Thankful Thursday

The Lord gave us a unique opportunity this week.  My dad secured a job for him and Ben to do a roof on a church in Eugene, Oregon.  Now, going from New York City to Oregon is a long way.  And this roof is the biggest that my dad has ever done (and he has done quite a few).  And Ben hasn’t really ever roofed before.  And they were going to do it in just a week.

That’s all great – but what was I going to do by myself, with four kids, for a week?!?  Have a nervous breakdown, probably!  But the roofing job was paying enough that we could afford to fly the whole family to Denver.  The kids and I would stay with my mom while Dad and Ben continued on to Oregon. 

This is a double blessing – a good job, and a trip “back home.”  I have been wanting to see my grandparents again, and to introduce the twins to them, but I didn’t know when it would ever be possible.  How could we afford four plane tickets?  And two or three days in the car to drive from NYC to Denver?  Not really in my plans!  So I’m grateful for this trip, and the opportunities it has brought.

However, when we arrived in Denver, we discovered that the forecast for Oregon was rain.  The.entire.week.  With a limited amount of time to finish the job, and the plane tickets already booked, rain wasn’t fitting into the picture.  At least not from our perspective!  Dad and Ben headed to Oregon, bought some rain gear, and prepared for a very long, wet week roofing in the rain.

I brought this to my kids’ attention, and we began to pray.  Elaine faithfully prayed for it not to rain on Daddy.  At the end of several prayers she stated emphatically that “Jesus can change the weather.”

I began praying the Lord would answer Elaine’s prayers, to show her a specific answer to one of her prayers. She is starting to understand things more, and I want her to know that our God hears and answers prayer. 

Every time we talked to Ben, I asked if it was raining.  The first day it rained.  The second day it started out raining, but there were several breaks in the rain.  One day was a very nice day and they got so much accomplished.  Yesterday there was intermittent rain again.  Ben talked to Elaine a couple of times and told her thank you for praying, because God had answered her prayer.

In fact, the guys finished two days early, even with some rain!  We even had to re-book the plane tickets so they could come home early.

I am thankful for an opportunity to teach my daughter that God hears and answers our prayer.  I am thankful that God is indeed able to change the weather, and that He chose to do so this week and make it a little easier on the guys who were working so hard.  And I’m thankful for this job, because it will pay for our trip to Alabama next week for the Baptist World Mission conference, where we hope to be appointed as church planting missionaries.