Harry and I have wondered many times why God sent us to Hawaii. One of the reasons we think could be a possibility is that God sent us to Hawaii so that our home would be available as a place to stay for people who otherwise would not come to visit this paradise state. Therefore, we've made many a claim to offer "free food, transportation and shelter" to anyone willing and able to get to Hawaii. So far we have had two friends/families take us up on that offer. Kat's best friend, Kristen visted us last Fall (see
We Had a Visitor!); and our dear friends, the Shugarts, are planning a visit next week! We can't wait to see them and are praying for space A seats to remain available to them so they can fly over.
What is amazing is that God is also in the business of using us without our need to advertise this special arrangement. In January, Harry and I were attending a home school conference in Hilo (on the Big Island) and met Jill Nelson who writes curriculum for
Children Desiring God Ministries. She shared with us that she has always wanted to see Pearl Harbor, but her connecting flight in Honolulu was only an hour after her flight from Hilo arrived at the airport. Harry and I asked her if she could get an early flight out of Hilo, giving her enough time for us to pick her up, take her to the memorial and then take her back to the airport. Sure enough, God did it!! She was able to take an earlier flight and we had the most amazing day! Harry had to work, but the children and I had a blast taking her to the memorial and to a couple of other spots of interest, all the while talking her ear off! I would have never dreamed that God would allow such a servant of himself to spend the day with us. We soaked up as much wisdom from her as we could! (We also soaked up quite a bit of raindrops that day because it was raining!)
Our next set of Angels came last week as we responded to an offer to house a missionary family, the Rolfs, of
Action Impact Missions. They were speaking at our State's National Home Schooling Conference. What a precious family! And talk about servants, when they weren't speaking at the conference, they volunteered to help with a simultaneous children's conference so that Hawaii's home schooled children would be well cared for while their parents attended the main conference. We enjoyed staying up late with them both Friday and Saturday nights picking their brains...as well as their hearts, learning about their mission work and sharing a little of our own (even though ours is pretty much confined to our own family at this season in our lives.)
The Rolfs left for the airport early Sunday morning. And we set out for a morning at church and an afternoon of rest after a long weekend. Little did we know that God had ordained another set of Angles to visit us THAT VERY DAY!!
During church, a family came to sit down in front of us. They looked familiar, so I assumed they had been there before. When we both introduced ourselves though, they let us know they were visiting our church for the first time. After the service, we learned that the mom and dad were visiting their military son who is stationed on Oahu. So we chatted a bit and then Barry, the dad, said 3 magic words:
Sovereign Grace Ministries! Harry and I had to pinch ourselves. We've been in Hawaii for 8 months and have not met but two people who have even heard of Sovereign Grace, and now this SGM family was sitting right in front of us! This was truly a family sent from God! The couple, Sue and Barry, are members of a SGC in Clearwater, Fl. and they even know our pastor and his wife, Paul and Darby from Crossway Fellowship in Athens, GA. That's why they looked so familiar, they had visited Crossway while we were there. After the initial shock and excitement of our meeting subsided just a bit, it was pretty much assumed that our family and theirs would be spending as much time together as possible until their plane left on Wednesday. And we did! The Smiths now have "new" wonderful friends who live in Florida. The greatest blessing is that we will have an opportunity (hopefully many opportunities) to get to know their son while he is still here on Oahu. God is so good for bringing us together.
It appears that maybe this atually could be one of the reasons that God brought us here: to entertain his Angels! We could not be more blessed than to accomodate those requests! We really enjoy the company, especially as we miss our family and friends back on the mainland. If you're reading this and wondering to yourself whether God may have a trip to Hawaii planned for you, don't give up hope and know that if he does in fact send you, we're here to help in any way we can! Aloha!
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