The Road Trip By John Kuperus

Miracles:

Financial provisions: 

We did our Crossroads Discipleship Training School with the Outreach to India from September 2010 until February 2011.  The cost of this training for our family was $50,000.  This was a big number and I wrestled with God on how to move forward in this mission.  One morning I sensed God speaking to me and he said “Has my arm grown weak?”  I responded by saying “If your arm is not weak, I am willing to test your arm.” 

We moved forward and ventured off to Hawaii.  As we went through the training, we were so blessed.  Financially we were able to miraculously pay for the training by those who sponsored us and some of our own funds.  Then we needed to come up with another $25,000 for the outreach to India.  This is when we would be implementing what was taught.  The cost of outreach was $25,000 and we had to borrow $21,000. 

The outreach was very interesting in India. 

The challenge we faced is how do we repay this loan?  At first I thought I would have to add this to a mortgage we had, but God had other plans.  We returned to Ontario to visit, to share with our friends and to have a moving sale of our household goods.  We were so blessed in Canada with the Wiersmas providing their house as a place to stay, the Blyth CRC offering us a lot to have the moving sale and many offers of food. 

By God’s grace the money we received from supporters, tax return and money we received from the moving sale, we were able to pay back the $21,000 that we borrowed.   God’s arm is indeed strong. 

Miracle #2

We made a commitment to serve in missions with YWAM at the University of the Nations in Kone, Hawaii.  Hawaii is a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and we wanted to have our vehicle with us.  We were in Hawaii for six months without a vehicle and being we had made a long term commitment, we wanted to have a means of transportation on the island.    

We decided to ship our van to Hawaii.  We could have it picked up and delivered to a port, but I had decided we would deliver it to a port ourselves.  So we ventured on a cross country trip again. 

Helen returned to Hawaii to be part of the preparation for the schooling for our children.  They are enrolled in the International Christian School, which is a collective home school. 

I asked Uncle Marv if he would be willing to travel with us across the USA again.  Uncle Marv is my brother-in-law Jack Datema’s uncle and we met him when we came back from California in February.  Uncle Marv said “Yes.” 

We were traveling along and making good time.  Suddenly in the state of Utah, the van began to sway like it was out of control.  Uncle Marv pulled over and Brianna was the first to spot that we had a flat tire on the driver’s rear side.  Joshua and I proceeded to change the flat tire. 

We were able to jack up the van and get the tire off, but then we were unable to get the spare tire lose from underneath.  I thought we needed to turn the part in the center of the tire and it would come down.  I was hitting it with the wrench and it was moving slowly.  My arm got tired, so I decided to take a break and climbed out from underneath the van.  Just as I was out, the van began to move and fell off the jack.  I observed the place where I was laying and was in awe.  That would have crushed me and I would have been sent to the hospital with broken ribs or sent home in a coffin.  I came around to the front door and Uncle Marv said “Thank you Lord,” as he noticed I was unhurt. 

We were able to jack up the van again but still we were not able to get the tire out.  I called Tire King in Sussex, NJ to get advice on how to get the tire off.  We were still unsuccessful.  Finally I called 911 and ½ hour later a man with roadside service stopped by.  He too was unable to get the spare tire off, so he repaired the broken tire. 

Thank you Lord for sparing my life.