Time for a Miracle

4/21/10

Yesterday after I signed a lease for HWI's new headquarters I thought, "Okay God this is Your ministry. It's time for a few miracles!"

At 9AM I got a "call annoying" beep while talking on the phone. The miracle awaiting was from God. The man introduced himself and the foundation he represented. He went on to say, we have just granted you a $5,000 unrestricted grant. This was a God sized miracle since I hadn't applied for the grant. Someone else approached them on our behalf.

If I had delayed in signing the lease yesterday, what would I have missed today? This incidence showed me how our obedience impacts so many more people than we can imagine.

As I shared this story with the gal who approached the foundation, it encouraged her faith. She could see her "small" part in praying for HWI and talking with her contact as part of a much bigger picture. She was able to see God at work through her obedience as she did what God was prompting her to do. She shared how her part of the miracle required learning forgiveness, stepping out in faith and not allowing fear to hold her back.

If we think faith and obedience are all about us, we are wrong. Read a few of the responses I've received and see how our obedience to Christ is vital for the entire body of Christ.

“Yippeeeeee!!! I love being on this adventure ride with you!!!” Shel

“Awesome!!! God is good... always!!” Jeff

“When I shared your good news with my wife, her response was ‘this is God letting Alice know that she is on the right track.’

I should not be amazed but I am. Time and again you have stepped out in faith only to have your steps affirmed. When I was wrestling with my belief in God almost forty years ago, I wanted proof that their really was a God.

The response I got from God was "trust Me." That is the only way we can go. Trust in Him with all our minds, bodies and souls and He will accomplish His works.

Thank you for sharing the good news, it was a fabulous reminder of my own need to Trust in the Lord in every thing.” Phil

“Praise God and to God be the glory. This is amazing news, Alice; HWI shows much promise; I can’t wait to see the space.” Tim

“Wow - all that feedback I gave you the other day and I should have just said one thing . . . ‘be sure to answer your phone when it rings.’ Another chapter for your book. Praise God,” Kurt

"The Good News is that u were obedient and faithful to Him...cannot wait to see how God Blesses this!" Kim

“Pretty amazing things happening for you!...God is good.” S

“To God through Jesus Christ be the Glory!” Daniel

“Waoh! Now are we not beginning to have wheels! Praise God, praise God, is all I can say. More faith, sista!” Zach

“Alice if you had anymore in your pocket and signed it I would have thought you to boasting on your own merit. Only Alice.” Susie

"Can you come my way and give some of the finer points on obedience. It is very difficult, but good for you Alice." Cheryl

Pictures of our first drop off

4/20/10 More pictures from inside. Outside pictures will come soon

I can't believe it's real!

The smile tells the story

Floor Space

It has really happened

First Truckload of Trike Stuff

4/20/10

At 10:00 PM, Kevin, our trike engineer had his truck loaded with all the stuff he had stored in his basement. We headed over to the headquarters to drop the first load off.

Pictures of the lower level

Entering HWI Headquarters at 10:30PM

My office

Front door-reception area
Floor layout

Floor layout

Signing the Lease

21W161 Hill Ave. Glen Ellyn, IL

April 20, 2010 I went for a two hour prayer walk. While praying the old saying, "Don't put off until tomorrow, what you can do today," kept coming to mind. I still had questions, insurance policies for the new place weren't in place yet. Finalizing the insurance was scheduled for the next day. I'm sure as the days went by I could think of just one more reason to procrastinate just one more day. Instead I went and signed the lease, effective today.

"When I get rich I will buy you a bicycle shop," my twin brother began telling me over 30 years ago when we were teenagers. After signing the lease the first person I called was my brother. "I got a bicycle store for my birthday. Is it all you thought it would be when you first began telling me you'd buy me a shop?" We just laughed.

Zoning Board

On April 19, 2010 we went before the DuPage County zoning board with the list of what we want to use the property for. This includes all of HWI's ministries: trike prototyping, teaching, preparing kits to ship, bicycle repair, three one-day bicycle sales a year open to the public (dates not determined yet) amidst a two page list of detailed activities.

My thought was, "God You can still slam this door shut." Well instead it flew open. Everything we requested to use the property for was approved. Now God has done His part, it is time to do my part.

The Hurdles to HWI Headquarters

The Hurdles to HWI Headquarters

On 4/18/10 as I was praying I pondered these quotes from Alexander Maclaren

“Life is not worth living, unless it is the vestibule to a life beyond.”

“Men do not really possess themselves unless they yield themselves to Jesus Christ. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth himself, in glad surrender of himself to his Saviour, he and only he is truly lord and owner of his own soul. And to such an one shall be given rewards beyond hope and beyond measure-and, as the crown of all, the blessed possession of Christ, and in it the full, true, eternal possession of himself, glorified and changed into the image of the Lord who loved him and gave Himself for him.”

I read these words the day before going to the DuPage zoning board for approval of doing what we planned to do at our new headquarters. If everything went well at the zoning board then I was left to follow the Lord in utter abandonment, and take a leap of faith. Yes the board had already agreed, but in many ways going forward was counter cultural. God was asking us to trust Him and He would provide the resources. For me, and many of us in America it is much easier to trust Him for the resources when we've already secured the resources.

This adventure of taking the next step by faith is a huge spiritual learning curve. I am finding out right now how painful, stretching, brutal and demanding obedience is. There are the sins of commission (You shall not do something) or the sin of omission (Knowing what I am to do and not doing it). I was in a place of choosing obedience to God or choosing the sin of omission. Outwardly I wouldn't have been judged for the sin of omission, but I knew I would forfeit future blessings from God. I also knew HWI would never become all God wants it to be without obedience from the director and its leaders.

I prayed that night, "At a time when I’d like to hide under a rock and not move forward, You oh Lord are asking me to trust You. I can relate to Joshua being asked to go around Jericho and blow the trumpet and shout, but I feel my shout is hampered by laryngitis and the trumpet I’m blowing is broken. Yes, Lord, I am one of little faith. Forgive me, and expand my faith in You, and may I walk forth allowing the credentials of my life to shine through Your Shikinah Glory on my countenance."

From Home to HWI's New Headquarters

April 15, 2010

Thank you for supporting HWI and being such a crucial part of our team. Without your support we couldn’t continue moving forward in this exciting ministry.

“Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling” (Ps. 2:11).

Back on January 1, 2010 I wrote in my prayer diary, “As we move forward with HWI, may we do so according to Psalms 2:11.” We at HWI understand this verse more clearly today than we did only four months ago.

We are on the verge of making a big leap. As I wrote in our last newsletter, we are in need of finding space to call our headquarters. We have long ago outgrown my home as HWI’s headquarters. Back in October 2009, while driving I spotted a building for lease about three miles from my home at 21W161 Hill Ave., Glen Ellyn, IL. I pulled into the parking lot and wondered, “What am I thinking?” I left aware that I must go home and pray. A month later I went back to show a friend and I also wrote the phone number down. Again I realized I must go home and pray some more. At the beginning of April our accountant said, “I know of a place nearby that is renting space.” I blurted, “oh, I know that space too.” He looked at me as if to say, how do you know what space I’m talking about. He went to inquire about the space, yes the same space I thought, but couldn’t find anyone. So, he brought the contact information back and suggested I call and inquire.

By this point, I had prayed 400 hours since October. So, I mustered my courage and made the call. Before I finished introducing myself the gal at the other end of the line said, “Alice, this is Jane. Do you remember me?” I said, “Yes, but since I was making a cold call I didn’t expect to know the person at the other end.” Within thirty minutes, three of our HWI team went to see the property, meet the owner, and to let him know we were proceeding with faith. The owner is a strong Christian, the cousin of Jim Elliot, one of the five missionaries martyred back in the 1950’s in Ecuador.