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Wow, what a week and it is only Thursday.  Do you ever feel so overwhelmed with events that you just don’t know what to do? My week was this way so let me tell you a little about it.

Tuesday morning, I awoke to the news of a second large earthquake in Nepal. The caretaker of our orphanage in Kathmandu contacted us to let us know all our children were safe, Praise the Lord. More buildings had collapsed in the area and he was not sure about our building as it seemed to be leaning slightly. If our building fell, where would our orphans go, where would they get food, water or medical help? The area is experiencing many aftershocks each day causing our children to be traumatized on top of it all. Being more than 8,000 miles away makes this all so much harder especially because of limited communications. How can I help from so far away? How can I fix this?

We recently started helping an orphanage in Sierra Leone. We learned about this home during the Ebola outbreak. They reached out to us in desperation and we were able to help a little bit and just with a one time donation. Even though the disease outbreak has eased, the orphan population continues to grow. So on Tuesday, the caretaker of this orphanage contacted us again. He sent me a photo of two young children sleeping on the floor of a local bar because they had no parents. They looked to be about 4 or 5 and have no one to care for them. The caretaker is asking us for funds to bring these little ones into the home. Nothing breaks my heart more than seeing such young children suffering. Our current budget does not have any room to take on more work. How can I get more donors to help support this work? How can I fix this?

Wednesday arrives and now I hear from our orphanage in Myanmar. The caretaker in Myanmar contacted me. The new school session starts on a May 25th and they are out of school supplies. All 16 children need new uniforms, book bags, pens, pencils and paper. The cost is estimated at $480. Our donations cover the regular monthly expenses in Nepal and Myanmar but not much extra. How would the children be able to go to school without these items? Where will I get the money? How can I fix this?

When trouble strikes, I always find God already there with answers to my questions. During the last several weeks, I participated in an on-line Bible study of the book “Walk in Faith” by Lysa TerKeurst. It has been a great study. One particular quote really stuck with me during the study. It said, “Trust God with the Journey as you take each step. You take care of the possible and let Him take care of the impossible.”  I think God was talking directly to me with this quote. When I experience problems in our ministry, I rack my brain to come up with ways to fix the issue and try to make it happen. This has not always worked and then I become frustrated. I pray about the problem all the while I continue to try to fix it myself. That is how I was handling these new problems this week. But then this quote came to mind and  I immediately knew what God was telling me. It is not my job to do the impossible. I need to only do what is possible and let God work the miracles to truly fix these issue as He desires. Wow, this really blew me away. The stress of these events just lifted from my shoulders because I knew God was much better qualified to handle this. God knows what He is doing without my help.

Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God.”

So now what? Well, I will continue to lift each of these problems to the Lord daily in prayer. I will wait for the Lord to show me what my part is and then do that piece. I am learning that God may not want an issue solved right now. Maybe the Lord is not calling me to solve these problems at all. God might have another purpose in these issues and I just need to wait on Him. What a gift to receive this message especially at this time. God is able and I just need to trust Him.

I know this will take lots of practice on my part because my personality is such that I want to solve problems. That is what originally lead me into this ministry because I felt called to help orphans (and solve all their problems). Thank goodness for the grace that God offers us. He gently show us the error of our ways and allows us to correct our course. Oh wait, this problem of me waiting on the Lord is something that I can really fix, with God’s help of course.

Yvonne

Matthew 28:19 “Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

For Compel – I tried using a strong first sentence as a hook. I also spent time reading my post aloud to see how it sounded.