Impossible

It was a wilting experience, to read about the impossible things seen in other places. A church planted by a foreign man passionate to share with his own people. Money arriving at the perfect time to fund a project. Enthusiastic volunteers lending a hand. Only God could do something like this…. And I had to admit I had not seen God do impossible things.

My fault.

I had never seen God do any more than I could do. I relied on him as my handy assistant, my god-of-crisis, the one who would grease the wheels on my decisions.

My heart began to yield that day. The search began with a yearning in my heart for more. More of God’s plan. More of the impossible. And less of my way.

That’s how I jumped into an impossible situation last year. I had a strong impulse – a calling from God – to host a bilingual children’s Bible club in the city park. I had two goals: to share God’s love with bilingual children and to introduce their parents to a bilingual pastor, hoping to begin a Bible study in a home.

I am not bilingual. And I knew our church was not enthusiastic about this venture.

The first step was to prayerwalk our town of 5,000. Coincidentally (you see that word a lot in impossible stories), Sylvia had called me a couple of months earlier wanting to prayerwalk our town. When I called, she was thrilled to join me.

So, for three months, Sylvia and her three children joined my children and me once a week to pray for our town and the upcoming Bible club. Only she didn’t know about the second part for a couple of weeks. When she learned, she was excited but then she leaned over confidentially.

“Um, how are you guys and us going to host a Bible club? We’re a little short handed, aren’t we?”

“Well,” I said. “We’re also going to pray for a mission team to come and teach the Bible club.”

So we did. And I put out feelers trying to find a team. Unfortunately (another key word in impossible stories), we had picked a week in mid-August – the only time we could do the Bible Club but impossible for most teams because their youth had to get back to school.

By June, we had no team but had prayed over nearly the whole town. I assured Sylvia that, if no team showed up, I had no clue what we’d do. “This is God’s idea,” I told her.

Well, as you can guess, the team showed up. They had opportunities to go in other directions but, for some reason (another impossible story term), came our way.

(We had no funding, either, but God took care of that faster than the team! We had more money than we needed, of course.)

We ended up with over 30 people deciding to follow Jesus that week. We had 150 people come to our family night, where they met our bilingual pastor. He was able to visit 28 families and has started a Bible study in a home.

This was all impossible for two moms and 5 kids. But not impossible with God.

I learned in the impossible is where God shines brightest. His idea, his resources, his way.

Now, I want to hear your impossible story. What has God done that only God can do? Link us to your blog story below. I’m anxious to hear some great stories.