Their beautiful, extravagant home, the two private airplanes they owned, and the thoroughbred horse his gracious host had recently purchased for his wife’s birthday made my husband feel extremely uncomfortable. The next morning at breakfast, he planned to kindly inform them that he had decided to visit and stay with his brother, who lived less than an hour’s drive away. 

The school where we ministered sent my husband back to the U.S. to attend several teacher recruitment conferences. A church in our home state that we had visited several times invited him to speak while he was stateside and arranged for him to stay in the home of an older couple who had just recently trusted Christ. At the time, our support was low, and our ministry fund was dwindling. Could we remain on the field, or was God about to slam the door He had thrown widely open seven years earlier? 

Merriam-Webster defines “trust” as an “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. Confident hope. To expect something confidently. To rely on.” 

As I was coaxing our tiny car up a steep, narrow European hill near our home the next day, my cell phone rang. Pulling over to the side of the road, I wondered if I would be able to make my way up the rest of the hill after the call. 

“Sweetie, you will never guess what happened at breakfast! When I shared with them that I would be leaving a day early, they took out their checkbook and wrote a check for $10,000. To be deposited into our ministry fund!” 

We seldom know how each chapter of our story will end. God sometimes chooses to lead and change our paths through what appears to be a lack of provision. Even when that is how a particular season of my story plays out, I can choose to keep walking in trust. May I faithfully declare with the Psalmist that as His child, “I lack nothing,” acknowledging that what He chooses to give or withhold is always best. (Psalm 34:10, Psalm 23:1)