Provision

Hey,

      There were a couple of stories I wanted to share related to God’s provision for me able to stay this extra time. First off, when I was first given the opportunity to stay on with Evergreen, realistically, the funds to even consider staying were not to be seen. I was essentially planning on forgetting the idea of staying, but literally a couple hours before I let for Ghana, Andy (of Evergreen) reminded of the things which seemed to confirm that God wanted me to stay. I left the continent telling God that if He wanted me to stay He had a good bit of providing to do. Over the course of outreach I got multiple emails from people saying that God had put me on their heart recently and wished to support me more financially. Also, important to mention, before outreach (and before the opportunity with Evergreen came about) I had given a good chunk of extra support money to the Ghana team because a couple of the other members were very short in their funds. I had felt slightly uneasy about that choice after the Evergreen opportunity came up, because if I had not given that money, staying the extra time would be no problem. I really had to pray through releasing the money totally in my heart. However, at the end of outreach, Ghana team ended up with extra funds; so we prayed about how to use the funds. We had already given several hundred pounds to the orphanage, and had supported some of the people we met who were in need. After we finished praying about how to use the extra money, both leaders felt that some of the money should be given back to support me in my new adventure. Coming back from outreach, I had the funds to stay, but just barely. I had two months of rent  and food to pay for, and that was just the beginning of the expenses, but God wasn’t done providing yet.

    Another issue to face was housing. At the beginning of March there were only two unallocated beds on the whole base, and it was unlikely I could get either of these. For a couple weeks I had been trying to find a time to sit down and talk with the housing people about getting someplace to live, and when I finally found a time to talk them another miraculous provision occurred. As I was walking into the administration building, one of the staff from my school was also walking into the building. He had a situation to work out as well. He already had a room and bed allocated and paid for, but he was leaving the country for a month and a half to have surgery back in his home country (Egypt). He and I actually talked just outside of the office realizing that our situations solved each other. We agreed that I would stay in his room while he was gone and I would pay for one month of rent while he paid for the other. So not only did I have a place to stay, but I had it for half the price I thought I was going to pay. BUT WAIT, there was one more issue; there was a week between I was supposed to move out of the room I was in and when I could move into the new room. However that was solved too, because the person in charge of the housing area where I lived got graduation dates mixed up and therefore the kick out date was a week later, exactly the day I could move into the new room.

      The last issue I was facing was a soon to expire visa. Since I was not technically staff, I could not apply for the extension of my existing visa. Thus, since I was officially just hanging out with the Evergreen guys, I needed to get tourist visa. This required me to leave and then return to the country. I had planned on just flying to Dublin, Ireland for a couple days to meet this need, but things were not working out the way I expected. I had been informed that I could easily find a plane ticket to Dublin for 20 or 30 pounds, but the day I got online to book my ticket, the cheapest ones I could find were 120 pounds.  This was definitely beyond what I could afford, but God had a plan up His sleeve. I started looking for the cheapest plane tickets I could find, and that ended up being tickets to Germany. In that moment I was like, “Hey, I know people in Germany now. This will be cool.” I sent out an email asking some of my German friends asking if anyone could put me up for a couple of days, but almost the whole day went by and I heard no replies. I was starting to stress, because the longer I waited the more expensive the plane tickets got. Just near the end of the day, I got an email from one of my friend’s parents offering me a place to stay. However, they ended up not only offering me a place to stay, but also offered to pay for all my expenses (including traveling to Germany and traveling within Germany to visit some of my other friends in Germany). This was the peak of perfect provision. Just when my plans fell through and I couldn’t afford what I needed, God stepped in and surpassed my expectations through some amazingly generous people.

      Now, every little detail has been worked out to stay, and I can just enjoy my time here till I head home in just under a month now. Like I said, it is so clear that God wants to be here right now, so I am just trying to take everything in to make sure that I get everything out of this that I am meant to get out of this.

I hope this encourages you that God is indeed our provider.

God bless,

Will Clegg