Sparks Ministry

Thanks for praying for Steve’s sermon last weekend!  If you want to hear it, you can hear the podcast here.

This weekend we will be at Bethel Presbyterian Church in Dallas.  We will be presenting during their Sunday School hour and then having a few minutes in the worship service.  Come say hi if you’re there so we know some people read this blog!

Steve will be preaching at our church in Austin, CrossPointe, on Sunday (May 23).  His topic will be “Self – No Service”.  He’ll be talking about some of the things God has been teaching him so far through the process of getting to Ukraine as well as giving our congregation more details about exactly what we’ll be doing.  We’ll have a table set up with all of our information as well, so if you’re in the area come see us!  The service begins at 10:45 am.

If they record it, you can hear the sermon by clicking the “Listen Online” button.

When I was working on my business major at Covenant College, I learned about “just in time” inventory.  I think that most companies now use this approach because it means that (ideally) you don’t have to carry a bunch of inventory on hand.  You get your supplies as you need to use them in production, hence the “just in time” title.  Of course, the risk is that you get stuck without essential supplies when you need them.  That’s why companies that do this must have good relationships with their suppliers.

I think that God often works with us on a “just in time” basis.  He doesn’t give us all we need weeks before we will need it.  He often doesn’t give us that safety cushion that we wish He would provide.  On the other hand, He always gives us what we need by the time we need it.  There’s an old saying that God is rarely early but always on time.

Anyway, we recently experienced some “just in time” encouragement.  We had hoped that our house would sell before the tax credit expired at the end of April.  (Yes, that was an ambitious hope, but we’re like that sometimes!)  When it not only didn’t sell, but we didn’t even have one person look at it over the last weekend in April, we were discouraged.  At the same time we were looking at our support account and wondering if we would be able to have the funds to cover the training we wanted to take in June.  If we didn’t go in June, our next chance would be September.  We just weren’t sure what the best decision was and we were discouraged that the finances were so close.

Well, God met us “just in time” in a couple of surprising ways!  As you know if you receive our email updates, one of our donors called us and offered to match any donations given to our support account during the months of May and June.  This was completely unexpected and reminded us that God will provide for us.  We had made the decision a couple of days before to register for the June conference and trust that God would provide.  He didn’t even make us wait very long to show us His provision in an amazing way!

Our house is still on the market and we haven’t had any new lookers in a couple of weeks.  However, we went out of town that last weekend in April in order to leave the house open and to visit Southside Community Church in Corpus Christi.  A couple of days after our donor contacted us about the matching gift, we got an email from a couple who was visiting Southside the week we were there and who said they sensed God telling them to start supporting us with monthly contributions.  Just in time, God confirmed that our decision to travel that weekend was what He wanted us to do.

The entire support raising process is full of ups and downs.  It is definitely a time where God builds our faith and makes us trust in His provision.  The project is so much bigger than what we can do on our own and it forces us to depend on God.  That is a habit we need to develop on so many levels!  Praise the Lord that he always meets us just in time .

Last weekend we spent time visiting with the South Texas Presbytery at the Southside Community Church in Corpus Christi. If you are ever in Corpus we would highly encourage you to visit this church and if you live in Corpus or close and are looking for a church home, the ministry here is Gospel centered, they are mission focused and very friendly.

During the visit they had a fellowship meal and the BBQ/Smoked Pork was amazing. I can’t say that should be the reason to become a member, but maybe if you were on the edge..

We wanted to thank Ben Wheeler for having us on Sunday. You have been a great encouragement.

During the trip, we had the opportunity to visit the USS Lexington that is parked in Corpus Christi Bay. The Lexington is an inspirational part of US history. Here are a few photos from out visit.

Stevie is such a blessing! He continues to amaze us and has been bringing us many opportunities to visit with lots of people who we would have never met. You can see him looking back,  busy charming all the others who are visiting the ship.