We now return to the ongoing saga known as The Goat Ministry Chronicles. As word began to spread about our new goat ministry in La Cumbre, excitement within the church began to mount. People became very enthusiastic about not only sharing information and praying about the ministry, but actually financially supporting it. Many of you gave money to help buy a goat. Thank you for your support. Our Variety Show--Calvary's Got Talent, was a huge success. With over 320 in attendance it far surpassed our hopes and dreams, earning it a place in our growing list of annual events, and raising a substantial amount of pesos. With this momentum, things were looking very good indeed. However, things are never as easy as they seem. Within a few weeks, two of the four people who were instrumental in the goat ministry informed us they would not be going on the mission trip. This slowed our momentum a little, but being the overcomers we are, we pressed on. Things were once again on track. Patrice had been working diligently to make connections with people in the Dominican Republic that could help us establih and maintain the ministry. To this day we can't figure out how, but Patrice got in touch with a man in Ohio named Carl Kee, who put her in contact with some people, Paul and Linda McMillan, in the Dominican Republic who had a goat ministry there. Paul and Linda had moved to the DR some 22 years earlier to begin this ministry. They were an invaluable resource and helped add real world experience to our vision and knowledge. God was lining everything up perfectly. However, as the literary reference goes, "The best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry..." It was at this point that we found out (through the grapevine) that another one of our "goat people" was dropping out. Thus, what started out as a quartet, was down to a solo. This was very disappointing to say the least. It seemed as though all of our research, planning, and excitement was all for nought--we knew we couldn't do it with just one seasoned goat person. I must say that was a dark day at Calvary (well, at least a dark day in Patrice's office). We began questioning if this was really God's will, had we been misguided in our efforts and enthusiasm? We were low, low, low. We were so low we could have played handball against the curb, so low we could have done the limbo under a pregnant ant, so low we would have to look up to see the bottom of the barrell--just plain LOW! After we had our pity party and sulk-fest, events that seemed to last for hours, but actually only lasted about 17 minutes, we said "Hey, wait a second, maybe God has a plan B!" Note: Generally speaking God isn't the author of Plan B, it's actually plan A, and our original plan was not God's. As I began to pray about the situation, God let me know that it wasn't the goal that was wrong, it was the timeframe. In our zeal we had ambitiously planned to accomplish in one week what would more realistically take the better part of a year. I realized that God had forced us to slow down the process in order to keep us from doing the old "crash and burn". Isn't it amazing how often God has to save us from ourselves?! Anyway, after God got us back on His timetable, we were back in business. As they say in the old railroad vernacular, it was "full steam ahead"!!!
Don't miss the next exciting installment of the Goat Ministry Chronicles as we witness God Putting All the Pieces Together.
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