by seasalt44 » Sat Aug 18, 2012 5:23 pm
Well, the trip was great. God led us to some places we did not expect. We discovered that Christian Book Store are closing as we speak. Of the twenty three that we had researched to find out if they were open, in the short time between our iternary development and the actual trip only 14 were still open. We realized that God had given us a different opportunity from the one we expected. We prayed for the lives of those people who had lost their dream, income and job. They have been hit with some hard times but we found some very creative survivors.
We have been advised, more than once, that this type of promotion is too time consuming. But we found the ministry opportunities to be awsome, the opportunity to pray with so many people was a blessing, and God led us to give the book to people who were called to read it but could not buy it at the moment-so we were blessed. We got sorta lost a few times but they turned out to God's intervention and resulted in blessings.
We got to see God's provision in even the little things. The next to last night our spirits soared but the bodies were weakening. I prayed for Joel at least to be able to get a whirlpool or something. We were moved from the motel we had planned to stay because of an overbooking for a wedding.
Our blessing and surprise came when we found that God had already supplied my prayer request. The shower was wonderful and gave us the "massage" we both needed to revive us.
So many other blessings, even our little bit of car trouble turned into a blessing. We found people and opportunities we would not have otherwise found. And when we finally got to get it fixed he did not charge us. He put in a used part and sent us on our way with blessings. Incidently the car God provided for the trip used less gas on the trip than our other car uses in a month.
Maybe it wasn't the best use of our time but we saw the beauty of God's creation, got to do a few fun things and met great people carrying on the ministry of a Christian Book Store operation. Many of them were making far more sacrifices than we are, doing what God has called them to do.
It was encouraging in a way the internet-that everyone keeps pushing us to do and we do some-could never duplicate-real people, living and breathing out their testimony.
Now, does anyone know of a Christian Bookstore organization that bookstores could join to give them some corporate strength to endure. After all they may be where people turn in a crisis they are open 6 days a week, most churches are only open 2 days, and many times you have to endure "getting preached at" before the cup of water is given.
Just an aside, I have seen churches that are also open more than 2 days a week and are offering a cup of water and other businesses such as Chick Filet.
God has given us a blessing.
