One of the monthly features on the Eurasia Community Blog is about our Financial Partnership Development program, led by Jenn Fortner. In FPD, our associates receive small group training and coaching as they invite individuals and churches to partner with them financially in the work God has called them to in Eurasia.

Have you ever felt like life threw you a curveball?

I think we’ve all been in situations where things didn’t go according to our plans. But that doesn’t always mean that things aren’t going according to God’s plans for us.

Two of our workers headed to the Arab World this month can testify to that fact.

Draper and Jennaya were plugging along, raising funds for Eurasia. They felt like things were going really well, and they had raised about 60% of their budget when they got some surprising news: they were going to have a baby!

They were excited and thankful, of course, but adding a third person to their family changed the amount of money they needed to come to Eurasia. All the money they had raised so far was only 40% of their new budget. It felt like a major setback and they started to wonder what God had in store for them.

Was this God’s way of changing their timeline? Did they need to learn to be patient and wait on Him?

Sometimes, that is how God answers us. He waits past when we think we need an answer, and His timing always (eventually) proves to be better than what we had in mind.

But in Draper and Jennaya’s case, their timing hadn’t changed at all. Instead, they got front-row seats to God’s miraculous provision as the money for their new budget poured in. There are several crazy stories of how God has come through for them in the last couple of months including these:

• A family Draper knows collected money on Christmas Eve to give to a missionary (an annual family tradition – isn’t that cool?) and they randomly chose Draper and Jennaya to receive their gift.
• A few friends posted a video on a secret Facebook page whose members consist predominately of people who are already supporting Draper and Jennaya, but they still got a substantial amount of one-time gifts and some additional monthly support through the videos.
• Parents of some of Draper and Jennaya’s best friends had heard about what they were doing and felt led to give them $1000.

And now Draper and Jennaya have raised almost all of the funds they need to come to Eurasia. They will be getting on a plane in just a few weeks.

If you’re raising funds to come to Eurasia, and it’s not going how you expected, or if you’re facing any other surprising challenge in this new year, I hope you’re encouraged by Draper and Jennaya’s story today.

There is no circumstance that ever surprises God.

He is more than able to meet all of our needs as we trust in Him!

And many of you are a part of giving to the needs of people like Draper and Jennaya so that they can come to Eurasia. If their story challenged you, you can give securely to Eurasia Community here. Thank you for your generosity. We couldn’t do this without you!