An elderly woman had approached me and said she wanted to will part of her estate for use in mission work in our city. Six years earlier, I had led a series of meetings in a church in California. A few months later, the church received some surprising news. After they sought the Lord, they returned and said, “We still believe God is calling us to start all three new churches.” At this point, they had to walk by faith and trust God to provide for what He was clearly leading them to do. If this was merely something they wanted to do for God, God would not be obligated to provide for them. When they sought my counsel, I suggested that they first go back to the Lord and clarify what God had said to them. The church didn't have the funds to do what God had called it to do. One pastor was already in the process of relocating to Vancouver when we unexpectedly received word that the mission board would be unable to fund any new work in our area for the next three years. They were hoping to receive financial support from our denomination's Home Mission Board to pay the mission pastors' salaries. Human reason would have immediately ruled out such a large assignment for a small church. At that time, the church had only seventeen members. “Trusting in God's Direction When I served as a denominational leader in Vancouver, one of our churches believed God was leading it to begin three new mission churches for different language groups.
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