Everyday, I spoke these verses over myself and still do to remind myself of the God who is forever faithful. To say that my experience in this new city was rich is painting it lightly. It was above and be- yond! God truly opened my eyes to see His plans and purposes for my life and His church. In addition, I made relationships that continually alter the way I see life and treat people.

The first time that I remember praying and standing on God’s word was when I was praying for my husband Morris. We were planning on getting married, we had been living together for 3 years and I had re-dedicated my life to the Lord. I knew that we could no longer live together but I also knew that I wouldn’t marry him unless he accepted Jesus as savior.

For years I had a flower bed on the west side of my house that I called my Bermuda Triangle, because, like its namesake in the Caribbean Sea, mysterious things seemed to happen there. When I first bought the place, the flower bed on the east side of the front stoop grew an exuberant and eclectic mix of creamy yarrow, pink and red hollyhocks, yellow creeping jenny, a few wild oats and an unnamed white-flowering shrub.

 Many years ago our church launched a building program, fundraising for essential structural repairs and a much-needed addition. This was exciting for me because I knew the benefit to our growing church but as our congregation was being encouraged to give sacrificially, we wrestled with what that meant for us, tithing but living paycheque to paycheque.

 When the church announced the exciting news about the building and upcoming renovations, we both looked forward to helping the church enter this new chapter.  Therefore, when we heard a special offering was going to be taking place, we both sought God for what we would give.  We wanted to give an extravagant offering.

It began as an ordinary day of looking after a toddler and a preschooler, but quickly soured when I realized we were down to the last few squares of toilet paper and still had two days until payday. Suddenly, it felt like I’d been self-sacrificing for a very long time and I just couldn’t bear it anymore.

I tend to think of The Lord almighty giving us this bible verse as a great example, a life lesson really, of how easy it is to stay strong in a situation, how making the right decision above all else will enviably give you strength, give you power, give you peace, give you happiness and joy the world is longing for. 

Through the storm, the Lord was my rock, His Word was my light and the church was His hands and feet. Church folks stepped up in a thousand ways, from moving out stuff to new spaces to help with parenting, to home and car repairs, to countless prayers.