A Special Visitor

Tomorrow Clay and I are driving to Charlotte to pick up Sarah Delk from the airport.
Sarah was in the eighth grade when we first started student ministry at UPC in Orlando. The Delk family reached out to Clay and me more than any other family ever had. We ate countless meals at their house, played games with them for hours, and got to know one another extremely well. Clay and I loved Ruthie, David, Ryan, Sarah, and Kyle as much as we loved our own families. Leaving the Delk's was the hardest part of leaving Orlando. I remember thinking that we would probably never find a family that we could be that close with at our new church. Why had God done this?
The most amazing thing is that leaving Orlando and the Delk's wasn't the end of God's provision for us (go figure!) The Delk's love and kindness was only the beginning of many of our church families reaching out and inviting us to be part of their families. I never thought of how important that would be until my mom,sister, and niece drove away after helping us move in our new apartment in North Carolina. Sure, we would always have our families a phone call or drive away... but it isn't the same when you can't do life with them.
I was so surprised that I wasn't crying my eyes out that morning as my mom drove back to Florida. God was there. He was there when we spent our last night in Florida on the Delk's living room floor, and he was there when we pulled up to our new home with 20 people helping us unload the moving truck and bringing us food. We didn't even have to go 24 hours without feeling loved by a church family. What a blessing! I am so thankful to God for creating His Church and acting through it to show His love and provision to His people. This week will be special to have Sarah in Winston with all our new families. What a sweet reminder of God's provision and care for the past, present, and future!