The Envelope Story

Surprising, humbling and downright AMAZING, this story is probably one of the most incredible of God's miraculous provision of finances in my life. Just when I thought that "living by faith" (specifically in the realm of money) was relegated solely to my support-raising lifestyle on the mission field, God up and provides in a shocking way three weeks AFTER I officially transitioned off the field and back into life in the States.

For interest's sake, I'm leaving this story in it's original format--a letter to a friend written this exact time last year. Be encouraged--stuff like this DOES happen! (And apparently not JUST to missionaries, either...) ;)


While we are on the subject of provision, let me tell you a story. My sister is the only other one who knows this because it just happened...but, like your story, it totally shows the awesome faithfulness of God to provide for our needs (in the craziest ways!). So, as you know, I WAS doing the missionary thing, but am now back here in the States. I've been back since May, actually. Stayed with the rents for two months, as the Lord had clearly told me that this spring/summer was a season for me and my fam to get closer and get some healing (remind me to tell you about the awesomeness of THAT sometime soon...).

Anyways, in July, I traveled to different states to see college friends I haven't seen in years, as well as my bro/sis in law...and my 16 month old niece whom I hadn't even met yet! [In August, all my plans shifted and I suddenly felt led to stay in the States instead of returning to Australia. I wasn't preparing for this rapid change in circumstances and thus didn't have a job/apartment/anything lined up in the States. Having absolutely nothing, however, seems to be the perfect position to depend on God].

So, that's how I ended up on my friend's couch, very gratefully accepting her hospitality (I did NOT think the "getting a new job process" would take so long!). All of that to say, I haven't got a paycheck in a very long time! But from my time as a missionary, I have SO many stories of trusting God for finances when I had nada and then suddenly receiving thousands of dollars in a matter of days (just to name one example), so I continue to trust that He will take care of me. And God knows me so well because I love surprises, but I'm really difficult to surprise (My creative brain comes up with myriads of possible situations/expectations for everything!). But if anyone can surprise me, He can.

And He did..yet again!...two weeks ago:

So, my friend Amy took me with her to a church I had never been to before. Decent size...maybe 500 or so. During worship, one of the pastors got up and said "Someone just handed me an envelope with money in it. They felt like God wanted to give this to someone who had no money...like they couldn't fill up their car with gas, or go get food. So, if that's you, come see me after church."

 Immediately, I felt this little Holy Spirit nudge that that person WAS me! It was weird--it wasn't like a selfish "Name it and Claim it" kind of thing AT ALL. Just a simple little peace like "That money is for you..."

But I felt really weird about it because this place wasn't even my church. Could I really go up there and ask for that money? Armed with such nervous thoughts, I didn't say/do anything about the envelope--I just did the post-church "fellowship thing" and got to talking with my friend's friends for nearly an hour. (Good times, really great connections...).

Just before we left, though,  I casually mentioned to Amy that I felt it was ME who the pastor was talking about with the money. Being the bold woman that she is, Amy immediately grabbed me by the arm and dragged me over to see the pastor! (Yikes! Better hope I heard God right!).

Now, by this time, it had been like 45 minutes since church ended. Almost everyone was gone. We both kinda figured that someone had taken the money at that point, but decided at least to go say hi to the pastor. Amy introduced me and we chatted away about missions and my recent work on the field. I started to feel awkward about bringing up the thing about the money (after all, it was probably already taken...), so I almost left it. But at the last minute, Amy (in her very direct and take-charge kind of way) asked the pastor about it. Had someone already taken it?

"Oh, yeah. Here..." the pastor said, and handed me the envelope. "Oh, and someone else came up and added more money to it too..."

WHAT??? I was just praising God and so stoked that I immediately went to call my sister ("Linda, Even though I'm not in missions anymore, God is still providing for me! He knows what I need!").

She and other friends I shared that story with thought it was very cool, yet the story doesn't end there. It gets infinitely cooler and even more unbelievable.

Fast forward to three days ago [three weeks after I got the envelope] and I suddenly had a major revelation about the money...

I told myself the day I got it that I didn't really want to spend it if I didn't have to. Although I didn't have groceries or gas, I was determined to walk everywhere I needed to and feast solely on cereal. I really wanted to save that money for the Cali move [I felt led to make sometime in the near future]. Unfortunately, though, there were certain things I had to buy, so I ended up dipping into it like three times for little things. On that third time, however, I noticed something strange...

Well, I was 100% positive that from the pulpit, the pastor said that the envelope had $100 in it. And when the other person came up to add more money, that he said that extra amount was like $45. And I was totally happy with that. As I said, I pretty much had nothing to live on, so to be even $145 richer was TERRIFIC! So, I just took their word for it and I didn't even count the money when I got it. I just kept it in the envelope in a safe place.

But it seemed weird to me that the envelope was like really thick. I had seen a lot of singles and $5's in there, so I just chalked it up to the fact that it was $145 worth of small bills. But three days ago, something made me stop and actually go COUNT the money in the envelope. I began to see some $20's. A LOT of $20's, in fact.

Hmmmmm....

So, I counted the money and I did NOT have $145. Taking into account that I had already taken out about $40 for random expenses, I deduced that there had been about $750 in the envelope!!!!! I had no idea!

With tears in my eyes, I just grabbed my guitar and starting singing worship. What else could I do? It was absolutely incredible...


That was exactly one year ago today that I wrote this story to my friend. Turns out that money DID help finance my move to Nor Cal--the direction I felt led to go (on faith!) as a next step after Australia. That little envelope, donated by gracious believers who didn't even know who the recipient would be, allowed me to be able to transition and pay my bills here in Cali until the Lord provided me with the amazing job that I have now.

I later wrote a thank you letter to that church, so grateful for those amazing strangers who obediently followed God's leading to give away that money. Little did THEY know where their money would go and the multiplicative influence that it would have through blessing a person who could in turn bless so many others.

I don't take that envelope story lightly. Even now as I recall it, it compels me to consider and be challenged daily by what I can give away (financially, relationally, etc) to strangers in need. I don't need to SEE the recipient of the church benevolent offering or that special gift to a foreign mission to trust that gift will accomplish what it was meant to. I have to simply believe that if God led me to give, God will get those funds to the very people and purposes that need them most.

Someday, though, I hope I DO get to hear those stories. God's power is too incredible to be kept under wraps (or sealed in an envelope, as it were...) :)

Open Doors in India: Part Two

*For the first part of this post, click here

A Person of Peace

Less than five minutes after leaving our hotel and taking to the streets, we were surrounded by swarms of people. Young people who spoke English initiated conversation, while others simply stared. One young man pointed us in the direction of a friend’s shop and we decided to go. Coming to the end of the road, however, we stumbled upon an even more curious--the city’s prominent mosque. While the men went inside, the three of us women stayed outside and prayed (silently, as we were already attracting dozens of eyes to our fair-skin-foreignness).

Fifteen minutes passed and then, quite unexpectedly, we were summoned to come into the mosque. What??!! Women in the mosque? Absolutely unheard of for such a conservative Muslim culture in India! Talk about open doors!

After taking off our shoes, we greeted four Muslim men who had befriended the men in our group just minutes before. Three of the men were young leaders-in-training of the mosque (dressed very conservatively) and one was a devout Muslim studying to be a doctor. The leader of our group connected with this med student right away. In no time at all, it had become clear that this man was our “person of peace.”

Being educated and able to speak English with the unexpected foreign guests, this man seemed quite well-respected both within the city and the mosque itself. Such was the favor upon him that we received favor from the “mosque interns” (forgive me, as I don’t speak Urdu to know the specific term for the other men). These men not only allowed us into the mosque, but invited us to go on the roof in order to see the entire city.

Climbing up several flights of narrow stairs, it took me a few moments to process everything that was happening. “I’ve never been up here,” our med student friend told us as we were making our way up to the top. Clearly, this is a rarity for anyone in the city, let alone foreigners. I knew this was an incredibly significant moment....

When the stairs opened up to the roof, the sight nearly took my breath away. We were, no doubt, at the highest point of the city--able to see 360 degrees all around us for miles. We were sent to scout out the land, and a half hour after our arrival, we ended up here. I silently mouthed “Wow!” to one of my teammates--she herself having tears in her eyes. There were no words for this moment…
Back in our hotel room that night, I simply wrote one sentence in my journal about the experience.

“They took us to the high places…“

Having done dozens of prayer walks of strategic locations around the globe, I knew the Biblical significance of such an act. In some places in Scripture, the high places symbolize the location of idolotrous worship to false gods. In going to such a location to pray, in the name of Jesus, we are able to pray for God's power to rise up against such things (Ephesians 6:12).

Yet conversely, when I think of high places, I consider the power of God to show Himself in a powerful way. How many times do we read of mountaintops in Scripture? Moses went up on Mount Sinai to experience God and intercede for his people below. Jesus brought his closest friends to a mountain to watch him transfigured, beholding his Glory in a way they had never seen before. When we go to the high places, there is inexplicable stirring and excitement within us. We sense that God is about to do something big…

Praying in high places also allows us to have a bigger picture perspective of the area. We see things that cannot be seen on the ground alone. Standing above everything else, it seemed a symbolic act of Christ’s supremacy over this place, and the authority we had as believers to go and share the good news of Jesus’ love and incredible sacrifice for them.

So, we stood there on the roof, silently praying as the Muslim men talked to our team leader. It was a powerful moment of beauty and redemption, knowing that even here, the top of a Muslim mosque, the Lord was powerfully present through his Spirit residing inside us. He had indeed led us here. No logical explanation could explain the favor we had…

As for the rest of the story, this man we had met, our “person of peace,” spent the next two and a half days with us--taking us around the city and to the nearby villages, serving as both our translator and our guide. He was the source of much information about the land and the people of the city. This well-respected man introduced us to key Muslim leaders in the area, as well as other well-respected members of the community, including doctors and prominent businessmen. We broke bread with new friends when the sun went down (this was all during Ramadan) and learned more about this new city than we ever thought we would.
When we parted ways with our friend, all of us were still reeling in shock.

Did God really just do that?

 

Wow...


Humble Labourers

 

A Christian worker who lives in India said to us just before we went home: “The word pioneer comes from the word peon or pawn. Like in a game of chess, it’s just a small piece, but it’s the one who goes first.”

As I sat down to write this post, I Googled the root of the word “Pioneer.” What I found was this…

Pioneer is a word with a complex military etymology. It has the same Latin root as peon, meaning a “humble labourer.”

I had never thought of it that way. When you pioneer or pave the way for something new, your job is simply a “humble labourer.” This experience so powerfully proved to me that it was God’s power at work in the midst of our own inability and weakness. We stepped into that city with no translator, guide or plan, just prayers to a God we were convinced would lead us exactly where He wanted us to go.

And He did…

Please pray for this city in Northern India. Pray that the Lord would send laborers to this place of great need. People of peace are there--they are the “grapes” we are bringing back to prove that there is much hope for this land (Numbers 13:27). There are obstacles to be overcome, for sure, but it is clear that this place is ripe and ready for those whom the Lord sends.

"...therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Matthew 9:38

1. Google reference: 
http://www.answers.com/topic/pioneer#ixzz24g0nhA40