Immeasurably More Than All We Ask Or Imagine

Last night the global missions team at Harbour put on the "Kenya Open House" event! Many people came out to learn about Harbour's partnership with P.A.C.E. Ministries in Kenya, and the growing passion for missions that Harbour is developing. In short, the evening was a great success! As we drove home later that night, the words of Ephesians 3:20 resonated in our thoughts:

"God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us."

We often marvel at the thought that the spirit of God is working within us - and as Eugene Peterson says in The Message - "not by pushing us around ... but deeply and gently within us." Last night, we saw this being worked out ... the enthusiasm of people wanting to know more about Kenya, the generosity of the community and the church, and the overall fellowship was remarkable. We were touched by people giving to the cause of Kenya when we knew they couldn't afford to, and we immensely enjoyed talking with everyone throughout the evening!

We both had a wonderful time sharing our journey and story with all of you! Taryn was her natural "people-person" self, never seeming to run out of things to say, and I did my best to not look nervous (I'm like a turtle - people come around and I want to retract my head into my shirt ... I'm working on that, I promise). We had a brilliant evening on all counts and we give full credit to God for making it such a memorable event!

We would also like to mention that in the midst of all of this planning for Africa, we have been curious, and even fretful at times about where the support would come from. The thesaurus in MS Word tells me that synonyms for fretful are "worried, anxious, fussy, nervous, agitated, neurotic, and irritable". I think that describes pretty well how I've been. Poor Taryn.

We've only been fund-raising a short time and it's our first time ever, so it's been an incredible learning experience, and a true excercise in trusting God. Yesterday, we came into contact with something that could be called "God's perfect timing." After a few weeks of hit and miss fund-raising, we got a call from 20 Valley Community Church saying that a couple we met only once during the Vineland Art Festival had dropped off a sizable cheque for us, we sold several CDs to a lady who I suspect might be Levity Project's biggest fan (!), and then the "Kenya Open House" happened and we saw amazing support pour out of that! When it was all said and done, our fund-raising thermometer (check it out on the side panel) went up by $1200 in a single day! WOW!

The heart of the lesson for us is that God is certainly good, and He absolutely provides immeasurably more than we could hope for through the work He is doing in all people!