Pages from the Philips

We wanted to rejoice with all of you and praise God as we celebrate God’s many provisions leading up to our trip to India and our upcoming move to Dallas.  We have been so amazed to see what God has been able to do as we’ve placed our faith in Him as we get ready to make some big moves.  It is also such a blessing to have such ripe opportunities to teach Karuna and Luke of God’s abundant provision.  Just a few of the many ways God has answered our prayers in the last couple of weeks:

1. Raising all the support we needed to make it possible for us to go to India for the next six weeks to explore our options regarding long term medical mission work with the Emmanuel Hospital Association.  Thank you to all who have so generously given of your resources and thank you to the many who have committed to praying for us as we make this trip.  This has been such a great faith building exercise for us as we’ve learned to trust God for his provision.
2. Medical supplies made available to us from Mayo to be able to take to Makunda.  The members of the anesthesia department here were so willing to help us find supplies that they could donate to take to the hospital.  What is even more amazing is that the supplies that they had available were exactly the ones that Makunda had asked us to bring!
3. Finding out that we had matched in Dallas.  As we prayed about where to rank for residency, it became increasingly clear that UT Southwestern in Dallas for Emergency Medicine would be the best place for us to get the training we’d need to prepare us for medical missions work in India.  More than that it will be wonderful to have Christo’s family nearby to provide support and companionship for Melissa and the kids as we go through residency there.
4. Provision of a house in Dallas!  We had found a foreclosed house that we fell in love with in West Dallas when we interviewed at UT Southwestern in January.  This house is located in a very underserved neighborhood in Dallas (last census showed it to be the 11th poorest neighborhood in the US, median income of about $9000/person, and more than half of the residents have not finished their high school education).  We felt that God was leading us to live in this neighborhood because of the potential for a great impact on that community by living in a Christ-like manner and it would allow us to live with the same people that Christo would be serving at the hospital.  We had placed an offer on the house in January with the faith that we would match at Southwestern.  However, God said no and the bank accepted someone else’s offer on the house.  We accepted that as providential but continued to pray for another house to become available in that same neighborhood.  Then about three weeks ago, our realtor in Dallas called us to inform us that the house that we liked so much was back on the market because the financing for the other buyer had fallen through.  What an answered prayer!  We put in another offer on the house and it was accepted.  Christo’s sister, Christine, offered to buy the house under her name to make it easier for us to get all the paperwork done quickly and so we’ll be closing on our new house in Dallas on Monday!
5. Provision for the sale of our condo.  We had prayed that God would give us an answer regarding whether we could sell our condo before we left for India.  We had a couple of people come and look at the condo but no one had put in an offer.  Then out of the blue, one of our neighbors who lives in Indiana gave us a call about two weeks ago and asked if our condo was for sale and if so, whether he could buy it!  What was amazing to us was that we had put in so much work to get together flyers and put our home up on real estate listing websites and yet the person that God had brought to us to buy the condo didn’t see any of that.  All the more glory to God because if it wasn’t for His hand working in this, all of this would not have happened.  We are planning on closing on the condo in May and we’ll get just enough out of the sale of our condo in Rochester to make it possible to put a down payment on the house in Dallas.  How amazingly God has provided for us and we hope you will be encouraged by this as well.