This morning in church, we were singing "Everything" (it's sung by Tim Hughes). It really struck me that it was the theme song of my life the last few months in planning the pancake breakfast. God was in the details... in the planning, the working, the ideas, the purchasing, the financing, the organizing, the sleeping, the waking, the running around, the lifting, the hauling, the cooking, the conversations, the decorating, the relationships, the volunteers, the weather, God was truly working it all out.
It was a little strange because even though there was SO much work to do to get ready and to get the event started, and it was stressful at times, I didn't have worries. I feel like God gives me a lot of grace in that area. A very long time ago, I realized that me worrying is like saying to God that things are in my control and not His. I felt like by worrying, I wasn't recognizing how big of a God I serve. I believe that God has honored that by putting a protective covering around my heart so that I mentally and emotionally am unable to worry sometimes. Either that, or it's the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart assuring me of a particular answer.
For example, the weather - our city's weather is often cold and 99% of the time very windy. Because the breakfast was right on the lake, it would have been so unlikely for us to get perfect conditions. But God opened the door for us to rent that particular park on that particular day. And not only did He do that, but we didn't even have to pay for the rental! I had planned to have a rain location printed on our posters. But after I got the posters printed I realized that I had completely forgotten all about that idea. And that's when a peace settled into my heart. When God is in everything, He doesn't make mistakes. The more that got planned, the more that peace and confidence grew.
More people than I can count told me they were praying about the weather. And lots of people were watching the forecast. I felt that the God of the wind and rain was going to do exactly what He wanted and I really thought it was going to be perfect.
And it was.
The temperatures were not too cool and not too hot. The wind was only a very mild breeze until it was time to leave and then it picked up. The sun came out and the sky was beautiful - all the threatening clouds floated away before there was any time to even think twice about them.
There were so many details that God took care of - it was exciting to plan a party with the Lord. If you haven't ever tried it, it's thrilling! Phil and I laugh and laugh - one thing we both heard throughout the day was "Bethany's so organized" - I laugh just writing that! I am not organized. I'm an idea person. I can implement ideas. But organized??? No - that was all God! :)
One detail that is particularly cool to me had to do with the sausages. I ordered 13 cases of sausages and was working with a gentlemen who volunteered to cook them all for me with this wife bright and early on Saturday morning. And when I say bright I mean before bright since the sun wouldn't have been up yet. :) He and I talked for two days about sausages - trying to figure out how to get the sausages cooked. All morning the Friday a week before the event, I was on the phone back and forth working on sausages. Then in the middle of it all, the phone rings. The man who works for the food distributor getting us the sausages was calling to tell me that he was going to get me pre-cooked sausage instead. WHAT?! Seriously! I basically started squealing in his ear, I'm sure, about how great that was! He said all we had to do was heat them in nescos for 90 minutes!!! I just couldn't believe how much God was in the details.
Another thing that really meant a lot to me was the t-shirts! I really wanted all the volunteers to wear the same thing - to set them apart - so that people would know who to ask questions to and who could help if need be. I considered making them, buying just the same colored shirts, buying shirts from our Ticket to China site, but I just couldn't. Then I found THE shirt. It was from a different adoption fundraising site. I showed it to Phil and he agreed - it was perfect. I emailed the organization and they agreed to let us become a fundraising family with them and order the shirts we needed for our event.
The front of the t-shirts say 147 million orphans and the backs say MINUS 1. :)
Then I needed to come up with something for me and Phil to wear. For a few weeks, I just couldn't come up with what I wanted. Then Phil suggested we have a picture of Samuel on our t-shirts with the back saying THIS 1 to kind of coordinate with the volunteer shirts.
I could go on and on about the blessings and the details - things like God providing chairs that wouldn't sink into the ground by the thoughtfulness of one family and the idea and donation of chocolate chips for the pancakes by another family! (It's funny, because I thought having chocolate chips would be so great, but thought I'd save God from "over-extending", so I didn't even bother to talk to Him about it! LOL - Yet again, God reminds me that 1. He knows my heart and 2. is gracious and loving beyond what I can imagine.) God is even in my hoping and dreaming.
Anyway, I may write more another time, but I wanted to post a little slideshow of the event! Enjoy! And a HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to all of our volunteers and prayer supporters! We were able to raise $3350 towards Sammy's adoption! And THANK YOU to all who came out to eat pancakes!
*You can make the video larger by clicking the enlarge button on the bottom right of the video.
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