He has made everything beautiful in its time. – Ecclesiastes 3:11a

Uh…what do you mean you are here?…we did not expect you…until tomorrow.

My first thought was disbelief; my second, embarrassment…acute embarrassment.

We had arrived at our family missions trip in Appalachia…the five of us…a full day early.

But…God had a plan, and it was soon revealed to us.

We had never done anything like this as a family.  We were excited…and just a bit nervous…about our week.

Now we were here…and here a day early.

A thousand things flitted through my mind:

• Did I make a mistake on the date or did they?
• Where were we staying that night?
• Had I gotten other things wrong in my planning for the trip?
• What did this mean for the rest of our week?

The lovely couple who were care-taking were not stressed by our early arrival.  They assured us that it would work out, that God had a plan for our early arrival.  That took some of the stress from my mind.  They called the owners of the ranch and secured a place for us to stay for the evening.  Problem #1 solved.

Now, what were we going to do since we were here early?

God quickly answered that question for us.

You see, our team leads, Dave and Sheila, needed us.  When we called them to inform them of our arrival, they were at the store, purchasing food for the 60 of us for the week.  They came back to the ranch, loaded to the roof with stuff…just as we arrived back from dinner.  We were able to jump right in and assist them.  Praise God!  And we continued to assist them…filling in for other advance team members who were forced to cancel for this trip.

God, in His providence, had provided extra hands for Dave and Sheila’s work, hands they would normally have had, but did not in this case.  He knew of the cancellations…and put right on my calendar to arrive a day early.  And we Wrights gloried in the opportunity to assist.

By the time the rest of the missions team arrived, we had “moved in,” become comfortable, shared some of our story with Dave and Sheila, and fallen in love with them.  We all recognized God’s hand in our early arrival

We Wrights were able to greet all who arrived, help carry luggage, and help set the tone for a week of ministry.  God was using gifts He had already worked on with us for His glory.

My embarrassment and confusion over how we arrived early was replaced by joy in the fact that we had.  God was in control of the week; that was highly evident.  He had set us there, early, to help get the ball rolling in the right direction.  Praise Him!  Praise Him!  Praise Him!

And this was just the beginning!  Please stay tuned for blogs the rest of this week, illustrating what He did in us…through us…it was truly a glorious week in the Lord.