When I said no, God said yes!

The most amazing chain of events took place over the last couple of weeks and I want to share them with you. Mike saw a women’s conference in the church bulletin and suggested I attend. I went back and forth about going said I would go, then I said no. Well less than a week ago Avril, John’s wife, sent out an e-mail to about 10 ladies and yes my name was on it stating, “the ticket is already paid for reimburse whenever you can.” So you know the rest of that story. It turned out to be fabulous. I met some new ladies from the church and saw a part of town I had never been to before. But the story doesn’t end here. The two guest speakers were from America. (this conference was the Women of Faith tour) One’s name was Carol Kent and the other Anita Renfroe. Neither of which I had ever heard of I thought. Just a few days before leaving Nashville, a friend of ours Janell Fadler gave us a gift, a book titled Speaking in Public with Confidence. She knew I needed it more than Mike. I must confess I have not read the book, but I did read the testimony on the back so I knew her story. While I was sitting in the conference, and Carol started sharing her testimony I thought to myself I have heard this before but nothing clicked the first day. The second day about half way through she mentioned this book and the light came on. I could not believe the coincidence and as soon as I got home I showed Mike and he couldn’t believe it either. We had a good laugh. Anita turned out to be the Christian comedian that has hit it big with the “momsense” song on you tube and has soared to stardom. Ok it doesn’t end here either. They were giving away many door prizes and I meant to put my name in the box before we left the first night but I forgot, turns out I didn’t need to, I won something anyway. It was a start up kit for gel nails including the lamp and all. I certainly didn’t need this but the Lord knew it would be a perfect small business for Living Way to launch for a female that goes through our entrepreneurship program. I am so excited about this. Ok it still doesn’t end here! On Monday, Avril had arranged for the ladies to come to Living Hope to speak to the support group facilitators so after they had finished I went over to meet them. I took my book of course to get signed!! While chatting with Anita it turns out she knows Mark Kelly Hall, a friend of ours at Brentwood Baptist and this was how they ended up coming to Living Hope. Man it is a small world.
Ok here is the Grand Finale. Anita was asking me how long we were here and what type of work were we doing at Living Hope. I explained the Volunteer Coordinating Ministry and then told her about Living Way and the entrepreneur program. She and her husband were very interested so I went and got Mike and long story short they, including her church, are going to pray about (but she said it is basically a done deal) sponsoring some start up businesses with the capital needed to get them going. Our God is an awesome God.
I am so glad I said no because it allows me to share a testimony about how much God really is in control!!
By the way I plan to start reading the book this weekend!