FAITH the size of a...

...JELLY BEAN

No, not the size of a mustard seed.

A jelly bean.

Let me explain.

I am a details girl. For the HOPE themed Easter gifts we’re giving to the women on the Reeperbahn and in the brothels, I knew exactly what I wanted: the cards needed to be yellow and white, we needed to find the perfect candle as the main gift (which we did!) and then I wanted to include jelly beans.

Only one small problem: jelly beans aren’t so popular in Germany. You can buy all of the chocolate little easter candies you want, but old fashioned American jelly beans just aren’t to be found. But I had this idea in my head that it would make our little gift complete...so I couldn't let it go.

So…when I wrote this post, at the end of it I asked something bold--I chose to have a little faith--the size of a you know what.

I thought, “I know we’d need a whole lot of jelly beans--enough for 225 bags. I know it’d cost a LOT of money to ship them over. And we’re running short on time as they’d have to be bought and sent ASAP. But if this is what we should put into the bags, then I know that someone will respond to what I write.” So I wrote it. Had a little faith.

But then hours later, as we were going to bed, doubt creeped in. And fear. Thoughts like “What are people going to think of me having the audacity to ask for jelly beans from the U.S and sent to Germany? I don’t want people to think I’m asking them for money. What I wrote is going to bug people when they read it,” and so on. So I got up out of bed and went and deleted that part of the post. I figured it had only been posted for a few hours and that probably no one read it anyway.

About a week later we got an email from our friend Ken who used to work with Buddy. It said this:

Buddy and Krista,
I have been reading your blogs since the beginning and am so in awe of what you are doing in Germany. To keep it short I would love to donate for Easter. You still need jelly beans? Something else? Cash to buy chocolate eggs there to avoid postage? Let me know. Count me in.
Thanks,
Ken

I read this and couldn’t believe he had read my paragraph asking for jelly beans that I had since omitted. I felt so grateful for his desire to help yet at the same time I felt so silly for having doubted in the first place. Yes, I’m a details girl, and yes, I wanted jelly beans for the women. However, maybe this time I was asking and expecting a bit too much.

BUT I was forgetting...

that I serve a details God and that He delights in being in the very nitty gritty details of our lives…and He delights to grant us the desires of our hearts. We just have to ask…

So my faith the size of a jelly bean had been gobbled up by fear…but it has now turned into thousands and thousands of yummy, bright and cheerful jelly beans that arrived in the mail last week. Ken joyfully went to Target and bought out all they had…then went to another store as well. He sent us 3 big boxes of bags and bags of jelly beans.

THANK YOU KEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight we’re giving the Easter gifts to the women who stand on the street and who sit in the windows on the Reeperbahn. Wednesday night we’ll give them to the girls in the brothels. We are really excited for this opportunity to share God’s love and HOPE with these dear women in a tangible way. Please pray for us as we go and pray for the women to have hearts open to receive these sweet little gifts.

Is there an area of your life

where you need to have a little faith?
Don’t let doubt and fear creep in.
Have faith…
The size of a jelly bean :)