Flood Warning

After a week of intense heat in Massachusetts, the sky turned black today and then the floodgates opened up.  After about an hour of rain, the National Weather Service issued this statement:

… A FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 500 PM EDT FOR SOUTH CENTRAL ESSEX… EAST CENTRAL MIDDLESEX… NORTHERN SUFFOLK AND EXTREME NORTH CENTRAL NORFOLK COUNTIES…

I wish someone would have issued a flood warning to me six months ago when I began preparing to take sixteen youth to the Dominican Republic.  In order to make it happen, we had to raise over $27,000.  That is  about twice as much as we have raised for any of the trips I have led.  There were times where I was convinced this was impossible.

Someday I hope to quit using that word and simply trust God who can open the floodgates.

After months of hard work, we have raised $27,000.  I would like to say it was my genius ideas, energy, and sweat that made this happen but the real reason is that lots and lots of people were extremely generous.  Multiple people gave more than a thousand dollars and over two hundred gave at least twenty.  And then there are the dozens of people who gave of their time and energy and gifts…  Right now I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

I was reminded today of Psalm 42 which begins, “As a deer pants for flowing streams,so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (vss. 1-2a).  I have been praying a similar prayer for the last couple of months.

God responds to the Psalmist’s prayer in verses 7-8,

Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

As we prepare to leave having raised almost exactly what we needed for this trip, I can relate to what it feels like when God opens the floodgates.  Tonight as I listen to the sound of rain on my window, I pray that I don’t forget that God is always faithful to provide what I need today.

Follow our trip at www.manchesteryouth.com.

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