It's all in God's Timing!!!

I am sitting in my house early on Saturday morning in almost disbelief. As I look around there are boxes stacked every where. Our lives and our house scattered but yet in order. As I look at our boxes I realize how much junk we accumulate but yet we think we need. As I look at all of this "stuff" I am humbled that I serve a God that has blessed us with so much. As we turn our eyes forward to Guatemala I think about all of the families and villages that we will be reaching out to that could more than likely feel their entire house with about 4 of our moving boxes. The amazing thing is most of those folks are just as happy if not more.

Now that I have everyone depressed let me tell you about the Awesome God we serve! This week started out pretty rough as we have been raising funds for our container. Well God has gotten involved and we are within $1200 of what we need to ship. We will be loading Saturday morning at 10AM so if you have a good back and would like to come and hang out for a couple of hours we could use you. Just email me and I will get you directions. Now back to the God stuff. For weeks we have been looking to buy a transmitter to build our radio station in Casa. Well again God took care of that in a way only He can. I happen to bump into Mark Hall from Casting Crowns a couple of weeks ago and he ask me what my family had been into. So I dropped the bomb shell that I was leaving the radio station and moving to Guatemala. He put his hand on my shoulder and gave me his email address and told me to email him our needs and he would see what he could do. Well I am happy to report that Casting Crowns will be playing on Casa radio because he sent what we needed to buy the equipment and some extra to help support our family. I have to tell you Casting Crowns is awesome, and not because they gave to our ministry but because they truly have a heart for God! So go buy their new "CD"!!!

We also had contacted a cabinet company in Alabama to check on prices for our kitchen. The best price we could find was $2000, but after talking with this christian company they are building our cabinets for around $1000 and shipping them to us to put on the container for free. Their website is http://www.easykitchencabinets.com/. So I had a wonderful friend who is buying my TV and we are able to use that money to pay for the cabinets. I know what you are thinking "Mike gave up his TV for cabinets?" Hey it was simple I need a place to put my bread and peanut butter and it won't fit on a flat screen!

It has been amazing to see God this week. The most amazing part of the week though had nothing to do with us and everything to do with a little girl and big sister in Guatemala. I have has Genesis on our list for weeks to pray for because she needs a kidney transplant. Well it finally happened this week. After months of delays and disappointments God made away for the transplant to happen. While they were doing the transplant they discovered that her appendix was near the point of rupturing so they were able to remove that and now Genesis new kidney is already working at 90%. Just think if she had went through the transplant back in January and then her appendix may have ruptured this week and she would have been in bad shape. But God's timing is everything. God is so Awesome.

Finally I have to clear something up. My last blog I shared a story about a family that God put back together after many years. Well I kind of got a couple of things backwards as a normally do. So James Westbrook gave me permission to share "the rest of the story". What you about to read is direct from him and again God's timing is everything!

It is TRUE that my sister and I did not talk for about 18 years because of mistakes I made (I talked about this during my testimony). We couldn't have been further apart! It is because of KATHY (her daughter and my niece) and HER adopting Alvaro that the path was laid to bring Pat and me back together. Kathy shared with her mom about Guatemala, Casa, etc. My MOTHER told Pat that I was going to Guatemala and worked at two different orphanages. Pat, being proud of her daughter - initiated a conversation with me regarding the orphanage in Guatemala. Pat called it Casa on the Rock and I said I worked at Casa Para Ninos or Casa Alleluia. At the time, neither of knew it was THE SAME PLACE!!! The common ground was "the orphanage in Guatemala" that started the healing process between my sister and me! If I had decided not to heed God's call when Barry told of a need in Guatemala to build a stage, etc. If Kathy didn't feel led to go and possibly adopt a child. If we had ended up in different COUNTRIES or different ORPHANAGES - Pat and I would have most likely NEVER reconciled!!! You were used by God in this process. Thank YOU for all you did in bringing my sister and I back together. We have NEVER been closer!!

We serve an awesome God!!! We have a few needs for you to pray about. The biggest is our house to sell. We also just found out last night we can not take our van because the taxes are going to be almost $4000, so we are going to have to buy a vehicle there. We have already purchased a van so we are trying to figure out what to do. Please pray for discernment for us to know how to deal with this. We are thinking about selling the van here and using the money to buy a vehicle there but we will need about $3000 more dollars to do that.

Needs

21 Monthly sponsors at $30 per month. (Praise God is was 33 Thank you for those that have sent emails wanting to partner with us!!!)

$1200 for Container

$1300 to complete house in Guatemala

$3000 for vehicle in Guatemala

Places to speak and share the good news of what God is doing and preparing to do in Guatemala!!!

Please email our blog to your friends. We now have over 80 folks as prayer partners in our ministry. Our goal is 400. All you have to do is send them our blog and they enter their email address and that is it!!

Sad but Joyful Days

I know that sounds like a weird title but that best describes my week last week. For those that don't know last week was my last at Love89. I have been dreading it for weeks. Love89 was not just a job it was a ministry that was a big part of our lives. As I think back I think the most about the calls that we received off the air with people in need. I remember a few weeks after we started a lady called us at 7:30 in the morning to thank us for making her laugh because her husband had just left her the night before. It was that moment that changed my view and vision for my part of the ministry of Love89. I realized that it wasn't about how we sounded, or how smart wee were, it was about who we were when the red light wasn't on.

The people of East Tennessee have changed my life. Friday night I was totally blown away. I had a listener come up to me and he shared that he listened to the entire show on Friday. At the end of the show the staff laid hands on us and prayed and commissioned us. He shared that he too pulled over to the side of the road and not only prayed for us, but placed his hand on the radio while praying. I was so touched and so moved. We serve a God that is so awesome. It is so cool how we can all come together as one body of Christ to do ministry. Even though I have left Love89 is still a part of me. I know that the staff there is praying for me and I look at our ministry in Guatemala as an extension of that station. I want to say thank you to all of you and to the awesome staff of Love89 for changing my life!!! That's right it's your fault we are moving. HAHA

Hey we need your help. We need to get the word out to everyone about our blog/prayer network. Our goal is to have 400 folks in our network. If you would please email this to everyone you know. We are heading down in less than 2 months (June 7th) and we need a ton of prayer during this time. We have had some road blocks thrown at us that we specifically need prayer for.

1. Because of fuel cost we need to raise $3000 in 3 weeks for our container to ship all of our things to Guatemala plus a ton of stuff for the kids at Casa.

2. We still need 33 people or families to partner with us at $30.00 to meet our budget and this has to happen before the end of April.

3. Carla's dad is struggling with his health.

I want to leave you with a story of encouragement. A few trips ago I had a gentleman go with me that worked on our house and built the stage at Casa. While he was there he fell in love with the place. He went home and shared with his Mom that where he had been. A few months later he found out that his sister who lives in Atlanta had also been to Casa and was adopting a little boy from there. So in December he got the chance to meet his new nephew for the first time. I am amazed at how our God puts things together. This was a family that satan had blown apart but God was able to restore all the way in Guatemala!!!!

Go God!!!!

Mike