Good Morning from a sunny, cool Knolltop.
I know, I know, it's been over a week since I wrote anything. I actually began writing this post last Sunday and haven't had time to finish it....
Suffice it to say, Bobby and I had a wonderful time in Louisville and the kids handled things well on the farm.
Right now, I've got to write about a God thing. If you don't believe in God or don't like any kind of religion....stop reading right now because I'm going to be considerably transparent about God and how He answered our prayers..
JW found a baseball camp a few weeks ago. World Baseball Acadamey in Ft. Wayne, Indiana was advertising a pitchers and catchers training camp. Looking into it I decided I would bite the bullet and pay for JW to go. He wanted to go so badly so when an unexpected, very small, windfall came our way, we immediately gave part of it to JW for camp. Afterall he had be so faithful in helping with chores all fall when we would rush off to a football or volleyball game. He would gladly stay behind and finish up chores or sometimes do all of the chores, without complaint.
Excited about this opportunity we were counting down the days until his first Thursday night that he would attend camp. One day the phone rang and it was the head of the baseball camp, Caleb. He said all the boys that wanted to attend the camp chose to opt into private instruction and now JW was the only one left in the camp. We had two choices, he could attend camp with middle school age kids or take private instruction....at no extra cost! Of course, I chose the private instruction and scheduled his time for Saturday afternoons.
JW was more than excited and couldn't wait to tell Luke. Luke was excited as well and then they took it one step further and surmised that since the lessons were on Saturday, Luke could attend as well. In their mind it was set in stone, I would call Caleb, get Luke added to the camp and one pitcher and one catcher would attend the camp together every Saturday afternoon. Money never even entered into their minds, but it was consuming mine.
As camp got closer, Luke would talk about it more and more and they kept reminding me to call Caleb to get Luke added. I kept saying I would but in the back of my mind I knew I didn't have the extra money. Thursday night during milking JW came in and asked again, if I had called Caleb. I was not in a good mood after a day of trying to figure out how I was going to make ends meet for another month. I looked at JW and said, "I'm sorry, but I have no money for Luke to attend camp." There, I said it. I admitted what I didn't want to admit, it was now out in the open and part of me was glad, the other part was mad.
Then I heard a voice in my head say, "You don't have the money but God does, why don't you ask Him." Feeling awful about snapping at JW and just ignoring the prayer factor, I caught JW as he was headed out the door. I looked at him and said, "I don't have the money, but God does, let's pray that he provides it for us. And please don't tell Luke I don't have the money, let's just pray, okay?"
He looked at me with a look of disbelief that I would even have to ask him twice and said, "Sure, I'll pray."
It was Friday night in the barn and Luke backed the tractor down to clean the gutters and came bouncing in the barn. I asked why he was so happy and he remarked that he was excited about baseball camp. My heart sank....and I began to pray again, 'God, please don't let him down.' I looked at him trying to appear fearless and said, "Yep, it will be a lot of fun." But deep down inside I was not fearless at all, my heart was breaking.
You see, Luke loves baseball, he is an outstanding catcher and both he and JW have enjoyed playing together since they were six and 8 year olds playing in the yard with Bobby. Every evening after chores they would con Bobby into playing a game of ball. We would all gather in the yard and begin to play until Sarah would get upset about something and then she and I would go sit on the porch together and watch the boys.
It was Saturday morning and Bobby, JW and Luke got ready to go. The boys gathered their equipment while Bobby took me aside and said he would ask Caleb how much it would be to add Luke to the camp. I replied, "I'll pray."
That afternoon my mom called and asked about the camp. I told her about the situation and she immediately said, "Why didn't you say something, I can help out." I told her we were praying and were waiting to see what God would do. Strangely, she was happy with that answer, normally she would fix the situation by volunteering to pay for it, but this time, she just reassured her offer to help was there if we wanted it and backed off.
They were gone most of the day and when they got home they told me all about it. They really liked the instructor and were looking forward to going back. After dinner, Bobby and I were having our coffee when he said, "I asked Caleb how much it would be to add Luke to the camp and he said nothing!"
I couldn't believe it. God answered our prayer in such a powerful way! Later that evening I celebrated with JW, we both just giggled at how generous God was and is.
When I called my mom to tell her the good news, she said, "You know, I just knew that was going to happen. I just had a feeling."
Never underestimate the power of prayer! Or God's deep and wonderous grace.
