This is part 4, a continuation of the wonders of God in reaching the city of Spokane for Christ. God has been sending me all over the city to specific places to pray with people and to encourage them in their walk with Jesus. God does not only send us to people who need salvation, but to believers who need a word of encouragement or of exhortation. Or He gives them vital information that they need.
One evening God sent me into a grocery store. He told me which grocery store, and we had to drive across town to get to it. I had to go to the bathroom, so I went into the restroom. When I exited the restroom, I saw people sitting in the deli area of the grocery store, where there are tables and chairs. God amplified a couple of women sitting in one corner and prompted me to ask them if they went to my church. I did not recognize them whatsoever, but since God gave me those words, I said them.
The lady I was looking at said no, and the lady beside her looked white as a ghost. She said she had been wanting to go to this church I mentioned because a relative had recommended the in-depth women’s Bible studies. She was not a computer person, and when I asked this gray-haired lady that she could google the address of the church, she said she didn’t know how to do that. I left my phone in the car, so I asked the Holy Spirit for the address, and He gave it to me. I wrote it down on a piece of paper. God prompted me to add, “You are going to make it” on the scrap of paper. She asked how much the Bible study cost, and I told her the price, but that if she came, I would pay the price for her books.
Every expenditure I’ve made (including gas to drive around the city) has been exactly what God wanted me to do, out of obedience to God. Since we don’t have any savings and we have two kids in college, this ministry has been a financial strain on our family. Obviously this affects my husband more than anyone else, and his concern is legitimate.
I’ve always been extremely frugal, but one day when I picked up a woman who had been physically beaten by her husband, I took her stuff in my car to her mom’s storage unit so she could move in with her mom. God showed me a clothing store and amplified it to me, to get this trembling woman a new outfit. When she walked into the store, she saw a woman who had been involved with her abusive husband, and it was too much for her to bear. This is why God took us to this exact store.
We had a wonderfully healing conversation, and God caused a restoration to occur. God prompted me to ask her to pick out any outfit she wanted, and that Father God would pay for it. She couldn’t believe it. She got a pair of jeans that fit her and a beautiful blouse. Her abusive husband had led her to believe she had no value, but God said differently.
I called my husband and asked if we could take her out to dinner, and he said yes. I’ve noticed that my husband has the gift of giving; he’s helped people for years, including last year when took three beggars off the street in the middle of the night to get pancakes at a restaurant and filled their car with gas and talked to them about Jesus. In reality my husband and I have the same heart for missions and for being selflessly giving to the point that we are always broke.
The worst expenditure before the trip to Texas (which seems ludicrous based on the fact that we have no money!) was an overnight stay at a hotel for a prayer vigil in the heart of the city of Spokane. My ministry partners and I were specifically led to a hotel where we later found out a Christian women’s conference had just taken place. We prayed and sang praise songs and interceded for revival for the city of Spokane the whole night long. It was exhausting. I did not choose the hotel—God did. He said the name of the hotel loudly into my spirit, in the same way that He has been leading us to other divine appointments throughout the city to lead people to Christ or encourage them. We felt something break through spiritually over the city that night. Because of our obedience (and other people’s prayers), our city is beginning to experience revival.
The morning after the prayer vigil, we were prompted to go to Shari’s Restaurant for a divine appointment. While we were eating, one of my ministry partners pointed out the back of an oriental man, and told us that was the man we needed to speak to. I gathered my courage and asked the Lord what to say. When he returned to his table with two other men, I asked if anyone needed prayer. They said no. Then I asked if this oriental man would pray for us. He said yes and came over to our table. We told him about our upcoming road trip that God had put heavily on our hearts, and I gave testimony of all that God was doing through our ministry for the past month in Spokane.
Even though I didn’t recognize him, this oriental man was a missions leader at my church, he knew my parents who were missionaries, and he knew a board member from a Christian group where I was a board member for two years. He had so many connections in common with me! (This is why God commanded us to go to this specific restaurant, even though we had been fasting all night and normally don’t eat at restaurants and could have gone straight home.)
We asked this oriental man how to get our church to back our ministry financially. Even in the city of Spokane, it was costing my husband a lot of money in gasoline and other incidentals, money we didn’t have. And the cost of a road trip to Texas seemed prohibitive. But he told us we didn’t need money, and that we should just go and stay in people’s houses (and bless them), or shake the dust off our feet of those who reject us. He used lots of Scripture to back up what he was saying, and this random man confirmed what God had put in our hearts to do.
This was just one of many confirmations that led to our short-term missions trip to Texas. Thank you to all who prayed for us!
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