fun to watch her and see her little personality shine. Our friends were calling us the Hollywood family because of Kylie. People were taking pictures and videos of her everywhere we went! It was hilarious!

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