God Reveals what He Intends

It’s the first chilly day of fall here in Nashville… rainy and overcast… and I’m lovin’ it! Just got through with some meetings today, came home, got my sweats on, made a pot of coffee… it’s all good!

This week marks the one year anniversary of an extremely providential appointment the Lord brought into my life. First, I need to back up to September of last year when I traveled to Springfield, MO to do an event at Ridgecrest Baptist Church.

While I was there I got to hang out with my longtime friends, Rob and Julie Neal. They have 5 kids, 2 of whom are boys they adopted from Ethiopia.

Julie began telling me about a passion the Lord had given her to build water wells in the villages where the boys were born. They had already begun work on the wells and were going over in August of this year to check out the progress.

Instantly I felt the Lord say to me, “You’re supposed to be a part of this.” I told them what I felt and knew the Lord would reveal what He intended. One month later (which was this week last year) my buddy Jeff Arnold had flown into town to help me shoot some videos.

One of the days he was here we both wound up having meetings at a coffee shop down the street from my house. As I was leaving my meeting, I stopped by his table to say hello and met the woman he was meeting with, Amanda Lawrence. She began telling me about the organization she works for, Visiting Orphans, and of her desire to design a VBS program that would really relate to the orphans they minister to.

That pricked my heart and after about 10 minutes she said, “You should go to Uganda with us in March!” To which I replied, “Ok, I will!” At that moment I had no idea of what the Lord had in store, but I was ready for the adventure!

After that incredible trip in March, I had dinner with Amanda and her husband, Simon, and they invited me to become a ministry partner with them. I was ecstatic! Then Amanda said, “I’d really like for you to pray about going with us to Ethiopia in August. There’s a couple from Springfield, MO who have adopted 2 boys from Ethiopia and are building water wells in the villages where they are from and we are partnering with them and taking a team…”

My heart almost jumped out of my chest! I said, “Are you talking about Rob and Julie Neal?” Her eyes got as wide as mine as she asked, “You know them?” I was grabbing my phone instantly to call them and tell them what the Lord had done. Amazing!

So in August I went with the “Man Up and Go” team to Ethiopia. Many of you read about that trip and how impacting it was for all who went.

I am constantly amazed and overjoyed by the way the Lord reveals more and more of His greatness each day! I have been blessed beyond measure through my partnership with Visiting Orphans and love how the Lord began such a massive work in my life by me simply taking the time to stop and have a cup of coffee with someone.