Faithful is our God

I cannot begin to describe how faithful God has been to me over the past two days, but let me try...

I arrived safely in Grenada on Saturday morning after getting only 3 hours sleep the night before (love you Dane and Amber!) All my stuff also arrived safely, including the boxes of groceries I shipped across the week before. That in itself was a testimony. I had 5 boxes of groceries to send (for those who don't know, everything in Grenada is really expensive). Now the boat leaves Trinidad on a Thursday evening, and gets to Grenada on Friday morning. So since I was reaching on Saturday morning, the stuff would have gotten here before me. Apparently it is a hassle to get stuff off of the port, so I didn't want to put anyone through that on my behalf so I called Tony who organised for me to meet his contact who accustomed coming to Trinidad and they organised everything, with no inconvenience to anyone :) So I was able to fully stock my kitchen the same day I arrived.

I have received such a warm welcome to Grenada. From Joan and Camille meeting me at the airport, to the welcome fruit basket in my apartment, to the way Pops and Sister Wilma (my landlords) have accepted me into their family with open arms, I am really feeling the love of God as experienced through His people. Who else but God could have orchestrated an apartment for me with a view like this?

My responsibilities as staffworker in Grenada would entail doing school visits, and getting to the schools in the country would be quite a challenge with Grenada's bus "service". Apart from being unreliable, the drivers are also quite reckless on narrow, mountainous roads so accidents are not unusual.So I had asked Tony to source a second hand car for me before I came to Grenada. The first one that was a possibility was sold the same morning that Tony got back to the dealer, so I said maybe God has a better plan, and He did.

Since we couldn't get a car before I came, Tony thought I might consider renting one so he called his friend who rents cars. It turned out that they had a car that they were willing to sell for $15000EC. Not only are they believers, but when I told them what I needed the vehicle for, and that I didn't have all the money, they were also willing to accept partial payment,  and allow me to pay off the balance by the end of the year! So by Wednesday of this week, I would be driving this:

In addition to this, they also offered to maintain it so I don't have to worry about finding a reliable mechanic :)

How I got the $10000EC that I am using as the downpayment was also a miracle. It was donated by someone who received a payment for a job that they had forgotten that they did, so they were not expecting the money. They received the payment shortly before I came to Grenada, and decided to donate it to the mission. I am trusting that God would provide the remaining $5000EC needed well in advance of the end of the year. He has not brought me this far to leave me.

God also cares about the 'small' prayer requests we have. Yesterday Pops misplaced the keys to my apartment. He searched everywhere last night, but they did not surface. This morning he was still worried about not finding them, so I said, "Lord, you have to help us find those keys!" (sounds kinda boldface now that I look back at it) I started looking and went straight to the place where all the keys are kept in the kitchen. Now last night I saw Pops searching through those same set of keys and walk away empty handed, so I really don't know why I went back there. It was clearly God, because the second bunch of keys that I picked up were the keys to my apartment! We just started praising God for answered prayer.

Did I also mention that my apartment is big enough for us to comfortably have committee meetings there? And that there is a big covered porch outside? And that we can get internet access from the Sampsons' wifi?So there is no need for us to spend $700EC to rent an office space! Thank God that these funds can now be channeled to another area of the ministry.

One of my prayers before I left Trinidad was that God would lead me to a home church which would be a support to me during my time here. I visited St. George's Evangelical this morning, and enjoyed a sweet time of worship, followed by sound ministry of the Word. The members there were very loving and welcoming, and I firmly believe that I have found my home church - yet another answer to prayer!

This week I'll be applying for my csme certificate and learning to navigate my way around St. George's. The journey has begun.