Numbers . . .

There's a scene in one of my favorite movies...goes something like this...

a hot shot asks Julia Robert's character for her number...exasperated with the guy, she whips around and says, "You want my number? How 'bout this for a number? 10 - that's how many months old my baby girl is. 6 - that's how old my other daughter is. 8 is the age of my son; 2 is how many times I've been married - and divorced. 16 is the number of dollars I have in my bank account. 850-3943. That's my phone number and with all the numbers I gave you, I'm guessing zero is the number of times you're gonna call it."

Haha! No, I'm not a single mother of 3 but I can relate to how Julia added up her current situation into just a few numbers.

Here's a few of the numbers running through my head:

6 million children dying every year. 80% of those deaths are from completely preventable sicknesses.

1 million people per dentist in Liberia.

21,000 dental procedures performed during the 9+ months they were in Benin.

10,000 patients treated by Mercy Ships dental team last year in Benin.

$1,400 per month for support to go serve with Mercy Ships dental team.

$3,500 to purchase a plane ticket.

69 days until I'm onboard the Africa Mercy.

33 days to be 75% funded.

54 days until my 20th birthday.

53 days and I board a plane, leaving Kansas for 7 months.

1 God. Most importantly, there's 1 God who is completely aware of every single one of those numbers. No number is too great for Him, nothin is impossible for God. He is completely capable of meeting every need.

So...whatever numbers you're facing...whatever trouble is adding up in your life, trying to overcome you, Psalm 139 is for us today:
"Psalm 139

O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in — behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting."

"All you need is faith, trust and a little bit of pixie dust!"

This is what Peter Pan told Wendy, John and Michael right before their first solo flights around the nursery. Just those three little ingredients provided freedom from gravity. I was thinking about this today, as I go and speak to groups, email and call prospective sponsors, trying to gather financial and prayer support for my trip. I thought, "wouldn't it be great to just sprinkle some pixie dust and be able to get on that flight to Africa?"

Well, if we're going by Peter Pan, I'd still have to have faith and trust! Hmm...that's what got me back to the Bible, Jesus told his disciples, "if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

Jesus doesn't need pixie dust! With Jesus, all we need to do is have a little faith and trust!

He has promised, "If we ask anything according to God's will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from him." 1 John 5:14-15

Sooo. . .somehow in the next 60 days, I am trusting Jesus to make my flight possible! minus the pixie dust and pirates once I get there ;)