Here's the Story!

It was the night of May 14, 2011 as I sat at my kitchen table wrapping gifts for my senior girls that God first gave me the thought of going back to the Philippines, or at least I thought it was God. My son and I had gone in January of this year and I really had no plans of going back until this next year for a women's conference.

I spent a couple of days really praying about it before I asked Jason to join me in prayer about the whole idea. I really and truly wanted to know that it was something God had planned and not just me missing a friend.

Well now five weeks later, do I have a story to tell!  I have gone back and forth so many times on this whole thing, and to be quite honest, I really didn't want to go. Sure, it'd be great to see Sarah, but folks, that's a LONG trip and it takes a lot out of you. And doing it all three weeks before school starts when you're the PTO president and you have two kids to shop for, well, I was thinking it was seriously insane!

The Lord and I have had some pretty good discussions these past few weeks, mostly me telling Him that I really don't need to go. Its an expensive trip. So much to do. What about the kids, Lord? What about the money, Lord? Tickets were running $2100! I don't know about you, but I typically don't have that kind of money just laying around my house! (or anywhere near it!)

Well I finally told the Lord, if He really wanted me to do this, He was just basically going to have to drop a ticket out of the sky. I had a little bit saved up, about a fifth of what I would need just to buy my ticket from Little Rock to Manila, much less my ticket from Manila to Bacolod!  So in one of our "talks" I basically told Him, "okay, God, this is what I have, lets see what You can do!" Oh me, of little faith!!! I mean this is God we are talking about! The one that can calm the storms and seas with "Peace be still." What was I thinking??!!!

It was about a week later a friend and I were talking and she asked about the Philippines and I told her about this crazy notion and how I was truly praying that if it be His will, He would work it out. She got quiet for a minute and then said, "Toya, I have all kinds of Delta sky miles, lets see what we can do." Oh yeah, this was about to get interesting!

We checked on the sky miles and it takes 120,000 to get a ticket to go to Manila!! That's a LOT of sky miles, folks!  We did check on transferring miles and what a cool thing, Delta has a 50% bonus going on if you transfer miles, they'd give you 50% more than what you transfer. Awesome! Well, that was until we started checking!  Either of us could transfer and have enough, but it would cost me about twice as much as what I had. So once again, I tabled the idea.

Fast forward a couple of days and this friend calls me back letting me know Delta has some special promotions going on and she was going to apply for one and would receive some major additional points. She told me enough that I'd just have to transfer a little to her account and then she'd have enough. The catch: Delta told her it could take up to four weeks to have all the miles posted.  I knew that would be cutting it close, but we'd wait and see. It truly was ALL in His hands.

In the mean time, silly me, really decided to step out on faith and took every cent I had saved and bought Jason a new laptop! Yes. Every cent was now gone. I remember walking out to my car with computer in hand and saying, "Okay, Lord, that was a big step of faith, now You'll really have to show out for me if this is what You want."  Oh that God, He does like to show off sometimes!!!

Another friend of mine told me she was going to have a garage sale the next weekend and if I had anything bring it on over. Well I had cleaned out the kids playroom Memorial day and had bags of toys as well as a few other things piled in a corner of my garage. I felt certain I didn't have more than $100 worth of junk in there.

It gives me great pleasure to tell you that God showed up and showed off over the next two weeks. Delta had points posted in less than two weeks. Miles were transferred. Plane ticket was purchased (with insurance, because my faith is still so small!!). Blessings were received. Plane tickets that were needed while actually in the Philippines were purchased. And I am thrilled to tell you I am in the positive $3.00!

I'll still need a little spending money and a night or two for a hotel while I'm in Manila, but I fully believe God already has all of that in place! He's worked it all out including my kids and folks already volunteering to take them for a day or so while I'm gone!

The night the ticket was purchased was almost exactly one month from when that crazy idea first came into my head, When I laid down that night I told Jason I had peace for the first time in a month. I knew that while others may question, judge, ridicule, or even envy; I had done what He wanted me to do. When He places something that heavy on your heart and works it all out by His plan, you can't say "no"! And I knew I'd be going with my husband's and kids' support, as well as the knowledge that God had this in His plans all along.
Now what will I do while I am there? I have absolutely no idea! Perhaps its just to be an encouragement to a friend. Perhaps just a shoulder that may be needed. Perhaps He'll open new doors for me to do something while I'm there. I have NO idea and while I enter in to that with a bit of fear and apprehension, I know without a doubt that whatever He has led me to do, He will equip me to do it! After all, Psalm 32:8 says "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you."  And God never goes back on His Word!