SUM family

It's Ann here, and on the theme of miracles I want to share a little about how God has provided for this ministry.

This story is about Tiffany, actually, and it's a way of honoring her as we recently said goodbye to her after five years of her writing on this blog.

I want to share the story of how Tiffany came to write on this blog, because it was a little miracle, and for me it has become a moment of awe.

Before I was a writer here, Dineen and Lynn led the ministry together for years. Many of us were there and remember this, they did everything as a pair. Then -- surprise -- Dineen stepped down in September because she had been called to a new ministry at the Healing Rooms of Manatee. Shock! But God does that. He closes down seasons for people and sometimes moves them swiftly. We have to be willing to let go.

I didn't have that heavenly perspective at the time, and as a reader of the blog I was very attached to it in its current form (i.e., 'Lynn and Dineen'). So, when I read that Dineen was leaving I ran to the nearest armchair, threw myself into it in a ball and wailed 'NOOOO!!'

It was a genuinely bad day. Except it wasn't a bad day, this was the day the Lord had made. It's just, I couldn't possibly see beyond the present.

Lynn was then left running that ministry by herself, which I'm guessing was hard. She too had let Dineen fly. Anyway, helpers came out of the woodwork quickly and she found herself surrounded. But Tiffany wasn't in that number; God had a little miracle up his sleeve there. 

On 16 November 2017, a few weeks after Dineen left, I had a dream:

I dreamt of a SUM book. Well, it was like a handbook. And it was full of blog posts. I was among the contributors. And Tiffany Carter had written a lot in it. I saw this book as we were preparing to fly, going back and forth to the airport.

Now I didn't know Tiffany, so it was random that I dreamed of her. She had commented a few times on the blog, that's the only way I knew her name, but she wasn't a prolific commenter and, as she has shared before, she was really struggling at that time. 

I mentioned the dream to Lynn, and she immediately discerned that Tiffany was to write. Behind the scenes, she knew Tiffany. And so that's how it happened. Tiffany joined the writing team because of a God dream, and that was five years ago.

Over the course of five years Tiffany sure did write a lot of blog posts for our 'SUM handbook' (i.e., our blog). What's more, God knew what she would bring and why he wanted her to do it. When Tiffany wrote she often seemed to bring out comments from people we don't normally see. She would write raw things that she was wrestling with, and people would pop up: "Thank you, Tiffany, I badly needed that today."

I have since come to know Tiffany and see that she had the right heart to do this job. I got to meet her in 2019 and I found her to be such a comforting soul. 

But there's another interesting part to the dream above. In that dream we were writing SUM posts while preparing to fly. And in the end Tiffany was asked to fly, given a very different commission, and asked to go and do new things for God. 

This is the day the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24)

The date of my dream was 16 November, 2017. Well, that just so happens to be the very same date that Lynn announced Tiffany's departure a few weeks ago, with the title 'congratulations Tiffany.' It was 16 November 2022, five years to the day after the dream.

So I say congratulations Tiffany, all over again, and thank you to God for providing for this ministry, which he does constantly. It's not just about provision, though: He uses this ministry to springboard people into other things -- That is, to get them to fly. 

Lord God, thank you thank you thank you for the provision, the gifts, the wonder, the people in this SUM community! We love you, we praise you, we say you are faithful, thank you for being our good Dad and provider. 

With love,

Ann