Need Some Prayer

Ok, something HUGE has happened that I need some prayer about. I'm completely reeling from shock over what's happened. I know some of you will give me trouble for updating the blog when I haven't even started the homework I have due in my 10:30am class (it's currently about 1am), but if it makes you feel any better I copied the explanation of all of this out of an email I wrote earlier this evening to some friends. Anyways, PLEASE be praying for me and I'll be sure to let you know once things are decided. So here's what's going on:

As you may or may not know, my plan for this spring break was (up until a few hours ago) to go home, work, and relax a little bit. I had about a 95% certainty that would be the case, with maybe a 4% chance of God providing out of nowhere for Big Break like he did last year, and a less than 1% chance of what's just happened tonight.

When Chip told me at Christmas Conference that the Claytons had asked him and Shane to be in charge of the Freiburg trip, I had a gut reaction (totally not a God thing, just a feeling in the back of my mind) of "oh crap, somehow I'm going to end up in Germany." Again, that was just a gut reaction. What it did was prompt me to pray about it a little because I hadn't already and as a result I came up with some pretty firm thoughts that I said to God, my family, and any friends I talked with about it. Basically, I've committed to dedicating all my resources to Summer Project (especially fundraising), so if God were to suddenly drop an envelope full of money in my mailbox, I'd use it for project. If God were to drop an envelope with $1400 in German currency, I'd take the hint and consider going to Germany over spring break. The idea was that He'd have to provide in a way that I clearly couldn't also use for project before I'd even consider doing anything for spring break.

Well, I don't have any German currency in my hands; but metaphorically that's exactly what's happened. This evening I got a call from Chip explaining that through a diverse set of circumstances, God has provided all the funding needed for me to join the Freiburg trip. Are you shocked yet? I know that at that point I was absolutely reeling (I still am).

So he explained it all to me and I gave my parents a call. Once they were assured that it was all on the up-and-up and the money was actually there, they said they had no reason for me not to go (something of a surprise in and of itself, I was expecting them to have more reservations). So I talked with Chip some more about the exact details and now I need to give him a "pretty sure" answer by mid-afternoon Friday and a definite answer by Monday morning.

Keep in mind that I'm not necessarily even all that interested in going to Germany over break (skipping classes and major jet lag being among the reasons not to go), so this is completely out of nowhere. My go/no-go personal opinions are all about 50/50 right now, but I certainly can't ignore this not-so-subtle hint of God providing the money. I don't want to make this kind of decision without a lot of prayer. So basically I need you to pray that God would make it clear to me through prayer if I should go to Germany or not and that He would do it by the deadline tomorrow. As a side note, this "hint" is strong enough that I'm running on the game plan that unless He says otherwise, I'll be going to Germany; but I still want to be really sure through prayer about all of it.

Thanks again for your prayers in all of this. Now, onto my AT 322 pressurization homework…