Elijah
was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would
not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
James
5:17
In the two years we have been doing motel ministry in Anaheim, it
has never rained on us. It’s so funny how we forget the things that God does
for us. He is great and
greatly to be praised. We get
so focused on micromanaging God and His Kingdom that we forget to realize
that He is more than capable of handling things on His own!
And although we insist on struggling with our faith and belief in
reality, He is faithful and never changes.
He continues to answer prayer and He continues to move in the
miraculous. He never changes.
We think that He changes because He must be like us, after all.
No. He is so much
higher, so genius!
Our team was struggling a bit wondering if it would indeed rain
tonight being in a deluge that has broken many records.
Working at a roofing company, we become very aware and conscious of
forecasts of rain and rainfall. I
am constantly logging onto weather.com and looking into not just the
three-day forecast or the ten-day forecast but the percentage change of
rain and, at times, the hourly forecast.
Today was such a day. Southern
California has been under intense rainfall for the past few weeks and
today was no irregular day. Upon
logging onto weather.com, the hourly forecast for Anaheim (92806) was 90%
for the time we would be at the Arena Motel.
I just started praying, “Lord, it has never rained.
Please stop the rain just for us, just for tonight.
These people need the bread.”
In the early afternoon, Julie instant messaged me wondering if we
would go. I just
started speaking it out in faith: It
has never rained on us in two years.
We’re going out. Bob
called Mercier earlier today and wondered if we’d still hand out bread.
Mercier said the same thing: It
has never rained on us in two years.
In faith, Bob even came out in his sheepskin slippers!
Channel 7 News has Live Doppler 2000 available on their website,
which I keep on my desktop at work during inclement weather.
The dark green areas just kept hovering over Anaheim and coming
from the north. I laid my
hands on the computer monitor several times during the afternoon today and
said, “Lord, it has never rained on us in two years.
Lord, don’t let it rain! OH
Lord cover us! Protect us.” I began to see the most amazing thing! The Live Doppler refreshes constantly and I saw the rain move
east. About every five
minutes I checked back, the rain was moving east.
At 4:30 p.m. Anaheim had no green areas!
We left Santa Ana and proceeded north to Anaheim.
The team met at our usual spot at Del Taco.
No rain. We ate our
dinners and used the facilities. No
rain. We were moving ahead.
When we arrived, we saw that people were indeed waiting for us.
They still wanted bread, clothes, fellowship, and even prayer! In
fact one lady named Joyce asked Julie for prayer for the very first time.
The children ran out and jumped in our arms.
I just started dancing and running saying “It hasn’t rained on
us in two years! It hasn’t
rained on us in two years! WHOOO
HOO! Lord YOU are so good!
You still listen to us! You
still love your people! Oh
Lord!”
At about 8:30 or 8:45 p.m., our usual quitting time, it began to
sprinkle. We praised God and
got into our cars, after having jumped a man’s car at the motel, and
headed out to Starbucks, our debriefing site.
As we sat there drinking our lattes and venti ice waters the
heavens opened and the deluge began!
We sat there in wonder! Wow
Lord! It has never rained on
us in two years!
It was nearly 10:00 p.m. and we had shared our stories and began to
drive home. During our drive
the rain slowed down again and again.
Bob got in the car with us and said, “Praise You Lord that it’s
not rained on us!” Then
when were in Irvine the rain stopped completely.
Bob let out another praise: “Thank
YOU Lord for stopping the rain.”
In Del Taco I began singing a refrain I had heard from a gospel
song: “I can do the
impossible, I can see the invisible, because I got faith, yeah!”
This became my theme! We
trusted God based upon His faithfulness, His track record, His character.
That was faith. Weather.com
said NO, it WILL rain tonight! heavy rain and wind. Our
minds told us we were going to have to stand in the rain.
God told us, “It has never rained on you in two years.”
