It's funny how we are amazed when God answers prayers, as if we are surprised and somewhat shocked. He is always faithful, always hears our prayers, and he is always looking out for our best interest. I would just like to share a short testimony of how God is working in our lives the past couple weeks.
Three and a half weeks ago Jacob and I moved to Wanaka, a small resort town on the south Island of New Zealand. Anyone who has moved to a new place knows there is so much "new" that happens as you relocate to a new place. Finding accommodation, establishing and building relationships with friends, finding a church community and family, feeling connected and apart of the community, along with just learning the ins and outs of town. Our prayer before and since we have moved here has been community and friendship. We try our best to create and become apart of the community where ever we are at, and have been excited and a bit anxious to start connecting with the community in Wanaka. It didn't take longer than a week being in Wanaka, before we both started feeling a little lonely...missing friends from back home and a sense of community and belonging. We were feeling like we hadn't met anyone near our age here at all, and were just really longing for friendship. Our prayer and cry to the Lord was for friendship. Help us meet people, connect with people, and show us what it looks like to develop new relationships.
Not let me testify how the Lord has completely and abundantly poured His love over us and answered our prayers. We have been overwhelmed by the new people we have met within the past week. The Lord has blessed me with the beginning of new friendships from work. I have found a running buddy and someone you just "click" with-knowing that it is the beginning of a really good friendship. I was invited to a Women's Bible Study, which was so nice having fellowship with other women. There I met a young missionary who I was able to have coffee with the following day, as she shared her testimony and calling to University students. How inspiring! You have probably noticed these were all people I met...so did Jacob, and about half way through the week again stated, "I miss my friends. I feel like I have no friends here." The following day we were invited to a dinner by the girl I had coffee with the previous day, Sarah. She was having a farewell dinner before she began her work at university and wanted us to come. There we met so many of her friends and local people from around the community. Wow! We were overwhelmed by the pouring out of God's love on us and all these people we were meeting! At the dinner Jacob connected with another guy really well, who just so happened to live right down the road from us and also go to the church we had been attending. His mom was also the lady who invited me to the Women's study. At church Sunday were sitting next to two girls who had just moved here from the States, also desiring to really get connected with other people and the community. Thank you Lord for so intentionally placing us next to each other at church. After church, we were invited to lunch at a local cafe with other young adults. It was a great time to get to know the people we had just met and just spend a nice afternoon in fellowship. As we were getting up to leave, Ben's mom invited us all over for dinner, where we had such a fun evening together, playing Tabou and enjoying a wonderfully prepared meal. Last night we shared a meal with another girl from my work, and she prepared a delicious African stew with chapatti (The Lord knows the desires of our hearts). We met other people our age living here permanently or for the winter season.
As I only begin to describe how the Lord has blessed us with friendship this past week, I am still in awe. We are so thankful and so blessed. I feel humbled, at how the Lord has not just answered our prayers, but abundantly showered us with friendships and new people in the community. He has so intricately placed people in our lives that cannot be described any other way than the Lord's doing. I must admit, I was surprised. I was shocked and in awe the entire week as we kept meeting more and more people, and finding these small connections that somehow connected us all. But this is the Lord's doing and one small example of how he is so faithful to us. How he answers our prayers and hears our cry when we seek him with all our heart.
"Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asks, receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened."
-Matthew 7:7
"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
-Jeremiah 29:13
"Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."
-Psalm 37:4
