Blessings upon blessings

It amazes me how God sends us blessings.  I am so overwhelmed right now, I just don't know where to begin!  


Before Zach ever left, I got a fantastic reminder from God.  I made Zach some notecards with scripture on them for each day of his trip.  Monday morning when I got up and was getting ready to leave to surprise him, I looked up my notes about what the verse was for their first day - Philippians 4:6-7...talk about a God moment...by trying to encourage Zach not to be anxious about the trip (mostly the traveling) it turned around and encouraged me as well.


So one of the first blessings was being able to track his flights...even though when their longest flight didn't land when they were supposed to I got a little nervous, but it all turned out okay, God used it to get me to trust Him more!  


Then, I am friends on Facebook with some of the orphanage leader's daughters, and she told me that they made it there safely and she was so excited to see Zach again (they got to be good friends when he went last year).  Even though I don't know Elizabeth, Zach has told me so much about her, as well as their friendship.  When I saw all of this on Facebook, I just felt this overwhelming peace and absolute happiness.  God has given me such a blessing by putting Zach in my life, and I am thrilled that he gets to spend time with the people in Myanmar and bless them for a while!  


I am following the blog of the trip.  I'm not sure how many people were asked to blog, but Zach was one of them.  He said he wasn't going to blog because it would take away time he would get to play with the kids after lunch each day.  So I have been reading it the last few days; read about their flights, their first day there - it just brings a smile to my face.  This morning when I woke up, I pulled the blog up, and there were 3 or 4 new posts.  So I'm reading through the last one...and it was Zach's!  Picture this, I was laying in bed, reading this on my phone, and when I saw his name, I all but leaped out of bed with excitement.  I would encourage you to follow their blog as well - even if you have accidentally stumbled upon my blog and have no idea who I am, it is great to read about the work they are doing and the love they felt from the instant they set foot at the orphanage: unchartedinternational.org/myanmar/  
It's great, and it will bring a smile to your face, I promise.


So after reading his blog this morning, I talked to Zach's mom to tell her about the blog.  We chatted for a few minutes about his trip last year and this year - she is certainly a blessing in my life!  I love his parents and am so lucky to have them.  So after I got off the phone with her, I was checking my email, and I noticed that my junk box was quite full.  Before just deleting all of them I check to make sure I don't have something in there that isn't actually junk...I'm so glad I did because I had an email from Zach! :)  He emailed me and his parents to let us know he made it safely, but he has had quite a trip already.  Poor guy has forgotten several things along the way, but thankfully recovered them all.  So keep him, and the rest of the team, in your prayers! 


I was all nervous about him leaving, and I think I finally figured out why.  I knew that God would take care of them, so that wasn't really why I was so nervous.  I was nervous about the flights because he was nervous about them.  I just wasn't sure of what to expect, and I wasn't sure how I would act/feel/think...sounds silly, I know, but hey last year when he went we were just getting to know each other, there are quite a few more feelings towards him this year!  I was wondering if I would be a complete mess, if I would be okay...and it turns out that this trip has turned into quite a blessing for me in a roundabout way.  It's almost like I'm on a mission trip myself.  Reading their stories, getting that surprise email, and just knowing that Zach is blessing others and he is getting blessed at the same time brings me so much joy and happiness.   It's like all of these ways of communication and little surprises are God's way of reassuring me that He is, in fact, in control and is taking care of Zach and the team, and through it all He is teaching me to trust Him more and to give up that control that I like to hang onto.  


I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life whom I admire and look up to so much!  Zach has so much faith and trust in God that it sometimes blows my mind, in a good way of course.  I am so thankful that he was able to go on this trip again and be a blessing to some other people.  As I have told many many people - God has given me one of the biggest blessings I could ever ask for, and I just have to give him back to Him for a while so he can go do His work.