God Put Them There

Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

I love how far removed His thoughts are from ours, and how beautiful life is when fully surrendered to the Master; when you can honestly say and mean with all your heart, "Not my will, LORD, but THINE be done!"

What I have experienced the last three days cannot be explained. It must be experienced. From a carnal perspective it could arguably be perceived either as a tragedy, or simply too good to be true. I don't know where to begin, so I'm just going to type it like I would talk it, and I don't plan on editing because that just messes me up:

Last Monday evening it was officially too late to purchase tickets to get to their respective prisons. We have been instructed for the last year to go on with our lives, and not worry about all this at all, and that's exactly what we've done. That advice was straight from the heart of God. We have experienced peace that passes human understanding as a result of our obedience in that one area. It's been wonderful, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. If I had it all to do over again, I'd choose this every time.

Thursday morning at 8 a.m. my parents received a phone call from their (C)ouncil with specific instructions to surrender to the federal marshals by 2 p.m. that afternoon. Needless to say, we were not at all prepared mentally or physically but, praise God, He saw to it that we were prepared spiritually.

They had to MOVE. They got their utilities turned off or down, and their mail forwarded to me, while making endless phone calls in an attempt to let people know what was going on, while trying to find a home for their cat and her kittens....Just imagine all that you would have to take care of on such short notice knowing you wouldn't be returning home for a year or more.

By God's grace they got it all done by noon, and at 12:30 Pastor and his wife, my mom and dad, and Josh arrived so we could pray together and say goodbye. Despite the raw emotion that lay just beneath the surface, spirits were high. My dad cried nonstop, but my mom was just her typical self, laughing and joking. Never thinking of herself, but rather making sure everybody else was at peace and comfortable, especially my dad.

It was probably one of the hardest things any of us have ever had to do.

They left shortly after 1 o'clock with Pastor and his wife. They just wanted to get it over with. Pastor said that when he turned onto the road near the federal building, my dad couldn't rein in just heartwrenching sobs. He didn't think he could do it again. He didn't think God would ask him to do it again...

Anything they were wearing or took with them would be confiscated so they were instructed to walk in barefoot if they wanted to have their shoes when they got out. They didn't care about their shoes so they left them on. They even had to make copies of their driver's licenses. That was all they took in besides the clothes on their backs.

Luke 10:4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

Luke 22:35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.

They walked in and said they were there to self-surrender and that they needed a ride. The marshals didn't have a clue what to do with them so they had to meet with the judge. He was as surprised as they were at this unexpected turn of events, so his immediate response was,

"They're here?! Why? Just go ahead and tell them to go on home and we'll give them a week or two extension so they can get their tickets and fly straight to where they're headed."

After the fiasco of a morning they had just gone through, and the heartbreak of having to say goodbye, they refused and said they were staying put. Every day they spend in there is one less day they have to spend, and there was no time like the present to get the clock ticking.

As a side note, God has answered our prayers for softening that judge's heart! He knew, as my parent's knew, that they were choosing the harder road by staying. They are now at the mercy of the federal prison system until my mom gets to California and my dad gets to South Dakota which could conceivably take months. There is no distinction between maximum security prisoners and minimum security ones. The prison camps they are going to have no fences and few guards. Not that they would, but if they wanted to they could walk off at any time. They are currently at the county jail with all the hardened criminals, rough, rude, and vulgar guards, and inhumane living conditions.

My mom is not a picky eater. Most of the time she doesn't even taste her food. She can eat a sandwich for an early lunch, and my dad will have one later and inform her that the bread had mold on it and she would not even have noticed. So when she says the food is bad, you know it's inedible. She said her cornbread tasted like cat urine. But in the same breath she was praising God that she didn't have to do any cooking or cleaning whatsoever. I just love her!

God's grace is like a river; always there, always flowing. It is so true that the sweetest calm is in the eye of the storm. The Lord has undertaken for us in such an amazing way.

There was potentially much to be done, but I knew that the Lord wanted me to go to a Ladies Meeting that has been planned for a year. So away I went. And what a tremendous blessing it was. I was able to talk to people that were so supportive of my parents and this whole situation that I wouldn't have been able to talk to otherwise. Even specific opportunities for ministry came up that we very well could have missed out on!

Late Friday evening I talked to Josh and he said that my dad wasn't doing very well. So much so that we had to call Pastor and ask him to start the prayer chain for him. What an awesome God we serve! That very night my dad improved dramatically. On top of everything else he was worried because my mom hadn't called us yet to let us know how she was doing. First thing Saturday morning, Josh got a babysitter and went to the jail to visit my mom and get them some money so they could at least eat out of the vending machines.

She looked tired, but happy and content. In her typical matter of fact, humble way she mentioned that she had been able to lead her cellmate to the Lord Friday morning. As our Pastor's wife was praying, she said she could always just picture my mom going up to people, introducing herself, and in that genuine way she has asking them how they were doing. My mom said that while it's an entirely different world in there, she never would have imagined how many lonely people sit in prisons. She's glad to be able to make a difference. Since they spend all but six hours at the most per day in their cell, they study the Bible together a lot of the time. She is busy about her Father's business.

When I talked to my dad Saturday night, he sounded like a new man. It just added to his new found joy to hear about my mom's wholehearted jump into ministering to others. While he never doubted it would be so, it was good to hear it just the same.

He was also able to inform me that his cellmate was saved through the Rock Of Ages Prison Ministry in Kalispel before he was transferred here. He's a recovering drug addict who is having a very difficult time finding victory in his Christian walk, and my dad was a specific answer to his prayers.

It occurred to me that this is the ministry that Father has had for my parent's all along. The ROAPM needs solid Christians working from the inside to reinforce the limited sessions the prisoners get with preachers from the outside. They wouldn't have chosen this for themselves, but God in His wisdom knew that. He deliberately placed my dad with this particular man that he alone was equipped to help in a situation where leaving isn't an option, and much time is required, and abundant. There is also another stronger Christian that he is near who joins their Bible studies whenever possible.

God never makes a mistake. My mom has said all along that if all this would bring just one more soul to the Savior, it would be worth it all. Regardless of the opinion of others, this is the road God has purposed for them to take. Jesus Himself was forsaken by all and wrongly convicted, yet He chose to sacrifice His own well-being for that of others.

Freedom is never free.

In part, our prayer for them has been that they would find favor with the other prisoners and guards and everyone their lives are allowed to touch while they are there; that others would see, and hear, and know the Spirit of God in them; that they would be Jesus with skin on to everyone they meet; and, of course, for divine protection and peace. In such a place of inconceivable vileness, they are surrounded by manifestations of the love of God everywhere they turn. Everything is different when seen through the eyes of faith.

Speaking of faith...God has been showing up in the oddest places this weekend.

I got home pretty late in the evening on Saturday, and the kids had to prepare for singing in Patch Club on Sunday. I was exhausted after not being able to get much sleep the night before, so I silently prayed for help, and told the kids to get their stuff together. When I turned around they all had taken baths and showers, and had their clothes pretty much ready.

Except for Jordan, for whom I have a terrible time finding pants that fit. They're all either too big or too small.

Sunday morning everything went strangely, noticeably smoother than usual. Jordan came down to my bathroom to get his hair done, and I noticed that his pants fit perfectly and looked really sharp.

He said, "Mom, look what I found."

I paused, thinking.

"Where did you find those pants?" I cautiously asked.

"I don't know mom. They were just in my room on my bed when I got dressed this morning."

No one else knew where they had come from. Except for me.

God put them there.

Alia is growing like a weed as well, and on the way home from church Josh kind of got after her and said, "Alia you need to take your clothes out of here when we get home and put them away. They don't go in a bag in the van."

She was confused and said, "What clothes, Daddy?" I don't see any of my clothes in here."

He held up a bag of clothes he found, like it was obvious, and she said, "Daddy, those aren't my clothes. I've never even seen them before."

When she got home she brought them to me, and they fit her as if they were tailor made for her.

God put them there.

While I was up in Great Falls, I attended a class taught by a lady who inspired me to have a large family of my own 15 or more years ago. She remembered having lunch with my family way back then, and asked how everyone was doing. When I shared my heart with her, she was able to give me counsel on many different areas of my life that I would unknowingly be facing upon my arrival. She was one of the very few people I have encountered that hail my parent's as heroes in their fight. I needed her, and...

...God put her there.

I'll close with something else I learned from a young woman who taught on the subject of pride. As she spoke of the many different ways pride manifests itself in all people, I was confessing to God my part in that sin. I was thinking, praying about, and confessing the wrongness of wanting so desperately for others to see God do something great for me because I knew that He could, when she looked right at me and said, "When we want God to do something great for us, often we inadvertently want to be able to say, 'Look at what God has done for me!' The result of that is that people will want to follow God for what He can do for them, rather than for Who He can be to them."

Jeremiah 49:16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord."

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength. <---- The key to peace.


P.S. While you're praying, if you're praying, please remember Alia tomorrow. At 10:00 a.m. she is going in for surgery to get her adenoids and tonsils removed. They are going to shrink something in her nose, and clean compacted wax out of her ears while they're at it. Thank you, friends.