8 minute read
Coffee Chats
Are you trusting God…or do you have a backup plan?
BY TINA KADOLPH
If 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.
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, 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 another person who might be short so that they could go. They were sad but agreed to help someone else. I hoped they would be happy to help another and see the blessing in that - a God moment. I really had not expected that we would be able to raise almost $5000 dollars. I truly figured we would give the money to help someone else. I had, from the very beginning, a backup plan.
We entered the church, and I started walking up to the trip’s leader, ready to share with her about giving the money to someone else. There was nothing else we could do; we were short over $2000. As I walked up to the leader, a church staff member came up behind me. She said someone had anonymously dropped off an envelope to the church for me. Well, that was weird. Why would someone drop something off to the church for me? Why wouldn’t they just give it to me?
I went and sat down and opened the envelope. The girls came running over and asked what I was doing as I had stopped on my way to deliver our news to the trip leader. I told them someone had dropped off something to the church for me. So, they sat beside me, curious or just nosey. They wanted to see who would write me a letter and drop it off to the church. I was also very curious - and confused. I looked at the envelope. It was nothing special, just a plain white envelope with my name written across the top. The only odd thing was that it was kind of fat or thick as I felt it in my hands.
I opened the envelope and looked inside, with both girls staring at me. Inside was money. I pulled the money out; it was a lot of money, mostly $100’s. And I started counting. The girls’ eyes were huge, watching me as I counted. I counted $2,254.00! What the heck?? We were in shock. Where did this money come from? Inside was a slip of paper that said, “This is for your trip to Belize.” That’s it - no name and nothing else.
All three of us began to cry. No one knew the amount we were short for the trip. No one! I had personally been collecting the money for over three months. Even my girls didn’t know how much we had collected until that day.
We now had the money for the trip and were over by $1.00. How amazing is that? It was so close to being exact. God wanted us to know without any doubts that this was Him. The girls started screaming, “God does want us to go! God really wants us to go!”
I looked at them and said, “I don’t think He could make it any clearer.”
God knows what is best for you, and He hears the desires of your heart. He will give you the desires of your heart when the time is right. We must be patient and trust in the Lord. This was a huge God-lesson for my daughters and, well, for me too.
Psalm 20:4 declares, May He grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed. (NLT) That moment increased our faith, which has since extended to so many areas of our lives. And as a mom, I loved seeing God’s blessing lead to an increase in faith in my girls’ lives.
Wow, God had shown up big. Big for my daughters, big for my husband (who was totally blown away), and big for me. God showed me that I had not trusted Him. From the very beginning, I had a backup plan that was meant to give God an out. I had put this in place unconsciously so I wouldn’t be disappointed and so that my daughters wouldn’t be disappointed in God.
But after this experience, I not only trusted Him to provide in everyday life, but I also have trusted Him to provide for future mission trips. And now I teach others that God does call us and asks us to trust in His provision.
God wants you to go make disciples, and He WILL provide. We just need to step out in faith and trust Him to provide. He has provided for our mission trips over and over again. Trust Him. Don’t put a backup plan in place. Just trust HIM. He loves you, and He loves to show up big, so you will know it was Him and not you.
What I didn’t know then was that God wanted us to go on that trip because He had a plan to change my family’s life. After that first mission trip to Belize, our lives would never be the same, in a very good way. Remember I told you God has a sense of humor? Well, now I have a mission organization, and I’m the one standing in churches telling people about foreign countries and asking for money to support what we do. Our God is so amazing.
Thank you for reading. I hope this month’s Coffee Chats encourages you to trust in our God who is able. In the next edition of Voice of Truth, I will share how God worked through our trip to Belize and guided us to start Love Missions Global. I hope you will join us.
Until next time.
Tina Kadolph is the co-founder and president of Love Missions Global, a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the global abolishment of modern-day slavery, which has a safe house in South America and a life center called ‘The Bridge’ in Florida. Tina is the co-owner of ‘Palate Coffee Brewery,’ ‘Palate Roastery,’ and ‘Palate Bubs and Ice Cream’ in Sanford, Florida. She has been nominated as Hero of the Year by Spectrum TV and interviewed by CNN as an influencer, encourager, and inspiration.
