(Read Part XIII)
Before my diagnosis we had paid for a cruise to Alaska with Chuck’s parents, but now that we were going in a completely different direction we were unsure how people would look at it. Here we were giving everything (except our vehicle and home) away, living by faith and taking a cruise…what would people say? Chuck didn’t want to go and told his parents that and the reason, but his dad said if we weren’t going they weren’t going. That pretty much made the decision for us because we really wanted them to experience this (it was something they had talked about doing many times but never did).
We began the cruise still with doubt if we should be there, but as always God showed us He can and will use anything and everything for His purpose and glory! About the third day Chuck’s dad called us in our room and jokingly told us he had given away our breakfast seats and we should hurry down if we want to get breakfast. Once we got our food and found them we were introduced to Florence (the person dad had given our breakfast seat to). Her first question to us was “what do you do?” That was a common question, but for us one that had drastically changed over the previous few months. We gave Florence the abridged story – telling her we knew we were to do something with impoverished children we just weren’t sure what yet. As Chuck was telling her this she had an incredulous look on her face and said “you have to come to know my brother, Gideon. He has been praying for five years that someone from the United States could help him with his orphanage in Kenya.” Honestly I thought to myself, Kenya…really? What could we do for people in Kenya?
It was yet another opportunity for us to put our trust in God and watch what He could do if we would only let go and let Him.
After getting to know Florence a bit more we exchanged information, said we’d keep in contact and said our goodbyes (we never saw her again on the ship). At the time we were wondering what, if anything, would come of this meeting. We talked about it during the trip and wondered where it was leading, would we be fundraisers here in the US and send funds over? How would it all work out? But looking back at this meeting shows us again how God uses what we feel are unusable situations for His glory.Was this the direction we were looking for? We don’t believe in coincidences only God-incidences and this seemed to be one of those times!
(Go to Part XV)