God Story! We got a wood stove! As most of you know, we have been praying for a wood stove to heat our house with for a few months now. We are pleased to report that God has answered our prayers and provided a better wood stove than we ever would have thought!
Why a wood stove? Well, as you know, the Montana winter gets bitterly cold, I mean we are talking 20 below at times. All the houses here on the YWAM base run on propane heat, so as you can imagine, heating a house all winter long with propane gets very expensive. Many of the families here have opted to offset these costs, by heating their homes with wood stoves. We are one such family. For us, the cost upfront to purchase one, along with the cost of wood (and the ability to go out and chop wood for free) would be worth our while, with the amount of money we would save from heating only with propane. Plus, they keep your house nice and toasty, and who doesn't want to come home to a toasty fire in the fireplace on those long cold winter days?
Prayer & waiting... Of course, we did not have the extra money for such a purchase, so we began praying, asking God to provide the finances we would need. We also made our need known to others, and thanks to donations from many of YOU we were able to raise enough money for this purchase!
Then came finding the right stove for our family. Our original goal was to find one used on Craigslist, but after weeks of looking, there seemed to be no viable prospects. So, we began to pray. This time, not for the finances, but for the right wood stove for our family.
God does it again! One afternoon while out doing errands, Justin said that he had a feeling that we should go to one of the local wood stove retailers and see if they had anything on sale...Just to look. Up to this point we had not even been looking at retail because we just figured that a brand new wood stove would be too expensive. But his "feeling" was right, there was a brand new wood stove, made by the company we were preferring, on sale and right within our budget! Go God! Here we were expecting just to find an older used wood stove, and God had a beautiful brand new, amazing quality wood stove for us!
I share this as an encouragement to all of us, that not only does God always provide, but he goes above and beyond our expectations! God wants us to live humbly, but is pleased to provide us with more than we ever deserve. It can be very difficult living on faith for finances, but watching God provide our specific needs is truly a blessing and a lesson in faith that draws us closer to our loving Father in heaven.
As we enjoy the beautiful fall season, and draw near to a time when we celebrate thanksgiving, I hope this can serve as a reminder to count our blessings and to trust that God always will take care of us.
"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"
-Mathew 6:26-
Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU to all of you who prayed for and donated towards our wood stove! God used you to take care of our family, that so we can remain faithful to our call here at YWAM MT and see lives transformed by and for Christ unto the nations!
with love and gratitude,
Justin, Annie, Ella & "Baby Girl" Frase
