God works in amazing ways

i really thank God for bringing this new 'friend' into my life. well not quite a friend, cos i don't know this person, but somehow was so encouraged by the things she shared on her blog. anyway, this story moved me to tears. thank you for sharing it with me!

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Here’s an expert from “Learning to Love People You Don’t Like” by Floyd McClung

“When Sally was born, her mother was forty-seven years old. She already had four children from her first marriage, and when her first husband died she married a man with four of his own. Most people would have assumed she was done raising her family. But she had always wanted one of her children to be a missionary, and none of her eight kids seemed inclined in that direction. So she prayed that the Lord would send her one more.

Two days after this last little baby was born, her mother took Sally into the tiny church she attended in Galveston, Texas, laid her on the alter, and dedicated her to God. She made a vow to pray every day for her little girl, that she would hear God’s call to the mission field. That’s how certain she was that God had given Sally to her for that purpose.

One night when Sally was five years old, she awoke in the middle of the night, crying. All she could think about was a family from their church who were missionaries to Africa. The more she thought about them, the more she cried. She woke her mother and told her what was happening. Her mother—immediately perceiving that it was the Holy Spirit at work in her little girl—told her to go back to bed and pray for the missionary family. Sally later remembered that she finally drifted off to sleep thinking, “Some day I’m going to be just like them.”

When Sally was sixteen, the opportunity arose for her to go on a summer outreach to the island of Samoa. However, several barriers barred the way. For one thing, the sponsors of the trip didn’t want to take anyone who wasn’t at least eighteen years old. For another, her stepfather—who was not a Christian—didn’t want her to go. And last be not least, it cost a lot of money to go on the outreach, a tidy sum totally out of the teenager’s reach.

Two weeks before the trip was to begin, Sally’s stepfather told her he had changed his mind. She was flabbergasted: she had been pleading with him every week for months to give her permission to go, and he had been adamant in his refusal. Now, suddenly, he said she could go.

Why the about-face? Apparently, he assumed that since Sally didn’t have enough money, she wouldn’t be able to go even if she did have his permission; by saying yes he could avoid looking like the bad guy. Little did he know that while Sally didn’t have the full amount she needed, she had managed to scrape together enough to get to Los Angeles, where the week-long training session for the outreach trip was to be held. Much to her stepfather’s chagrin (and to her mother’s delight), off she went.

In Los Angeles, Sally ran head-on into the sponsors of the trip, who told her she couldn’t go. They pointed out that she was below the minimum age they had established. They also pointed out that she didn’t have any money to pay for her food, lodging, and transportation.

There was a young man in Sally’s training course who had also grown up wanting to be a missionary, and who had been working and saving for months so he could go on this outreach to Samoa. During the course of the week he and Sally got to know each other. She told him of her conviction that the Lord wanted her to go on the trip, and of her confidence that the Lord would somehow make it possible.

One night as he was praying, the young man sensed the Lord speaking to him. The Lord seemed to be saying, “Give her your money. You are to stay home so that she can go.” Since that definitely wasn’t what he wanted to hear, he argued the point at some length.

His arguments seemed sound. He was between his second and third year of university and might never have the freedom to make such a trip again. He had worked hard to save up the money. He believed God had called him years before to be a missionary, and this was going to be his first overseas adventure.

But God was not to be dissuaded. Finally, the night before the group was to leave, the young man went to the sponsors and told them what he had decided.

Now the sponsors found themselves in a predicament. It had been easy for them to stick to their guns regarding Sally’s age so long as they knew she didn’t have the money for the trip anyway. But now that obstacle had been overcome. And Sally—who still knew nothing of the young man’s decision—was as determined as ever.

The morning the group was to leave, the sponsors called the teenager on the telephone. “What are you doing right now, Sally?” they asked.
“Packing to go to Samoa,” she exclaimed.
“But we told you, you can’t go,” they said.
“I know what you told me,” Sally said. “But the Lord has given me faith to trust him. I believe I’m supposed to go to the airport—right up to the door of the plane, if necessary—and that if I do, he’ll make a way for me. Somehow I believe he’ll change your minds, as well as take care of my finances.”

The sponsors were amazed and encouraged by Sally’s response. What could anyone say to faith like that? “Look, Sally,” they said. “Last night someone came forward and provided the money for you to go. And we’ve prayed about it, and… well, we feel this is a sign that we should make an exception and let you go.”

And go she did. Sally’s group spent most of the summer in a small village where no missionaries had ever been able to visit before. In fact, when they first arrived, a local leader told them they could go to any other village on the island but that one. He encouraged them to pray and ask the Lord where else they should go. Naturally, the Lord said, “Go to the village he told you that you couldn’t get into. I’ll get you in.”

They did, and God did, and by the end of the summer one hundred fifty of that village’s three hundred inhabitants—including the chief—had become Christians. Today, the church those young people started is the largest one of its denomination on the whole island.

Needless to say, the whole incident made a profound impact on Sally. It made a profound impact on the young man as well. Seeing the amazing circumstances—the way his decision about giving away his money changed the sponsors’ minds about letting Sally go—convinced him that he really had heard the Lord. God rewarded Sally’s obedience, and he rewarded the young man as well. The experience persuaded him, once and for all, that the Lord really does speak today, and that he wants his people to listen. It opened up a whole new area of the spiritual realm to him.

The reason I know so much about this story is that the young man was me. And Sally is now my wife."