Occasionally what I say lines up with what I do. I’ve been telling folks to pray for our ministry like never before. I’ve encouraged them not to pray that God would bless what we are doing but that we would do the things that He would bless. I believe God’s blessings have much to do with positioning. God cannot possibly bless me when I am doing something contrary to His will. On the other hand, if I am doing something that He’s commanded me to do then I am almost assured of a blessing. Wednesday night was one of those times.
Nika is a student from Azerbaijan. That is a very small nation on the border of Turkey. Her plane arrived in Little Rock at 6pm on Wednesday evening. She needed a ride from the airport to Monticello and she called me from Azerbaijan to ask if I could pick her up. I’m sure my phone number is on a list somewhere at CIA headquarters for that one. Anyway, I made sure that my responsibilities at Pauline were covered and I took two of my college guys with me and we headed for the airport.
At about 5pm I received a call from one of the members of our building committee. He wanted me to know that we were on the verge of reaching our goal to break ground on our new building at the university. All we needed was $1500. One of the students with me was Nathan Harper. Nathan grew up going to Victory Baptist in Sherwood. I told Nathan and Clayton Howell, the other member of our trio, about the phone call. Nathan suggested we call the pastor and Victory and present the need to him. I let Nathan make the call, I was driving, and Brother Robert Harris told Nathan that tonight was business meeting and they’d love for us to come by and share our need.
Nika’s plane landed at 6pm and we picked her up and headed to Victory. Bro. Harris put us on the podium first and in just a few minutes we shared our vision with the folks who were there. Bro. Harris excused us because he knew that Nika had been on a plane for 24 hours and that we had a long way to go to get her to UAM. An hour into our ride we started getting phone calls. Victory voted to give us the $1500 needed.
God knew, a long time ago, that we would have a need and that Nika would have a need. He knew that Victory would have a business meeting. He knew that I would need Nathan and his connection to make all of this happen. He knew the plane would be on time from Azerbaijan. You get the idea. The determining factor of whether or not God was going to bless us was whether or not we were going to be willing to bless someone else. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. All the Law and the Prophets hand on these two commandments.” Father, help us do the things that you will bless.