A Day of Divine Connections

Justin here... Yesterday was one of those days that you can clearly discern the hand of God opening doors and connecting you to new people for His purposes as it´s all happening. It was pretty amazing, so let me tell you about it...

I woke up at 5AM so that I could have ample time in the Word and prayer before our scheduled departure of 7:30AM. While reading in 2 Samuel 7 the Lord began speaking some things to me in David´s prayer concerning a word He had given me through a young man while I was down here in El Salvador in 2006. Then, in thenext few hours, our plans for the entire day changed.

We were supposed to go to this town and be honored guests of the mayor, speak to a bunch of teen interns of the town and basically hang out there all day. Well, we weren´t crazy about this plan because we really didn´t see the Lord in it, but yet it was what was planned by Julito for us. The night before, Em prayed and asked the Lord to do something dramatic if He didn´t want us to do it. Well, the phone rang at 7:30 and Julito explained to us that the event we were scheduled to be a part of was suddenly cancelled because an important man in the town had died the night before. So... our plans began to change.

We ended up having a nice prayer time together and then Rodolfo called an orphanage that we wanted to visit (I had been in 2007) named Hogar Infantil Shalom. They invited us to come and join us for lunch. Then Rodolfo walked across the street to a school and talked to the headmistress. She invited us to speak to the student body in the afternoon.

Well, while we were at the orphanage (read about it here: www.harvesting.org) we got a tour and then told them we were able to help in a y way we could. So, Em got to to do some art with about 20 students and Ben and I worked on building them horseshoe pits so that visiting mission teams could play horseshoes - hey, beggars can´t be choosers! It was good to serve and just do whatever, plus, I got to use some power tools!

While we were eating lunch I noticed a poster for "Mission Mountain Coffee." I asked what that was and was told that it is a brand of coffee they want to develop inside the US with beans from El Salvador as a way to help fundraise for the orphanage - antennaes up! So, I began talking with the founder, Donald Benner, and his wife about their vision and the vision for coffee the Lord has given me. We prayed and put it in the Lord´s hands, asking Him to lead us if this is His will that we work together in the future.

When our time was done we headed back to Rodolfo´s to shower and go to the school. Along the way, Raul called and asked us to dinner. When we got to the school, the headmistress apologized, but there was some miscommunication and it was no longer possible for us to speak to the students. No problem. So we headed back to Rodolfo´s apartment and waited for Raul.

While we were waiting, a missionary couple who lives in his apartment complex arrived home and Rodolfo wanted us to meet them. So, we began making small talk in the hallway and then I said something about having worked at Pure Life. Well, the wife looked at me very intently and then said, "Come inside." So, we followed her into their apartment and she began to pour out her heart to us. It turns out she is a medical missionary (on the field with her husband for 20 years) who was just doing some clinic with pastors and their wives. Out of 36 pastor´s wives, 18 of them had STDs. Yet only one was not a virgin before marriage. She nearly was crying as she told us this because she basically had to tell these women that the only way they could end up with these diseases was that their husbands had been unfaithful.

As we talked more, it came out that she had just been to Alexandria, KY in May and met Jack and Ashley Ruth, some people who I used to work with at Pure Life. They even had been to Falmouth - are you kidding me! Long story short, they are looking for peopkle to help them minister in this area of sexual sin. The need is huge and they want someone(s) who have been there and really understand the issues first hand. They have a conference planned for September 2011 with the Ruths and thheir church, but want to do more in the interim.

We exchanged cards and walked away knowing that the Lord had totally just created that relationship.

Then we went to dinner with Raul and his family - lovely wife and two young daughters, 14 and 11. While at dinner, Raul was talking about their businesses in the US. They make and import tamales to various markets in the US where a lot of Salvadorians and Mexicans live, among other ventures. As I was explaining the visit to the orphanage and the Mission Mountain Coffee idea, he said, "If you ever need to ship a pallate of coffee to the US, I would allow you to ship it with a container I was sending over." Whoa, huge problem solved. It is virtually impossible to ship one pallate of anything to the US because it is such a small amount - 2000lbs. To have a connection that would allow us to source coffee from El Salvador and then ship it to the US one pallate at a time as we need it, would be tremendous.

So, we got the the end of the day and were like, whoa, that was ALL the Lord setting things up. Hopw wonderful it is and how encouraging it is to see His hand so intimately involved in things!!!

We are encouraged. Keep praying. He is answering!!!