Not Sitting Idle
By David Qualls
The members of the Three Angels SDA Church-Owasso and I had been looking for a Bible worker to serve in our local congregation. Month after month, we diligently sought someone from various ministries, training schools, and other sources. While there were several interested candidates, nothing seemed to work out. After several months of prayer and searching, one of our elders, Alfonso Orellana, came in contact with ASAP. Alfonso challenged the church to adopt and support a particular ASAP worker in Cambodia. The church agreed. He believed that if we first supported a Bible worker for others, then God would provide what we needed at home. He then asked us to start thanking God for the Bible worker that God had already selected for us.
I remember thinking that we were in good shape now. We had stepped out in faith and publicly put God to the test. Surely, He would supply our needs. Well, more months passed by with us faithfully supporting Mao Say for the Odem church but failing to find a Bible worker for our own Three Angels SDA Church! Another six months passed by with no Bible worker in sight. Unbeknownst to us, our future Bible worker, Alex Cowan, had already arrived. The very Sabbath that the church started collecting offerings for the missionary in Cambodia, Alex visited our church for the first time. Little did we know that this visitor would turn out to become our own Bible worker. Apparently, although either Alex wasn’t ready or we weren’t ready, God was faithfully working things out in His way and in His timing.
A few months after making our commitment to ASAP, our own (still unknown to us) Bible worker came back to our church, this time with his entire family. Interestingly, it was the one year anniversary of when our church had voted to hire a local Bible worker. Within a few weeks, it became evident to us that God was leading Alex Cowan and his family to join with us. The Cowans will be attending the Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism (AFCOE) in the spring and will be serving God with us afterwards. We are so glad that we did not sit idle, waiting selfishly for God to meet our needs. We praise God for His providence in supplying our needs as we help to supply the needs of others in far away places.