Hey Everyone,
The site will be on hold for the time being until more stories come in. :) If you or anyone you know would like to share a story, please let me know by commenting below and sending the story to: godshandministries@gmail.com. Thanks to you all for reading and sharing!
Blessings,
~Tiffany
We arrived in the Tucson, AZ airport in the late afternoon, and said goodbye to the gentlemen, while us three young women took the same flight to Phoenix, AZ. The Lord even provided that we could sit together! After arriving at Phoenix, the other girls departed on their respective flights a short time later. I had over two hours to wait. I got something to eat while treasuring some re-cap time with the Lord. I would miss the team and the Mexican people greatly, and wondered how I would process the trip in the weeks to come. In my heart I asked God, "What difference did my presence on this trip make for Your glory? Did it influence anyone? And how, how in the world, should I go about the next few weeks? Will this throw me for a loop, will I be able to function, will I rejoice in You? Little hope please?"
He spoke to my heart gently, and while reading in the book of Isaiah, gave me this verse, regarding a day to come (heaven?, I wondered, oh how I crave heaven!): "And it will be said in that day: 'Behold, this is our God; We have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; We have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.'" (Is 25:9) With that written down and meditating in my heart, I walked to my flight's gate. It was a pretty full area. With a pack of Kleenx, I sat next to a lady, who I then saw did not want to talk. "That's okay," I thought, "I'm too emotional right now anyway." I started reading some more in Isaiah, but the lady on the other side of me, who I hadn't noticed, interrupted. "That's a cool pot. Where are you coming from?" she asked. I managed to tell her a quick summery of the trip, and asked her what she was about doing. She said she was returning from an internship at the International House of Prayer, and spoke of her belief in Jesus Christ and God's work through His Word.
Then she asked if she could pray for me. I thought, "Holy wow, I usually come to an airport looking for someone else to pray for; but am probably going to cry my eyes out if she prays for me. Nonetheless, that would be a ginormous blessing." So I warned her, "Well, I'm extremely emotional right now, so I hope you don't mind my tears...but I would love prayer." She asked if she could lay a hand on my shoulder, and proceeded to ask God to bless the work we had done on the trip. I wish I could remember more of what she said, and hopefully it will be like a dream that I remember a day later. But then she looked at me, though I could barely look up, and said something like, "I knew as soon as you sat down, before you even opened your Bible, that you were a Christian. I can just sense the Holy Spirit in you. He is so powerful in your life. I believe that the Lord wants me to share with you that you have like a major influence on the lives of those you touch. Your life is so important to Him and the lives of those around you, so you need to believe it." I could hardly stand it. That was exactly contrary to one of the... lies... I had been asking God about just a few minutes earlier. I thanked her for sharing. Yet she continued. "Just looking in your eyes, I can also see that you are dealing with a great sadness, something that had hurt you very deeply. I believe the Lord wants me to let you know that this time of great sorrow will soon be over. He will be your hope. He will change things so that You are able to be so joyful and just-SO know that He is God. I mean, I know you already know that, but You will be able to shout it from the roof tops and let your heart dance! You will be able to share what He has done openly, without shame, so others can praise Him. So have hope in Him! You have that hope! She mentioned several Scripture passages that spoke of hope in the Lord, and like Isaiah 43 says, not being overcome with fire or water when storms come. This was the second lie that Satan had tempted me with: a lack of hope. Overcome with tears, I thanked her for letting the Holy Spirit speak through her.
On the flight home, I was blessed that the seat next to her was empty and she invited me to sit there. It was an incredible blessing to lay out or Bibles and search passage after passage, and speak of overcoming the enemies lies. She reminded me that Jesus prayed for the Father's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and that as a child of God, I have His Holy Spirit, that part of heaven, in my heart. So while Isaiah 25 is speaking of heaven, I should pray for it now! We are no longer in bondage, but live in freedom! She also reminded me that these things won't happen unless I live in the freedom given by Jesus Christ. Thus, we must press on for that goal and choose to live in His freedom daily.
"Wow," I kept being reminded, "this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save us! This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation."
Now, to explain where the idea to go full time in the music ministry came from: (EDITOR'S NOTE: The Eernisse family began their ministry by playing music for a nursing home. If the demand is great enough, I'll be happy to also post the story of how they got started.) put simply, God. That's it: God Himself. He didn't use some outside, physical thing to urge my dad to consider it; He told him Himself. My dad said he had had Psalm 16:3 impressed on his heart for a while; it says, "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established." Well, my dad certainly wanted to do what the Lord wanted him to do, and it was extremely obvious that He wanted us to do something fairly drastic, considering the circumstances. As time passed, he said his thoughts continued to move from moving our farm up to Kentucky (where we had been hoping to move for several months in order to expand the farm) to going full time with the ministry. I can remember the afternoon when he called my sister and me into his bedroom and told us about the seemingly absurd idea that he had been impressed with. When I heard that he had been seriously considering living in an RV and traveling the country performing, I knew right then that that's what we were going to be doing, if only because it fit the circumstances perfectly. Both my dad and I had lost our "secure" jobs instantly and very suddenly. We were, after three months of total inactivity, getting all KINDS of showings on our house. I had Providentially been prepared for CollegePlus!, which couldn't fit better with a traveling student. My parents would be able to pay off ALL their debt, something they had been really trying to do for several months, and all at one go, too. There are a whole lot more reasons, including the unimaginable impact it would have on every one of our lives. From that day on, I couldn't WAIT to see how the Lord was going to work this all out.
Since then, I've been able to watch many things happen, including Satan's attempts to derail us before we even get started. We haven't sold the house yet, but have a VERY interested Christian couple that we discovered that we know in a kind of round about way. So far, other than the normal attacks of discord that the devil normally tries to sow when we're walking into a building to perform, he has tossed some financial problems in the mix lately. My mom was boiling water a couple weeks ago and heard a POP. She looked around in confusion since nothing was there to pop and, not finding anything, didn't think about it again. The next day, I was looking at the cooktop as I was cleaning it and found a weirdly curved scratch in it. As I looked closer at it, I discovered about nine other "scratches" in it, all converging at one point: the center of the eye my mom was boiling water on. Yep, the cooktop cracked for no apparent reason. That was a pretty good chunk to replace (and is one reason why I wasn't able to participate in the prayer call tonight; I had to help my dad put the new one on). But, as always, God gave us the money to pay for it.
Another DIRECT answer to prayer - back in December, we got a booking at the Senior's Center here in town on the 7th of this month. The problem was that there was no piano. I'm sorry, but, while we can sing acapella, it's hard to play solos with no accompaniment lol. Well, we started praying that God would give us a good keyboard that we could take with us on our travels since this wouldn't be the last time we'd need it (like when we do concerts at the RV parks we stay in, something my dad plans on doing). Guess what: we got another booking on the 27th of Dec. at a church an hour or so north of us. The love offering we got there (we don't charge anything to perform, btw) was just enough to cover the cost of a keyboard and all the accessories we'd need.
I don't type fast enough to list all the different things that the Lord has done for us ( :P :( ), but He is surely helping us through this.
One more thing I need to mention: a week or so ago, a lady in our church approached my mom and told her that she and her husband were wishing to start an all-natural store. Basically, she was wanting to know if we would be willing to raise chickens for them if they cleaned up some land of theirs and set it up for a trailer hook-up, complete with water and septic. They know a man that owns a large dairy down the road who is willing to let us use his land to raise them on, too. The really neat thing here is that my dad had been struggling for a while wondering if the Lord wanted us to raise poultry for a few months in the summer to help cover costs, much like Paul made tents to cover the costs of HIS ministry. This seems to be a big answer to his prayer in that way. We still don't have it all worked out, and it may not, but it sure does look promising.
SO: here are the basic things that we are praying for, and we would all greatly appreciate it if you would join us in prayer:
* That God would give us a spirit of harmony and that we would all be able to resist Satan's urgings to fight and squabble. It's hard enough to get along with six people in a 3000 or so sq. ft. house; try living in an 800 sq. ft. RV for two years... YIKES!
* That God would give us a buyer for the house soon.
* That God would give my parents wisdom to know which fifth-wheel and truck to buy, and also that He would provide us with one of each in great condition for a good price.
* That He would continue to provide for our needs in this time with no steady income.
* That He would give us grace and mercy as we adapt to the COMPLETE lifestyle change that is going to be taking place here in the very near future.
* That God would work everything out with this chicken deal.
* That God would give direction on what kind of RV to buy.
The following story is from Taylor Eernisse. Taylor and his family currently live in GA, where they are preparing for their music ministry. For more information about what they are doing and where they are heading, you can visit their site here. Taylor has also included prayer requests, so if you feel led to pray for this family, by all means do so. Be blessed as you enjoy reading some of God's handiwork.
~Tiffany
I guess I'd better start off from the beginning for those of you who don't know too much. Four months ago, my dad and I lost our jobs, he after having worked as the restaurant manager of the local McDonald's for eight years and I as a crew person for two and a half years. One day he had a seemingly secure job, the next, he didn't know what in the world he was going to do. He was fired very unfairly, and was blamed for the misbehavior and mismanagement of other managers. Anyway, it was a huge mess, and I had no desire to continue working there for obvious reasons. This all happened just two weeks after I enrolled in CollegePlus!.
To explain how God prepared both my parents and myself for this occurrence, I must back up nearly three years to my 14th birthday, when I first began my job. At 14, I had nothing to spend my money on, so my parents suggested that I invest it in the alpacas that they were planning on buying. I agreed to do that, and paid a monthly amount to them for two years. I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but the Lord definitely had plans. Since I couldn't access the money I had put into them until we sold one, I wasn't able to start CollegePlus! when I first found out about it, and had to wait another year.
The end of that year (of course, this is general :P) found me receiving just enough money to pay for one year of coaching up front. This was the last week of August of 2009. Just over a week later, I lost my job. There is no WAY you can convince me to believe that it's just a coincidence that we sold the alpacas I owned the most of just a week before I lost my job. It's not a coincidence that the payments the people are making on those alpacas are JUST ENOUGH to pay for me to take two CLEPs a month, which is my goal for each month. God had everything planned out.
For a wider example of God's provision: as all of you who have checked out our website know, this was our second year of raising out broiler chickens. The Lord allowed us one year to get the hang of everything and provided the money we needed to make up for our losses due to learning things the hard way. :P This second year, He used the 400 chickens and 27 turkeys we had to give us the money we have needed to live on while my dad has been out of work. In one sense, it's surprising, but actually shouldn't be, but through this and some other additional ways (including neighbors dropping off truckloads of stuff out of the blue :D) God has allowed us to eat BETTER than we could than while my dad was working! If there's one lesson I've learned in this, it's that God ALWAYS provides for those who actively seek to do His will. I have no concerns as to where the money will come from for my various needs. He has given me ample funds for everything I have needed for CP!, even though I don't have a job. Just to illustrate this, just this morning I realized that I didn't have enough money in my account to pay for my test. Here's the really cool thing that shows God's provision: I had a check in my drawer that I needed to deposit. It was the alpaca payment that I am receiving monthly as a result of the investment He led me to make 19 days short of three years ago (:D). Isn't that cool? Just shows that the Lord has a plan in EVERYTHING, even, and actually especially, when we don't know what it is.
To submit a story, you must supply your name, location and website/blog if you have one. It would also help if you sent in a short bio along with your story for introducing yourself. For those of you who wish to remain anonymous, you still need to send in your name, location and website, but I will not disclose that information when publishing. Note that your story could be edited for any grammatical/spelling errors. If any considerable changes need to be made, I will not publish the story until you have looked over and approved the modifications. To send in your story(ies), please send me an e-mail at godshandministries@gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Disclaimer: Not all stories that I receive will be published.
P.S. I'll be posting stories once a week.
Hello, and welcome to God’s Hand Ministries! We have such an awesome and powerful God, and how He works to weave our lives into His beautiful plan is such an incredible thing to experience and see. In His Word, God tells the Israelites to remind their children of the wonderful things He had done so that they would not forget His goodness and faithfulness. So to remember what He has done and to encourage and uplift fellow believers, this is the place where you can share stories of how you’ve seen God work in the lives of others and your own.
Many blessings to all who read,
~Tiffany
Eph. 2:10
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