My husband and I with our 14-month-old son drove about 800 miles so that I could attend a conference in my medical specialty. I had prayerfully reserved an economical hotel room well in advance at our favorite hotel chain. I had also asked for a room on street level because of a wrist fracture I had experienced.
As we drove to the conference, I talked on the phone with my long-time friend Ruth, who planned to join us at our destination for a day or two. I was hoping her family would have a room near ours.
However, when we arrived at the hotel, I was surprised to learn we had been assigned to a second-floor, multi-family unit. Concerned about the feasibility with my splinted wrist and about the likely increased cost associated with a bigger unit, I begged to look into a street-level room.
The clerk assured me that the second-floor unit was, indeed, a free upgrade. I thanked her and decided to go ahead and accept the upstairs unit. I soon realized that my splinted wrist was a non-issue.
The next day, my friend Ruth arrived with her husband and three boys. Hearing about our free upgrade, which we had never experienced before, we both recognized that God had arranged the hotel room so they could join us. Praise God!! Thus, we shared the unit, extra convenient for cooking and eating together and having joint family worships. What an amazing arrangement!
The Lord had overruled my stated preferences to treat us to an oasis of fellowship during a spiritually low period. Proverbs 3:5-6 comes to mind; how we need to trust in God, who cares about meeting our needs in each tiny detail, and knows better than we, what we need!
Karmaine Millington, MD, is a pathologist in Pennsylvania and attends Hershey Seventh-day Adventist Church with her husband and children.
World Church Praise Reports and Prayer Requests April 2 - 9
• PRAISE REPORT: God really blessed the April 1st Day of Prayer and Fasting. Many hearts were drawn closer together as we spent time on our knees praying for each other.
• PRAISE REPORT: The new Revival and Reformation website has launched. Please pray with us that many people will be encouraged and drawn closer in their walk with God through this website and the resources we share. (To check out the new resources, click here: www.revivalandreformation.org. Dozens more resources to be added in the coming days!)
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the Spring Meetings taking place this coming week in Silver Spring Maryland where leaders travel in from around the world to discuss and pray about pertinent issues in the church. Pray that God will lead each decision that is made.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the children of our church leaders (both the children of the local pastors as well as those in other positions of spiritual leadership throughout the world church.) Pray that they will come to have a deep and abiding walk with Jesus.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for the Total Member Involvement Campaigns that are still taking place across Europe and specifically in Russia. Mikhail F. Kaminskiy, president of the Euro-Asia Division has noted that despite having a lot of tools for reaching cities, the work in the region of the former Soviet Union remains extremely challenging. Please pray for God’s Spirit to be poured out on members there as they seek to share their faith.
• PRAYER REQUEST: Pray that God will help us each personally to stay connected with Jesus and not rush through our daily devotions, but take the time to get what we need from God each day. Satan has a thousand ways to distract us and the spiritual battle is only getting fiercer. We need a deep and living experience in the things of God so that we will have something to share with those around us.