Good thing we didn’t hit the snooze button this morning

This past Saturday night, before church, our family went to dinner to one our favorite places, Zizzo’s!! As we were eating, we began to talk about some ideas for us to do, as a family, on Sunday. Our final decision was to wake up, Sunday morning, and go on a family hike. Then, come home and invite a family over for lunch to watch a DVD about a man without Limbs. (This man is an evangelist and his story is life changing.) Then, we would all go to the Sunday night prayer meeting, inspired and fired up to praise, worship, and seek our Creator.

Excited about the idea, we proceeded to order extra Zizzo’s to take home for the next days lunch, since we would be feeding our family and the invited guests. Feeling confident that the family would say yes, in faith, we ordered enough food for 8- 9 people. After church, we extended the offer to the family and they, unfortunately already had other plans. EEKS!!!! Now what? Food for 9, but not enough mouths to eat it all.

 We all threw around ideas about who we could offer the food to, just to bless them, but nothing really stuck out as a great idea. We just thought that buying all the food may have been too presumptuous and we would most likely have left overs for a couple of days. However, we were still excited about our morning hike and spending the day together, as a family.

As I, Lanell, was falling asleep that night, the Lord, oddly and out of the blue, reminded me of an announcement I heard at church that night. It was about renting out slaves for the day, so that High School small group leaders could have an opportunity to go to camp. I rolled over and said to Brian, “What do you think about going to the auction tomorrow morning, before our hike, and bidding on a youth, so that we could send someone to camp?” His half a sleep response was, “okay honey, let’s talk about it in the morning.”

The morning came and the auction was still impressed upon my heart. Neither one of us knew what this “bidding on a servant thing” was all about, but we assumed that if we won a bid, then we would contact the youth, at a later date, and have them come over, at a time that we needed them. Brian decided to stay home and prepare things for our hike, and I gathered our two girls, Baylee and Megan, and off we went, to bid. Prior to going, Brian and I discussed how much I would bid up to, for the servant.

Once we got to church, I was informed that the servant actually comes over that day and we will have them for 5 hours. Okay……now what??? Knowing we had made plans for the day, as a family, and daddy was home packing for our hike, I stood there, with a decision to make. Do I pretend I never came, and get back in the car and go home, so we can do what we had planned, as a family. Or, do I believe and trust that God could possibly have directed me here to change our plans for the day?

In my Spirit, I knew God was at work, because He orchestrated me being there in such a random way. However, in my flesh, I stared at these unknown faces of youth, and thought I don’t even know what I would have them do if I brought them home today, and I really want to hang with my family. Immediately, the Lord gave me His eyes to see that these unknown faces, before me, were standing there waiting for someone to dare to believe in the calling that God had put on their lives. So, I quickly called Brian and shared with him, the scenerio. He began to ask, “will it be a boy or girl? What would we have them do? How long will they be with us?” My response, to all of his questions, was “I have no idea!” Then, Brian said, “whatever you decide, I’m good with, just call me and let me know.”

As I hung up the phone, I decided to be obedient to what I really felt the Lord was calling me to do and so I said, “okay Lord, which child do I bid on? I also happened to take notice that not one child had been bid on yet. That meant, my options were open. However, my eye caught a boy named Joseph. They all had a sign hanging from their necks with their names on it. At this time, my daughter came up to me and said, please bid on Megan, she helped at youth camp and she is sooooo sweet. I stood there for a minute, with my eyes shuffling back and forth between Joseph and Megan. I said, “Lord, which one do I pick? He said, “bid on both of them.” Okay!!!! Assuming the Lord wanted me to get the ball rolling on the bids, I was obedient. As I sat there, I realized that no one was out bidding me. I began to smile inside, thinking about calling Brian on the way home to say that it’s not a him or her, it’s a them!!!!

Then the Lord caught my attention again and turned my eyes to a girl named Shianna and a boy named Ryan. My eyes instantly looked down at their auction sheets and sure enough, no one had bid on them yet. In my head, I asked the Lord, was that me or was that you that turned my eyes to Shianna and Ryan?? He then reminded me of the amount of money Brian and I felt like the Lord had put on our hearts to bid for a servant. Since nobody was outbidding me, I began to calculate in my head, that if I didn\’t get outbid, I could buy several servants. With that reality in mind, my heart began to beat faster and I began to get sweaty.

Then Mike, the announcer, said, “okay bidders, you have one more minute to bid.” Before I knew it, the pen was to the paper and I had now bid for 4 servants, all together. NOBODY was outbidding me. Finally, someone walked over to Ryan and said, you’re mine buddy and they outbid me.

Then, I heard the words, “times up!” I instantly began to rehearse my next conversation with Brian. When he picked up the phone and I told him that we were bringing three servants home, I was soooo relieved to hear him laugh and say, ” okay, we’ll figure something out for them to do.” Brian’s mind must have thought quickly, because as soon as we walked in the door, he and Joseph went to Home Depot for a few things, while I insisted that the girls recline on the couch and relax while I heated up lunch.

By the way, remember, the Lord prompted us to buy food for 8, the night before? With that thought in mind, I began to loosen up and recognize that this day was turning out to be a truly Unexpected Adventure.

When the boys returned home, we thoroughly enjoyed a feast from Zizzo’s while watching the DVD about the boy without limbs. At one point, I looked at all three kids relaxing on the couch, and thought, “how cool it was that we were able to pay for these three impressionable souls to come to our house, and be served, when they were suppose to be servants for the day.” We could tell, they were enjoying every moment of this adventure of supposed servanthood.

After the video and getting to know each of them a bit, we managed to put them to work painting some unfinished projects, and washing our cars. I will confess we had periodic slurpee and fresh homemade cookie breaks. Oh yea, even a WII, Mario Cart, break was squeezed between the duties of servanthood. Before we knew it, time was up, and we all sat there wishing we had more time together, because we enjoyed each others company so much.
After they left, we just sat there and smiled at our God, who loves to creatively work, in ways that are sometimes not at all what we expect. We didn’t go on a hike, and we didn’t have a family over for dinner, and our plans for the day were not what we had planned. We did however, have a uniquely powerful experience at the prayer meeting that night. The Lord reminded all four of us, that He has a plan and we’re part of it. We came home with a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, and a new faith in Him.

As a family, we will always remember, that Sunday, as a day that we allowed the Lord to send us on an adventure that was designed only by him, to accomplish His plan. We don’t know how the day impacted Joseph, Megan, and Shianna, but our family was incredibly blessed by their presence in our home, and their hearts to serve, and being a small part of giving them an opportunity to ultimately, share God’s love with other teens, in their small groups. We can only pray that God planted a seed in each of their lives, during the five hours they were with us. And, that those seeds will be watered and nurtured by our Heavenly Father, so that one day, His plan for that seed will come to life.