“Everything works together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28)
If you attended our wedding at the beginning of 2009 you will recognize this scripture verse as it is our wedding verse.
This day I am being reminded of this scripture as we just received the MIRACLE of our PLANE TICKETS.
What seemed impossible till the very last minute, has become possible with the Lord.
We would like to share with you the details of God’s faithfulness in His care and provision for us.
3 months ago we were planning our trip to visit both our families as well as the work in Nigeria, and in total we would be wanting to spend 3 months there. We were looking into ticket prices at that time and we found some really good deals and promotions that would expire in January. However when the time came we did not have any money to book those tickets, nor do we have a credit card where we could credit that amount. So a little discouraged we prayed, but decided that since we still have 3 months, we will plan towards our trip by applying for Hope’s passport and our visas.
The first miracle was Hope’s passport. We had discovered a mistake in her birth certificate and it took weeks to rectify that. When it was finally corrected we could apply for the birth certificate. When we inquired they said the fastest they could do was 2 weeks and that would cost 60 dollars extra. But they were full for the next 3 weeks!! That would have been an impossible timing for us, so they suggested we go to another post office up the hill here. They did have time immediately and when we came there, a lady named Joy was truly a joy to us. She said she could do it in 1 week and she did not charge us anything for it!!! We only paid the fee for the passport itself. And the passport came within 1 week!
The next challenge we faced were our visas for Cameroon. I had heard so many stories of people being delayed with their visas that I was very anxious. The visas however were not a problem at all as they came within 2 weeks and so we were ready to travel…
Almost…
Because, our plane tickets had not yet been booked and we saw the ticket prices increasing rapidly. We had found a good deal that was 5950 dollars for all of us and it is a multi-stop ticket from Kona to Douala to Amsterdam to Kona. We started praying towards that amount of money and when our monthly support came we were so discouraged. We received about half of what we usually receive in the month and so there was no way we could even pay our normal life, let alone pay the tickets! To make it even more challenging, there was an offering time where we felt the Lord leading us to give all the money towards that offering!!
Through another source, God was faithful though in providing for our immediate expenditures so that all our bills were covered, but still nothing as far as tickets were concerned. I repeatedly said I didn’t have any faith, I was very discouraged and it was really, really hard.
Then some people gave us small envelopes telling us, this is for your tickets. Somewhat reluctantly we took the money, but we started using some of it for expenditures such as laundry money and groceries. Then Jackson went to Target and there was a guy who gave him 21 dollars saying “that is for your trip”. The Lord spoke to him through that and he came home and told me: We need to start making an account of all that we receive and keep that money aside. Now that we have this money, how much do we still need?
So we spent the next days making an accurate account of all the bits and pieces together and slowly the amount started to increase. Soon we had close to 1 ticket covered and it was just days before we were supposed to fly out. As the days got closer I saw how ridiculous this all was. We were talking to everybody and acting like we were travelling but we didn’t have the tickets booked. At the same time I knew how God was the only answer and one night Jackson asked me to pray from my heart. My real question was “God, I just want to know when we are travelling”, as my mind needs to know the date so I can plan accordingly and get all the details arranged. Jackson’s heart concern was the pressure of questions such as, should we borrow money? But we both agreed that unless the Lord made it really clear, that was not the way we should go. So we waited.
In faith we started packing our house, taking down our pictures, storing our belongings and doing our last rounds of laundry. Then on Saturday we received 1000 dollars which brought us a lot closer. The tickets however had gone up by that time to 7340 dollars, so that meant we were further off again. Sunday we received various amounts during the day and on Monday morning we received 2422 dollars total from 4 different sources and the amount we had now received for our trip was exactly 7340 dollars. But since we want to pay tithes we actually only had 6600 dollars… of course we were already rejoicing that we were this far, but we didn’t have the full peace that this was “it”.
Then we got the next surprise, there was another donation of 300 dollars.
As we were looking at ticket prices nothing changed, they were still 7340 dollars. Then a friend from the church had called us and said that it’s better to call the airlines directly than through the cheap ticket site. So Jackson called the airline and they gave him a quote of 7210. When he tried to call back they gave him a quote of 11,400!! He then tried a third time and this time the lady gave him a quote of a little over 6800 dollars!!!!
If you will quickly do the Mathematics with me you will see that this is all the money we had left after Tithes!! So of course we booked this ticket J !! And now we are planning to travel on Tuesday April 3d!
In total we received donations from more than 20 different people. We want to thank you so much for your generosity and obedience to the Lord. Every bit of it was an encouragement for us!!
These are the amounts we received specifically for our trip:
80, 200, 21, 2000, 102, 200, 50, 120, 40, 200, 100, 500, 500, 500, 1000, 1300, 100, 22, 341, 50, 20, 300
Now that we are travelling, please pray for us for a safe journey and a wonderful time in Cameroon, Nigeria and the Netherlands. Also pray that our visa’s for Nigeria and Netherlands and USA will not cause any problems. And of course we are also in need of finances throughout the time in all these countries, for both our living and visa expenditures.
Thank you for your support and prayers.
God is GOOD!!
Blessings,
Jackson & Anneke & Hope Shekinah Ndecheck