Miracles on Mission Trips:
God IS Interested in the Little Things!

As the Director of an Appalachian Ministry, Ihave learned to depend on the Lord for little things many groups would take for granted. We've seen the Lord move to answer prayers to make it possible for mission teams to complete their work and be on the way home on time. We tell these groups when they come, they will see God at work, "if" they are sensitive to things only He can do to make things happen. We've seen it rain, literally up to the perimeter of a property on all four sides, but not rain on a house so work could be completed. We've seen a mission group misorder materials to complete a project, but the lumber make a mistake of loading the wrong (right) materials so the last portion of a deck could be completed.

But the Lord is interested in little things too that are big to homeowners. Last year, Rev. Billy Kimbrough led a group from the First Baptist Church of Columbia, TN (pictured at right with homeowner, seated on porch) with the purpose of putting vinyl siding on a home. Arriving at the home, the first thing the group inadvertently did was to cut the ladies cable. The homeowner was disabled, on oxygen and her main means of enjoyment was watching TV.

The question is this, is TV something we could or should pray about and get results. We thought a call to our office could produce results, but it doesn't work that way. Our cable company has no local number. You call an 800 number that routes you through a series of numbers before (in our case) we came back to the beginning. After a couple of hours of wasted time we gave up that route. (I see some of you have the same cable service.) We next drove to the cable company who said this lady was in the service area of a neighboring town and we would have to drive 30 miles there to find help. Working on several jobs that week, no one in the ministry had time to drive to the neighboring town. Now we are irritated and decide it's time to bring in help. We prayed!!

Thirty minutes before the work is finished guess who drives up in her drive way? It doesn't matter that we're six miles out off a secondary county road and then off on a single lane small road leading to her house. But you're right it was the cable service man. The cable man said, I'm lost. We said, "no you're not, God sent you here." We explained that we understood we needed a service call, but also needed a small miracle. We needed 70 feet of cable. "If the cable were lying in the road, would you know what to do with it?" he asked. Oh yes, we said.

In a couple of minutes the cable was laying there and put in place, but we needed ends that needed a special crimping tool. The serviceman said he could install ends without a service call so within minutes, the job was complete, her TV was now back on and the team could leave for middle Tennessee. Photo at left is the home before the team started their repair work.

We could have written about the big miracles, but sometimes, the surprises of the small ones overwhelm you in the same way.
We are thankful to see God at work with every group that gives of their time to serve Him. We do home repairs, backyard Bible Clubs, Block Parties, and groups work in our ministry center. Most all groups choose to return.

Submitted by: Sheldon Livesay, Rogersville, TN