Ready for a story?

So after all the recent posts about how the process is going, who is ready for a story about how truly amazing our God is?  I promised that God was moving in our story and we have already seen Him confirm our faith several times through different avenues, but this one almost made me fall out of my chair...

So our church has a goal of adopting 20 unreached people groups by the year 2020.  An unreached people group is a culture of people, small or large, who have less than 2% of Christians.  (It is not necessarily an entire country, but a group of people who identify themselves as a culture inside a country- think Cajuns vs. the entire state of Louisiana.) Basically, this means that there aren't enough Christians to spread the Good News through their entire culture.  Our church's mission is not only to select a group and pray for them and their leaders, but to also travel there.  And not just travel there for a short mission trip but continue to return and develop disciples and spread the love of Jesus.

The youth group decided they wanted to select a people group.  They had a list of 8 groups or so that they were praying over, knowing that God would lead them to the group He chose for them.  I saw the list and none of the countries specifically stuck out to me.  We prayed with them that God would lay on their hearts the group He wanted for our youth.  Sunday was the big reveal.  Our youth pastor said there were missionaries from the Czech Republic there to speak to all of us, of course that meant that the youth had chosen a country.  But out of the corner of my eye, I see a map of Europe and a whole portion (overlapping several countries) of the map is highlighted with the word "Roma" in big, bold letters.  Our youth pastor stands up and says that they felt God calling them to the Roma people and that they would begin focusing on those in the Czech Republic.  I almost fell out of my chair. 

A few weeks ago, during our phone interview, our agency told us that many/ most of the children available for adoption in Eastern Europe are Roma.  The Roma People are a group of immigrants who migrated from Northern India/ Pakistan to this particular section of Europe.  There is a tendency to sometimes lean towards racism against them, therefore many of their orphans are not adopted in-country. 

So here is the complete surprise blessing from the Father.  Not only will we likely bring home a Roma child, but he/she will come home to a community of people who have been praying for the Roma people.  And not just praying for them, but have actually gone to their part of the world, learned about their culture and accepted and loved them. 

Anyone else amazed at how big God's plan is?  Only an all-powerful, loving Father could have put so many different pieces together.  Even if our child is not Roma, what a powerful testimony to him/ her that our church has accepted, been to and loved his/her part of the world.  The youth are planning their first trip in Spring 2014.


I hope that this little story encourages you and grows your faith.  God is involved in every aspect of all of our lives.  He sees one part and connects it to another.  Won't you trust that He sees the big picture and put your faith in Him today?