Yesterday I shared how God grew our faith and replaced something stolen. If you missed it you can read it here. I know you'll find it encouraging! Today, I want to tell you the rest of the story – perhaps the best part – how walkie-talkies have become a symbol of God's provision.
The Doubting Encouraged
It was just before Thanksgiving and some friends were collecting money for a mutual friend of ours whose family had a great need. Hero and I had just had a conversation wondering if we had enough gas and groceries left to get us to the end of the month, so I didn't have much and I didn't think I had anything to spare for her. But the more my friends talked about it, the more I felt like God was saying “just $10, send her $10”. We had just sold one ebook that day and we had $10 in the PayPal account, so I sent $10 to the organizer to include in the total gift because I wanted it to be anonymous. Then, I asked God to show me that when we needed it he could take care of us the same way.
Back to the present: remember our stolen gift dilemma, and how God provided? – One of the first emails I received saying that someone had sent us money was from THAT lady! And it was for … Ten Dollars!
I cried at the Lord's goodness. He was telling me in very specific terms that he cared, and He could provide when we needed it. To make it more emphatic, I wrote that lady a note and told her the story, and when she replied, she said:
“I really thought $5 is what we could afford, but I felt like the Lord was saying $10.”
Amazing!
All total the Lord provided way more than we thought we needed to purchase the more expensive replacement walkie-talkies here. We were able to tell our daughter the story of how God loves her so much he was giving her this gift again!
But there is still more…
The Need Fulfilled Before We Knew It
The next day, before we could even get to the store, our last computer charger cord bit the dust. Hero can fix them for cheap IF he gets pieces from the US which takes 4 wks or so. We couldn't wait 4 weeks. The computer is our phone and internet, our communication with family, our ministry and business depends upon it, and well, we couldn't wait that long. We knew buying a cord here would be expensive… but other than the walkie-talkie money, we didn't have anything in reserve to meet that need.
We loaded up the kids and headed to the shopping center. They didn't have the same walkie-talkies anymore, but had a set that Butterfly liked better. The gift money our friends had sent was enough to purchase them and have some left over.
Loosing the gift was a lesson in trust for my girl.
God can provide!
Next, we went to the computer store. The cord was expensive, BUT the price was exactly what we had left over from the money sent by our friends. Hero and I just looked at each other and almost said at the same time, “THATs what the rest of the money is for.” Later, we were further amazed when we realized that It wouldn't have worked out to those exact numbers except that Mexico was celebrating the virgin Guadalupe that particular day and many stores had sales. The walkie-talkies were 30% off THAT DAY ONLY, which is how it all worked out just so. God is good!
Loosing the gift, for us, was evidence of
God's provision before we knew we needed it.
If the gift hadn't been lost and I hadn't asked for guidance, and God hadn't laid it on our friends hearts to give all on just the right calendar dates so that the stores would be having sales, we wouldn't have had money, much less the exact amount, for the need that was a much bigger deal than a walkie-talkie!
The End of the Story
I, of course, reported all of this back to my friends who had so lovingly given to help my girl learn to trust God. And the next day one of them shared this with me:
At my local moms group we were discussing different tangible ways to keep our family's focus on Jesus this Christmas and I mentioned your story and the way God used many people to meet not only the desire of your daughter's heart, but also other needs of your family. After praising the Lord for his wonderful provision, Many of them wanted to know if they could further bless your family this Christmas by providing a financial gift from their family to yours. I hope you don't mind that I shared your PayPal address with those that requested it so that they could do so. I hope that you will find this gift helps to further bless your family's Christmas celebration. Whatever you choose to do with it we wish you many blessings for a very Merry Christmas!!
All total, the Lord restored 7 fold the money we spent on the original gift, and through it provided for an urgent surprise need, and more. Our faith has been strengthened in our all-knowing, gift-giving, loving God and we are ever thankful for the sweet friends he allowed to be the carriers of that blessing! I will never look at walkie-talkies in the same way again.
How about you? Have you had a walkie-talkie experience of God's provision? Has he grown your faith through a similar situation? I would love to hear about it and praise the Lord with you! Please leave a comment or join us in the Paradise Praises Community Facebook Group to share your story!