The phone rang early on Saturday morning.
It was a friend of ours calling from out-of-state. We were sleeping, but he left a message stating that he had just sent us money through Western Union!
What he did not know was that we have been praying for the last two weeks that God would bless us with money so that our electricity would not be shut off.
We met this man only once in person about 6 years ago, when we were doing a Bible study with someone else in a McDonald’s restaurant. (We have kept in touch with him on the phone over the years, but have never seen each other in person again.)
We had not talked to him for about a year, when he called us a few months ago to tell us that he really believes in our little ministry- how we live to serve others, and to witness to them about Jesus, sin and salvation. He told us that he wanted to send us money, and he did.
We kept in touch for a few months, then got busy and had not talked to him for a while.
Last week we had such a feeling to call him- we just knew that something was wrong.
After trying unsuccessfully to reach him for two days, we finally got a hold of him, and he told us that he had lost his wallet; that his hours at work had been cut for the last few weeks- and that as a result of this he was unable to pay his weekly rent, so now he has nowhere to live, and has been sleeping on a bench in the local bus station.
Our hearts are broken for this man. He is such a wonderful person, and loves God with his whole heart! He lifts up the name of Jesus wherever he goes and is an encouragement to others. And he does not get discouraged- despite what he is going through.
This faithful servant of the Lord has no idea how destitute things really are for us. We talk to him on occasion, but we don’t mention our financial situation to him, since we know what he has been going through for some time now. We just try to encourage him on the phone when we talk; and he does the same for us.
The money that he just sent is such a blessing. Thank-you, Jesus. We will now have electricity for another month!
(Most of you know that we- Eddie and Gail- have lived on donations to our ministry since 2002, but what you probably don’t know is that our regular monthly donations stopped coming in a whole year ago.)
But we don’t get discouraged; we just pray and continue to trust God to take care of us.
As we said before, we will say again- why does it seem like those who have nothing give everything? And those who have everything give nothing?!
Please keep us and our brother- in- Christ in prayer.