Day 43– Aug 11, 2005, Thursday: Finances are Due for Outreach

On the right is a shot of Jessika and a HUGE snail. That girl will pick up anything!

This morning we woke up to an email that covered the LAST bit of money we needed for our outreach to Africa. PRAISE GOD! It’s unbelievable really. We ended up with just a little bit extra even.

There have been so many crazy stories about how people have had the exact amounts given. This whole process has really built our faith in God and how He can provide. After breakfast we all went to the meeting room and had a time of giving. The idea was to pray about what God wanted you to do and to do it. It didn’t have to be big; it didn’t have to be money; it just had to be from God. Ruth and I prayed and we both got a number and a person so we gave to them. It turns out that our two numbers added up to be the same amount we had extra (you decide if it’s a coincidence). Another guy (I think it was Eric) prayed for a number and a person and he got some weird number like $47.91. He prayed whom to give it to and the person he gave it too needed exactly that amount. Our neighbor Dave, the Aussie, has the worst looking flip-flops on the island. He was given a pair of brand new flip flops (they are actually nice, I’m a bit jealous). Take a guess if they were the right size. (They were for those of you that need the answer). Ruth was really in the mood to go to Jamba Juice and have a smoothie. Dan prayed and gave her his Jamba card; he of course had no idea that she was craving it. I felt like I was supposed to give my MP3 player away. I gave it to Amy and she was ecstatic and almost cried because she has been wanting one for a while. All total there was over $15,000 given this morning (from students and staff to other students and staff). Right now it is 1:10pm and the class of about 80 people still needs about $30,000 by 3:30pm today. My God can provide it. Can yours? It seems that God loves to provide for both the needs and the wants.

I just walked over to Dave’s place to remind me of a few more stories…. Junichi needed a laptop. During the time of giving someone gave him his. Another lady, Grace, sold and gave away everything she had to come here, including her computer. She was given a laptop this morning as well. Mina needed about $1776 last night; she had no way to get it. She prayed that God would provide it last night, or she would leave today. She then walked down to the prayer meeting to pray and a lady that she did not know met her and had a check written for $1775! She decided that God wanted her to stay J. Ruth and I have been needing some time out, just us, we’ve been penny pinching lately with all of this money due. Drew prayed and gave us $100 and told us to go out to dinner and that he would watch our kids. What, are we going to say no?

Well, I’m back. I went down to pray and see how things turn out in the last few hours. Let’s just say it was amazing. Here is a rundown of how the money went…

12:00 PM	$33,572
12:45 PM	$26,215
1:05 PM	$24,476
1:20 PM	$20,391
2:00 PM	$20,213
2:10 PM	$17,439
2:25 PM	$16,997
2:35 PM	$15,259
2:55 PM	$12,432
3:10 PM	$11,589
3:20 PM	$11,085
3:25 PM	$7,776
3:30 PM	$1,917

And yesterday the entire class needed over $100,000 at one point! God is an amazing provider!

Here’s one more good story. Ruth was given a necklace by her sister a few months ago. A little silver cross. She really liked it. During the giving time she felt she was to give it away. She didn’t want to, but felt God wanted her to. She felt God told her to give it to a girl named Wendy from Bolivia. When she gave it to Wendy, she was sort of stunned and started to cry. Ruth was wondering if Wendy really appreciated it or if she had ‘mis-heard’ God. Then later Wendy came up to Ruth and told her a story. Yesterday Wendy was praying and felt that God wanted her to get baptized. She asked God to confirm that he wanted her to get baptized and he gave her a picture of something silver. She asked what it was, but all that she knew was that she would get a silver something to remember her baptism by. Then today Ruth gave her the necklace and she knew exactly what it was for and why God had given it to her. Two days later she was baptized at the beach with her ‘new’ silver cross to remember it by!

Here are the new and the old shoes...I just had to include this photo.