God Had a plan

by Ken Yonish

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’” declares the LORD, “‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ Jeremiah 29:11.

I’m amazed that God in all His Greatness has a plan for me and you. It wasn’t enough that He said, “Let there be light” and spun the galaxies into space. He thought of you and me and declared, “I have a plan for you.” Great plans! It also amazes me how God sometimes will allow us to get a glimpse of that plan as our life unfolds. We may not see it as clearly when we are young but as the days pass He allows us to look back through the events of our lives and we can see how “Jesus led me all the way.”

Although His great plans for me began before the foundations of the world were laid, I can see proof of His plan when I was too young to know it or even remember it. There was a speeding car, a head-on collision and a terrible accident. It began when my family was riding through a suburb of Detroit, Michigan in 1960 in a new Ford. I was 3 years old. Life was good: new car, a new home and dad had a good job. We were the typical post WWII family living the American Dream.

Suddenly a speeding car was headed straight head-on into our path. I was standing up in the front seat between mom and dad, my brother Dennis was sitting on my mother’s lap, my oldest brother Johnny was sitting in the back seat. CRASH! The speeding car hit us head-on. God had a plan. On impact I somehow was thrown into the floorboard and didn’t get a scratch on me. Dennis went through the windshield and was severely injured but God was merciful and spared his life. Although last rites were admitted to him by a Catholic priest at the hospital he survived. Everyone in the car (except me) was injured in some way, broken legs, black-eyes, cuts and bruises but all survived. God had a plan.

Because of the accident my father was unable to work for 2 years. With no steady work, we lost the home and thus began an economic spiral downward. We found a house in a new neighborhood to rent. As I recall we stayed there a couple of years while I was in Kindergarten and the first grade but we had to move for some reason that is still unclear to me. We looked at several homes. I remember the stress my parents were going through trying to find another home.

It seemed like forever but then we finally looked at a house in the suburb of Westland. The rent was affordable, the neighborhood was decent, the schools were nearby and the house was big enough for our family. We moved into it the summer before I was to start the second grade in 1964. After we moved in we were greeted by our new neighbors who welcomed us to the neighborhood. They were Warren and Jane Cousins and their three children, Warren, Jr., David, and Shelly. God had a plan. We spent time together cooking out, swimming in the Cousins’ pool and doing things that neighbors do but then God began to do His work.

Warren and Jane had been attending a local church but dropped out and began having devotions in their home on Sunday morning. They had a hunger for more than they were getting in their church. For my family Sunday was just another day. We believed in God, but didn’t serve Him and we sure weren’t seeking Him. But I believe He was seeking us. God had a plan.

For months the Cousins were faithful to meet each Sunday morning and have prayer and devotions in their home. One Sunday morning my brother Dennis was invited to attend the Cousins’ morning devotional. He was good friends with David and Warren, Jr. so it was really an extension of their friendship and a time to be together. This continued for several weeks and finally Warren, Sr. invited our whole family to meet with them on Sunday. So began a life changing event as both families were now searching for more than just neighborly friendship. God was forging something much greater.

Something eternal.

Jane would play the piano, Warren, Sr. would sing some great old hymns like, “Sitting at the Feet of Jesus,” and “Constantly Abiding,” “Jesus Saves,” and many more. Warren sang from his heart. We began to have regular singing time every Sunday and then we would read from the Bible. Each of us would read a verse aloud and then the person next to us would read the next verse. At the end we ended with prayer and then shared a meal together.

The news of our family gatherings spread throughout the neighborhood and beyond. Soon we had more people than we could hold in either of our living rooms. Our house had a large finished basement that would allow more space so we began meeting there. Looking back I estimate we had around 40 people at one point meeting on Sunday mornings in our home. It was an exciting time. We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have an agenda. We just went with it. Then one Sunday we had some visitors that brought with them a reel to reel tape recording of a church service from the Bible Tabernacle in Southern Pines NC. God had a plan.

I was 10-years old when our two families and friends made our first caravan trip to Southern Pines from Detroit. It was October 1968. There were at least 15 of us packed into 3 cars. The church people opened their homes to us. My family stayed with Alice and Dewey Edmisten. What an experience for a 10-year old boy from the city. They had land and horses.

I remember all the good things I experienced that weekend but nothing prepared me for what I witnessed and experienced when we walked into that old block building on US 1. We were a little late getting there and the song service had already begun. As Brother John B. Campbell was leading the singing I can remember very vividly how I felt when I walked up the aisle and followed my parents to an open pew and sat down. It felt surreal. I felt like I was home. I remember how I felt the presence of the Lord in such a way that night that I knew this was where God wanted our family to be. Everyone felt the same as me. After another visit in November of that same year, our family and the Cousins family left Detroit together in May 1969 packed in 2 big U-Haul trucks headed south to Southern Pines to become a part of His Body.

“Aren’t you glad that Jesus remembered you? Aren’t you glad that Jesus brought you to the truth? Brought you to the Body where He is the Head, brought you to the living out from among the dead.” I didn’t know it but I was dead in my sin. He brought me to the living. God knew that even as a young child I needed an encounter with Him. He knew I needed a Savior to save me from my sin. Without Jesus I had nothing at all and although I didn’t know it I was now a part of His plan. Ephesians 2:21 says that “We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.” Isn’t it wonderful to know we are carefully joined together? We are His masterpiece. “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” Ephesians 2:10.

Great is His faithfulness! I’m glad that God isn’t making this up as He goes; it is prepared in advance!

God has a plan for each and every one of His children. What I’ve shared with you is just part of His plan for me. It’s not over yet! Thank God! “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” Isaiah 64:8 (KJV). “All the way my Savior leads me, Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised, In my Father’s house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day. This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.”

His Greatness has a plan for me and you. It wasn’t enough that He said, “Let there be light” and spun the galaxies into space. He thought of you and me and declared, “I have a plan for you.” Great plans! It also amazes me how God sometimes will allow us to get a glimpse of that plan as our life unfolds. We may not see it as clearly when we are young but as the days pass He allows us to look back through the events of our lives and we can see how “Jesus led me all the way.”

Although His great plans for me began before the foundations of the world were laid, I can see proof of His plan when I was too young to know it or even remember it. There was a speeding car, a head-on collision and a terrible accident. It began when my family was riding through a suburb of Detroit, Michigan in 1960 in a new Ford. I was 3 years old. Life was good: new car, a new home and dad had a good job. We were the typical post WWII family living the American Dream.

Suddenly a speeding car was headed straight head-on into our path. I was standing up in the front seat between mom and dad, my brother Dennis was sitting on my mother’s lap, my oldest brother Johnny was sitting in the back seat. CRASH! The speeding car hit us head-on. God had a plan. On impact I somehow was thrown into the floorboard and didn’t get a scratch on me. Dennis went through the windshield and was severely injured but God was merciful and spared his life. Although last rites were admitted to him by a Catholic priest at the hospital he survived. Everyone in the car (except me) was injured in some way, broken legs, black-eyes, cuts and bruises but all survived. God had a plan.

Because of the accident my father was unable to work for 2 years. With no steady work, we lost the home and thus began an economic spiral downward. We found a house in a new neighborhood to rent. As I recall we stayed there a couple of years while I was in Kindergarten and the first grade but we had to move for some reason that is still unclear to me. We looked at several homes. I remember the stress my parents were going through trying to find another home.

It seemed like forever but then we finally looked at a house in the suburb of Westland. The rent was affordable, the neighborhood was decent, the schools were nearby and the house was big enough for our family. We moved into it the summer before I was to start the second grade in 1964. After we moved in we were greeted by our new neighbors who welcomed us to the neighborhood. They were Warren and Jane Cousins and their three children, Warren, Jr., David, and Shelly. God had a plan. We spent time together cooking out, swimming in the Cousins’ pool and doing things that neighbors do but then God began to do His work.

Warren and Jane had been attending a local church but dropped out and began having devotions in their home on Sunday morning. They had a hunger for more than they were getting in their church. For my family Sunday was just another day. We believed in God, but didn’t serve Him and we sure weren’t seeking Him. But I believe He was seeking us. God had a plan.

For months the Cousins were faithful to meet each Sunday morning and have prayer and devotions in their home. One Sunday morning my brother Dennis was invited to attend the Cousins’ morning devotional. He was good friends with David and Warren, Jr. so it was really an extension of their friendship and a time to be together. This continued for several weeks and finally Warren, Sr. invited our whole family to meet with them on Sunday. So began a life changing event as both families were now searching for more than just neighborly friendship. God was forging something much greater.

Something eternal.

Jane would play the piano, Warren, Sr. would sing some great old hymns like, “Sitting at the Feet of Jesus,” and “Constantly Abiding,” “Jesus Saves,” and many more. Warren sang from his heart. We began to have regular singing time every Sunday and then we would read from the Bible. Each of us would read a verse aloud and then the person next to us would read the next verse. At the end we ended with prayer and then shared a meal together.

The news of our family gatherings spread throughout the neighborhood and beyond. Soon we had more people than we could hold in either of our living rooms. Our house had a large finished basement that would allow more space so we began meeting there. Looking back I estimate we had around 40 people at one point meeting on Sunday mornings in our home. It was an exciting time. We didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t have an agenda. We just went with it. Then one Sunday we had some visitors that brought with them a reel to reel tape recording of a church service from the Bible Tabernacle in Southern Pines NC. God had a plan.

I was 10-years old when our two families and friends made our first caravan trip to Southern Pines from Detroit. It was October 1968. There were at least 15 of us packed into 3 cars. The church people opened their homes to us. My family stayed with Alice and Dewey Edmisten. What an experience for a 10-year old boy from the city. They had land and horses.

I remember all the good things I experienced that weekend but nothing prepared me for what I witnessed and experienced when we walked into that old block building on US 1. We were a little late getting there and the song service had already begun. As Brother John B. Campbell was leading the singing I can remember very vividly how I felt when I walked up the aisle and followed my parents to an open pew and sat down. It felt surreal. I felt like I was home. I remember how I felt the presence of the Lord in such a way that night that I knew this was where God wanted our family to be. Everyone felt the same as me. After another visit in November of that same year, our family and the Cousins family left Detroit together in May 1969 packed in 2 big U-Haul trucks headed south to Southern Pines to become a part of His Body.

“Aren’t you glad that Jesus remembered you? Aren’t you glad that Jesus brought you to the truth? Brought you to the Body where He is the Head, brought you to the living out from among the dead.” I didn’t know it but I was dead in my sin. He brought me to the living. God knew that even as a young child I needed an encounter with Him. He knew I needed a Savior to save me from my sin. Without Jesus I had nothing at all and although I didn’t know it I was now a part of His plan. Ephesians 2:21 says that “We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.” Isn’t it wonderful to know we are carefully joined together? We are His masterpiece. “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” Ephesians 2:10.

Great is His faithfulness! I’m glad that God isn’t making this up as He goes; it is prepared in advance!

God has a plan for each and every one of His children. What I’ve shared with you is just part of His plan for me. It’s not over yet! Thank God! “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” Isaiah 64:8 (KJV). “All the way my Savior leads me, Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised, In my Father’s house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day. This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.”


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