Hey Everyone! Wow what a crazy couple weeks it has been, but God has been a huge part of it! First off, the foundation my boyfriend and I started (Christmas 1:27) went amazing! God had his hand all over this and it was incredible to see. Our goal was to raise $4,500 and at the end of the two weeks we raised $7,300! Praise God! We were fortunate to have been able to meet the 18 kids we sponsored as we were delivering the gifts. Thanks to your help, we were able to bless these precious kids.
Like I said, these past couple weeks have been an absolute rollercoaster. Things happened that would stall the process and things happened that forced us to make major adjustments in our plans. You see we had so much faith that God would provide that the devil tried to find a way to get us to believe He couldn’t. This brought me back to one of my favorite verses in John that says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Whenever you see destruction, loss, or any negativity the enemy is at work. This is where our foundation and our relationship with God was really tested. The devil was throwing out all of these things that were put in the way of what God put on our hearts in the first place, but we continued to trust that God was gonna prevail.
We got a phone call just two days before we went shopping from a family who was collecting children’s gifts. Something happened and they were able to donate these gifts to us. On top of our 18 kids, we were able to bless the other children at the Ranch as well. We got another phone call this morning from a school asking for help giving kid’s at their school a Christmas that many aren’t able to have. With left over donations we were able to bless them with $2,000 to give these kid’s a Christmas. Man guys, God is so good!
We went from a goal of sponsoring 5 kids in the matter of a month, to God telling us to commit to all 18 unsponsored kids with just two weeks to do it. God ended up giving us enough money to sponsor all 18 kids, donate about 60 gifts to the others and we were able to give $2,000 to a school in need. All of this with only two weeks and a plan much smaller than this.
Guys, I don’t know what your going through but I do know that there are times you just wanna give up. The devil is gonna try and make you believe that you aren’t good enough and that God isn’t good enough. The bible says in John, “In this world you will have trails and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome this world.” Trust in the one who can and don’t let the enemy tell you anything different.
My question to you is, are you try gonna try and save yourself, or are you gonna turn your troubles and doubts over to God? Through the tough times we ran to God and He blessed us above and beyond. God gave me a peace in my heart when things went wrong and I wanted to quit. He said, “Ya you can’t do it, but your talking to the One who can.” That is absolutely right! Leave it to God.
Bri
Posted on
Mon, December 17, 2012
by Bob Pinto