Memorial Box Monday--O Canada! part 3

Well...so I didn't exactly get back on the MBM track in a timely fashion. When we left off (four weeks ago) I had mentioned the home God found for us and the garage sale He used to get us moved. I didn't, however, mention friends.

Yes, God moved our hearts to go to Calgary but He also moved the hearts of our friends to help us. One of John's dear friends loaded his own family of 4 into their SUV and pulled one of the Uhauls for us. We took a week to get there, as I mentioned, they stayed a day with us and helped us unpack, then took off for home. What troopers!! What generous hearts!! They paid for their own way and helped at every turn. What a blessing!!

God also moved the hearts of other friends to bless us financially. We entered Canada on a visitor's visa. This meant we could live like Canadians for the most part, but were not able to hold a paying job. John's plan from the beginning was to commute to Fort Worth about twice/month for court dates and hopefully to meet with clients. Nonetheless, a significant portion of his income was going to stop when we hit Canada. Thankfully, we had friends who listened to God and helped us.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention another person God used to help us as we moved. When we arrived in Canada we had to meet to close on our house. Now, I am not going to be able to give a great description of what went wrong, but it may have been something like our loan not fully funding. At any rate, we needed a significant amount of money to close on the house and it wasn't showing up.

As this was unfolding, we had been speaking with one of the men at this meeting and telling him all about God's amazing plan to move us to Calgary. He, in turn, was telling us all about God's amazing plan to have him build a Christian retreat for weary pastors. When we were told about the mortgage company's amazing plan to stop the closing and try again another day, we quickly found out that God had yet another amazing plan up His sleeve. The man (and forgive me; I cannot for the life of me imagine what his job was) said he would vouch for us and the money.

He didn't actually have to come up with the money himself, but was saying that if it didn't fund by next Monday (I think this was a Friday) then he would be responsible for it! If he hadn't done that it would've meant a weekend in hotels with a bunch of kids who were a bit saddle-sore. Instead, God used this situation to strengthen our faith as well as the man who vouched for us. The money did come through, the man was relieved of his kind responsibility and we were able to spend the weekend in our new home!

One other person who must be mentioned: my mom! Anna was only 9 months old at the time we moved and Mom kept her while we drove to Canada then flew up with Anna the day we moved in. She also stayed a week and helped me unpack! As with our friends who helped us move, she did it all on her own dime.

I am not one who loves asking for nor accepting help (except from family, bless their hearts!). Nonetheless, God humbles us, makes us needy, vulnerable and wrests the controls right out of our hands so that we must accept help from others and from Him (and really, I have to believe He sends all the help our way by inclining the hearts of those around us to help).

Next time...hmmm...who we helped and who helped us while in Calgary. As is usual with God, He sent us thinking we were going to help and instead we were the ones helped, ministered to, taught and loved. You have to love a God like that!