For my Grace College friends, you may remember what happened February 18, 2010. It was during that week of chapel that Kondo Simfukwe preached on the subject of prayer. The sermons were excellent in that they called for a more intimate relationship with our Father. Then on that Thursday, as a student body we all wrote down a prayer(s) that would totally stretch our praying hearts with something that we know only our God could answer.
For me, I wrote two prayers down:
1) That God would provide a huge financial aid package from a graduate school for me to attend.
and
2) That God would provide a way for Kylee and I to be engaged by this time next year.
At that time we stuck the letter in an envelope, and to be honest, I don't remember what happened with the envelope. But I did not forget those two requests. Because I can say with such joy that "My God is a God who answers prayer!" It is amazing what can happen in a year. That very day after chapel, I checked my email and found out there was an opening with the brass group Tim Zimmerman and the King's Brass. I've had the great privilege of being able to travel with them, and God has been able to provide. After spring break, I received a letter from Carnegie Mellon with my financial aid package; and what a blessing it was from God showing me this is where I am to be. Basically, I only have to pay about 17% of the tuition to attend CMU.
In addition, one day a friend from Masterworks Festival who attends CMU facebooked me and said that he and his friends were looking for one more person to move into an apartment with them. Rent would be low cost and it is only a mile from campus....answered prayer!
But the bigger prayer--that "2" prayer. :) Well it happened! On February 5th, I asked the most beautiful girl in the world to marry me.
This picture is from Christmas. Another blog post will be dedicated completely to her and how it all happened. She did not really know that that was one of my prayers (I may have mentioned it once to her).February 18th was a defining day in my prayer life because it was a commitment I wanted to make that would really cause me to pray. And a year later, those prayers have been answered. Looking back at God's amazing path mapped out for my life, I am able to see things that pointed in a direction of answered prayer.
It's times like these that cause for celebration, praise, and renewed commitments to a God who loves us so much that as Kondo said, "He wants to give us good things!"
Don't stop praying!
From
J-man (Hebrews 13:21)
