10 years ago I was just finishing up a month-long study trip in Israel.

I look back at that trip as one of the greatest experiences of my life – and one that was without a doubt provided by God the Father. I needed one more Bible credit to graduate and it was going to cost $3,500 to take a one-month course on campus, but only $4,000 to complete that credit studying for a month in Israel. The choice was easy, but the funds were non-existent. I sat on the computer in the library trying to fill out an application for a $4,000 loan for the trip, but every time I tried to submit the computer showed an error. I was frustrated and late for class so I resolved to finish it later that afternoon. On my way back to the library I felt a gentle, but firm nudge from the Lord: no. I was running out of time to get the funds for this trip – but there was an odd assurance in my heart that it wouldn’t be paid for by a loan. (My $7/hour telemarketing job didn’t seem like the benefactor either).

I brought it up at our weekly roommate prayer time and they bowed their heads and prayed God would provide all of the funds in the next 16 days. My roommates and my mom were the only ones who knew of my need – an apparently that was all it took.

Random checks started coming my way – a roommate who was in seminary gave me a check for $300, what I can imagine was a precious sum to a poor student. Another friend gave me $100 because God told her to. A man at my home church got word that I needed money for this trip and sat down at his computer and wrote a letter to stuff in every box at church. I had interned that last summer for the church and he felt it was the church’s duty to send me on this trip. Every day I’d get a call from my mom, her mailbox was filling up with checks. And a few days before all my fees were due my mom called to tell me the trip was paid for, a couple at church told her they would cover whatever costs hadn’t been covered. I was awe struck, and beyond thankful for divinely-glitching computers! Before I left someone gave me a few hundred dollars in cash and told me to enjoy the Holy Land as much as I possibly could – it was a dream for her to go, but her age made the trip unlikely. (You better believe I carried that charge with me!)

Spending that four weeks walking the same places Jesus walked – eating fish out of the same sea that Peter dropped his nets, and seeing people from dozens of countries making the same pilgrimage is an experience I will never forget.

Little did I know, the fulfillment of that $4,000 miracle was setting the stage for a promise to be made 3 months later to a debt-laden, almost graduate on a bench – a $42,000 promise that would require me to move to the Wild West with no job, no friends, and a spare bedroom to sleep in from a cousin I’d met a handful of times.

Our God loves providing for us, doesn’t He? But He loves to involve us in the story, should we dare ask, believe, and give up the driver’s seat.