A Testimony of God's Faithfulness (the past 2 years in the making)

Dear neglected blog,

I am in Cambodia right now on a short-term mission trip! I anticipate being very busy as soon as I get home, but before this dream ends, thought I should post some testimonies that have led me here..

I wrote this testimony and shared with my church before I left..hope you are as blessed as I am by His faithfulness!
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My last semester of college (spring 2011), I was shopping around online for a new car, since mine was very small and fragile, but still drivable. I wanted a cool sports car, like an Acura. If not, I also wanted a new computer and piano keyboard. but one day I read an urgent prayer request from a missionary family I met at USC (the Jourdens), who moved to Africa just a few months earlier to minister to orphans and homeless around Zimbabwe. their car broke down and they were in desperate need of a new car to get around and to keep ministering. I thought about all my own materialistic desires and then about all the kids in Africa who were in need of their help…and I knew I couldn't just ignore that email when I had the money they needed sitting in my bank account. I emailed them back that i wanted to give, and would pray about how much. I ended up using my student loans to buy them a new VW minivan, and made multiple money transfers to Zimbabwe that weekend. It was scary and a huge act of faith for me, but I was raised at my church to trust God with my finances, to believe that He would return and bless me with what I sow into the Kingdom. 

But after I graduated my family put a lot of pressure on me and my sister to contribute and take over bills (after my parents divorced when I was in college, it really much devastated us financially). But I still was praying about my career and was just working part-time jobs until I knew for sure what God wanted me to do. And then in 2012 my sister got in a car accident and totalled her car, so I helped buy her a used car. And then at the beginning of 2013 a family member had a huge medical bill that she needed help paying, and that's when my bank account was officially emptied. I had almost nothing..and I hit rock bottom cause I had expected God to reward me already for sowing so heavily in 2011 but it had already been two years.. It was a really hard time for me, I kept asking God when He would show up, and I even began wondering whether that was a stupid thing to do to buy that family a car. I really thought God had abandoned me. Then I went to PIHOP for their prophecy service and everything they gave me was a verse out of Psalms, that's how low I felt..the only thing that wasn't a Psalm was a story they gave me from 1 Kings 17. It was about Elijah the prophet and the widow who gave him bread and water when he came asking, even though that was all she had. In return, God sustained her and her family for the rest of their lives. And that night I went home and was looking over my journal entries and I realized that I had gotten that story THREE times in the previous 6 months. The first time was when the Jourdens came to speak, and I was casually talking to the wife, Pamela, and she mentioned that story to me. And the 2nd and 3rd times were in prophecies. This bolstered my faith a lot, and I knew God saw my struggle and remembered my giving.

So the past two months I was looking for any full-time job I could get. I was offered two opportunities. The first one was in financial advising and felt really unstable and beyond my skill/maturity level, so I didn't take it. The second one was a marketing job--I prayed about it and didn't really feel peace but I was desperate so I was going to take it. But when I told my boss I was resigning, he offered to match this new job with full-time status, a raise, and benefits..which was SO much more than I could have asked for. I love my company right now and all the managers are real men of God..we even have intercessors praying for us for the health and spiritual expansion of the company. And when my boss gave me this offer it really seemed like he was doing it cause he cared about me and that I had steady income (just like how God made sure the widow and her family had not just enough for now, but for the rest of their lives). So I decided to stay at iStar. And I realized when I looked back at my journal, Pamela told me she felt that the 3rd offer would be the right one--that was back in October. The first two job offers I got, I didn't have peace about, but this 3rd offer from my current company was exactly what I wanted. It's been a crazy emotional two years of waiting on God for breakthrough, but now I KNOW that He's faithful to His word and faithful to my heart, and that He truly IS Provider. I think as Christians, we aren't meant to live in a way where we don't have to depend on God. We're called to give extravagantly, love and serve extravagantly, and in return God will show up in ways where we can really testify that He's real.

So I start full-time at my company on May 1, but when you go full-time you only have a set number of vacation days so I wanted to go on a mission trip before I start. I shared this desire with my small group and they prayed for an opportunity for me. I only had a little more than a month left before going full-time, so I didn't really expect to find anything..but long story short, God gave me an opportunity to go to Cambodia with Ps. Mark Geppert's organization, SEAPC, to minister to orphans who are at risk for human trafficking. They also have a house of prayer to intercede for spiritual strongholds in Cambodia, and a school where they teach Cambodians graphic design. I got SO excited after Ps. Geppert told me all this, because I've been wanting to go to Cambodia for years, and three of my biggest passions are the house of prayer, graphic design, and human trafficking. This opportunity seemed like the perfect one for me, and it seemingly came out of nowhere, just as an answered prayer.

BUT after I told my family I wanted to go to Cambodia for two weeks, they forbade me from going. They thought it was too unsafe. I was really surprised because I've traveled by myself so much in the past. But they said I could go if someone goes with me from LA..so I decided to ask around if anyone wanted to go with me. This brother named Joseph, from my company's house of prayer, said he would pray about it, but he said it would require a miracle because his boss might fire him if he left for two weeks. So it was a risk for him, but he asked God for a sign that He wanted him to go on this mission trip and risk losing his job. A few days later, he got laid off! He was doing well at his job and everything, so this layoff came very unexpectedly..but it may well have been the sign he was praying for. Another sign was that the total cost for the trip is $1800 and both of us are pretty broke, but we calculated how much we would have after our next paycheck (payday was 4/2 for me, 4/5 for him), and we both would have exactly $1800. 

So I have no idea what's going to happen in Cambodia and why God wants us to go so much that He would take away Joseph's job, but I'm really excited to see what God has in store. Life is such an adventure when you're following Jesus and just being faithful in seeking Him. He doesn't require much from us at all, just a heart that's hungry for Him and willing to obey.