Honduras Car Wash Fundraiser April 28, 2007

Car washes take faith... that's all there is to it. I didn't realize how much it would build the faith of this team, but let me tell you the rest of this Honduras mission trip will be much easier knowing that God will provide because we've seen Him provide richly for us one Saturday in April.

So let me set this up for you. We scheduled the car wash months ago and started making preparations with WalMart and our team to show up between 9am and 6pm Saturday, April 28. We had the buckets and the sponges, the hoses and the towels. We had the soap and the signs, the people and the place. All we needed was the sunshine. Now our team had been praying and Grand Central church was praying and it was a week before the event and it was calling for rain on Saturday. And so we kept praying.

And it was 24 hours before the car wash and the forecast was still calling for rain. And we wondered what to do... and we thought about calling it off and we thought about rescheduling and we didn't. We kept praying, trusting that God had all this planned out long before we did and that He would bless it- maybe not how we had expected- but that He would bless it.

So, I woke up to meet Sam and Summer on Saturday morning and just before I walked out the door, I pulled up the weather forecast on the internet, just to see what we should expect. And still it said sprinkles all morning until around noon and then we should expect showers for awhile and then more sprinkles until 7pm when it was supposed to be sunny again. Oh dear! I put on my "faith" pin which has a mustard seed in it and walked out the door, believing God was looking out for us and that we would see mountains move, or at least storms. We started setting up at 8:30am and were ready for business at 9am and it was cloudy and ominously dark. But was started washing and the team was showing up in full force to wash cars. And so we washed away under the cloudy sky.

And then it happened- if you'd have been there you would have wondered at the display too. We looked up and right above where we were washing it happened... the clouds parted and the sun peeked through and then shone so brightly over us that we all took a moment to laugh and giggle at God's goodness to His children. If you'd have been there you'd have heard some shouts of joy, a few "Hallelujah's" and more than one "God is good!"

We washed and washed and the morning clouds broke and gave way to blue skies. It got cloudy again for a little bit around noon but not a drop of rain fell on us- not a single drop. People who traveled to help with the car wash said they drove through rain, but not a single drop fell on our heads that day and after lunch the clouds gave way for good and we spent the rest of the day washing cars in the beautiful sunshine and blue skies that we'd petitioned God to send. He is so incredibly faithful.

There were tons of other blessings that day... donuts and cookies in the morning, cars from the community, cars from Grand Central Church members, cars from Belpre Church members, and cars from people who were taking their kids to the Jr. Youth Rally at Grand Central. We even washed one of their people-movers:) We exceeded our goal of washing 100 cars and were blessed with many donations for our free car wash! That's right, folks. We didn't charge a dime for the car wash but accepted donations and were blessed in rich ways! God is faithful and we will testify to that over and over.

Thank you to those of you who brought us your dirty cars and donations. Thank you to those of you who worked hard to was cars here, so we can work hard building homes, loving orphans, feeding hungry, and sharing Jesus with folks in Honduras. To those of you who spent time on your knees asking God to bless us, we humbly thank you for your faithfulness. Know that your prayers were heard and answered.

And all I kept thinking was, "This is just the beginning." We saw God move storms for our car wash in Vienna, WV and we have no doubts that He will move mountains in Honduras. Be prepared to be blown away by God's goodness over and over again, friends.

This is just the beginning!