Many times when starting out on a new trip, we would see a rainbow in the sky ahead of us, leading the way! What a comforting sign from the Lord that He was leading us. “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:5) Even when crossing over the high Rugova mountains separating Montenegro from Kosovo, a rainbow appeared to be guiding us like the Christmas star led the three wise men to where the baby Jesus lay. It seemed to happen quite often, no matter which direction we were headed.

Once we were in Denmark to speak at a Christian training center on how to live “by faith”, and especially how we managed to do so while raising three young children. When friends of ours heard that we were in the area, they asked us to come and collect some food, shoes, and other items that had been donated to them for humanitarian distribution, since they knew we were working with refugees who had fled from the troubled countries of the Mideast, looking for a better life in Europe.

We were of course happy to oblige, picked up the provisions, and then drove our camper van to the training center. We were excited to share with these young people how the Lord takes care of and supplies all the needs of those who put their trust in Him (Philippians 4:19). I was getting down out of the van when a gust of wind suddenly blew through the parking lot, and slammed the van door right across the fingers of my right hand. All 4 fingers were stuck in the door and the door had shut tight. I began to scream out loud in tongues as the pain was extreme. At a time like that, you can either curse, or praise, depending on the state of your heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh”. (Matthew 12:34) Geoff heard me crying out in tongues, but didn’t know why until he saw my hand stuck in the door. He quickly opened the door and we prayed over my fingers. When I mustered up the faith to look, I could only see a faint purple impression across my fingers. There was no blood, and no broken bones. It was truly a miracle. The enemy was fighting me from going in and speaking to the 40 or so attendees at this training meeting, and was trying to ruin my testimony of how wonderfully the Lord supplies. How could I have spoken on the goodness of God, when I had just been so terribly injured? But God was in control, and even though I did not know exactly what to pray for at the time, the Holy Spirit knew, and prayed through me in tongues (Romans 8:26)

After a few minutes we were able to go inside and speak with confidence and boldness how the Lord supplies ALL our needs. Because we had the provisions that we had just picked up in our van, we invited everyone to come outside to take whatever they needed. We had several boxes of shoes and boots, and we opened the boxes and offered them for free, but people kept asking how much they cost. They simply couldn’t comprehend that anyone would be giving away such nice things for free, not expecting anything in return. We had to assure them that God had given them to us, and we were just His conduits, passing them on to others. We realized that even though this training center had been given as a generous donation to this Christian group, they did not have the faith that God could provide simple things, small things, every day things. Our testimonies helped them to understand.

So many times when things have maybe not gone exactly the way I had hoped, I have looked back at the miracle of how the Lord protected my fingers that day, and it has given me a firm foundation of faith on which to stand, no matter how big the battle, or strong the wind of adversity.