Hurry Up and Wait
We don't know how the story of our journey within this ministry ends but God does and that's good enough for us. That lack of knowing is what faith and trust in God is all about. One of our goals along our journey in serving God in our role is to be transparent with the good developments and challenging developments. We know that whatever happens is for God's glory and we want you to experience that as we do. We want to share our experience so that you may know that whatever happens, it is not about what Tony and Kim Cash have done but what God has done through Tony and Kim.
As you may recall, we have felt led by God to find, secure, and develop a property that would be a place of refuge and spiritual growth for a select group of men in leadership positions in our 3Thirds group who want to continue on their path of discipleship. This endeavor is known as Freedom Lake and we believe we had found the property and facility God had in mind.
However, things took an unforeseen turn. Recently, the property we had under contract with Freedom Lake fell through. We felt disappointment at this turn of events. That is until we were invited to visit another ministry that has a beautiful house for women and children in crisis in the Portland (KY) area. The Executive Director shared the story of how God revealed this particular house after closing the door on another piece of property. The story was clearly about it’s all in God’s timing. She even told me God said to her, “Are you trying to own this property?” WOW… what a powerful reminder!! Though it is never our intention, sometimes it can feel like that.
When we left there, I came to the realization that God may have something else in mind other than what we might be thinking. Sometimes what we think is God’s plan isn’t His plan at all. We’ve been praying and seeking this property, a place for the men we disciple to go to upon release, since 2018. Each time God allows us to go so far, and then He pulls back the reigns and we have to ask ourselves, are we trying to go ahead of God because we want His plans to fit our speedy timetable?
When Jesus lived on earth, His seemingly slow pace sometimes disappointed His friends. We can think of instances such as the death of Lazarus or – more on point – the wedding at Cana when Jesus said to His mother Mary: “My time has not yet come.” We see instances throughout the Bible about God’s timing, not ours. However, it is also in God’s nature to give us a preview of coming attractions (i.e. the prophets and the teachings of Jesus) that may not always been clear to us in the moment but gives us an indication of what is to come.
And that is what we believe the property that fell through is – a preview but not the actual property. God wanted us to see what we would need to carry through and what the property and home-like setting needed to have so that when He shows us what He has in mind in His timing will be unmistakable. We also know that as eager as we were to find that property, there is also the matter that the funds required for any property are not yet realized.
Our relentless pursuit of seeing every man we disciple being released from the halfway house where we serve succeed under God’s perfect plan is stronger than ever. We are visiting other houses in our area. Taking a look at what they do, their programs, their processes of onboarding and offboarding those that reside in the houses, and then how they are helping them graduate to the next phase before sprouting their wings and heading back into life as we know it.
We understand that In order for us to be completely ready for that day, God wants us to have our financial house in order before we secure the property He has in mind for Freedom Lake. We are humbly asking for your financial support for the property and for our continued work with the incarcerated.
To find out more about our ministry work with Team Expansion and the Freedom Lake project, check out the links below for more information and consider making a monthly gift or one-time donation.