COFFEE CHATS Are you trusting God…or do you have a backup plan? BY TINA KADOLPH
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f you know me or have read my articles, you may be surprised to learn that I have not always had a heart for missions. In fact, for many years, my husband and I had no interest in missions. So much so that when missionaries came to our church, we often skipped service and went to the beach or did something else. We both thought the missionaries would talk to us about places we would never go, ask for money we didn’t have, and make us feel guilty. I share this honestly with you because I want you to see how God has such a sense of humor. Plus, I hope to encourage you to never say never to God. He can change hearts, and all things are possible through Him. Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible, but not with God. Everything is possible with God.” (Mark 10:27 NLT) So, when my two daughters (then in middle and high school) asked to go on a mission trip to Belize with our church, I was surprised. Both girls really wanted to go,
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but because I was not going to let them go without me, I asked my husband if we could all go together. He wasn’t interested. Being a good mom, I signed up the girls and me. I was going for the sole reason of accompanying my children. The trip was $1500.00 each, so $4500.00 for us all to go. That’s a lot of money, and, honestly, we didn’t have that kind of money for a trip. I told the kids we would sign up and do all we could to raise the funds, participating in all the fundraisers, and if God wanted us to go, we would go. But if we didn’t raise enough, we would bless another participant with the money. My girls weren’t so excited about that Idea. They really wanted to go. I really felt like it was no big deal; we would go if God wanted. The day came when it was time for THE meeting, the meeting where we had to give the final payment. We were $2,253.00 short. We had raised $2,247.00, which I felt was amazing. But we were short. We were short a LOT. So, I had the talk with my girls, reminding them of our agreement: if we were short, we were going to bless
